FISHERIES OP THE PROVINCE OP QUEBEC 113 



would be more to their advantage to have each but one piece 

 of ten acres, for the reason that cultivation on a large scale 

 would take their time from the fisheries. They allowed them- 

 selves to be so persuaded, and now repent of their folly. 

 These small pieces of land furnish but a little amount of 

 pasture, and the owners of them are obliged to buy every- 

 thing at the stores of the company, who sell to them on credit, 

 and to whom they are always in debt. 



" 'When they endeavor to shake off their bondage and 

 carry fish to other markets, they are threatened with a sum- 

 mons for debt before the tribunals, of which they have a great 

 dread. They are forced to submit to the yoke and expiate 

 their effort at emancipation by a long penance. 



" 'The regulations imposed on the agents forbid them to 

 advance anything to the fishermen before a certain set time; 

 the stores may be full of provisions, but not a biscuit can be 

 given out before the hour set. As the fishermen are only paid 

 in goods they can not lay by anything for the future, when 

 they have been furnished with whatever is necessary, theiv 

 accounts are balanced by objects of luxury. So it comes 

 about that the girls here wear more finery than the grand 

 people of the faubourgs of Quebec. 



* * ' Schools are proscribed. ' ' There is no need of instruc- 

 tion for them, ' ' wrote Mr. Philip Eobin to his commissioners. 

 "If they were educated, would they be better fishermen?" 

 ; ' ' The fisherman is always in debt to the proprietors, always at 

 their mercy, liable whenever his debts have got to the point 

 where they can not be paid by the fisheries, to be put on board 

 any of the ships of the company to make a voyage to Europe 

 as a sailor. So frequently one finds fishermen who have 

 made a voyage to Jersey, Lisbon, Cadiz, Messina, Palermo/ 



"Then the loyalist refugees began to come into the 

 country from the new States, and with the aid of Governor 

 Cox were to find settlements about Paspebiac and thence up 

 the bay. The vessels brought 200 families in July, 1784, and 

 returned for 300 families more, and in view of this impending 



