FISHERIES OP THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC 139 



himself at Tabatiere at the time that he was giving up his 

 own business on the coast. Robertson established there quite 

 a large fishing industry. Seals were so numerous upon the 

 coast at that time that on one occasion he took more than four 

 thousand. He was quite an eccentric character and occasion- 

 ally ventured upon enterprises which had little more than 

 their peculiarity to commend them. Having noticed that 

 schools of whales frequently passed between two small islands 

 near his post, he made an effort to stop them or at least to 

 check them in their course, so that they might be the more 

 easily killed, by stretching monster nets in the narrow pas- 

 sage. Notwithstanding all his precautions and the strength 

 of the nets and of the cables that held them, the very first 

 whale that came that way carried away with him the whole of 

 Mr. Robertson's costly paraphernalia, as if it had been so 

 much cotton thread. 



Robertson's hope that the lease of what was then known 

 as the King's Posts, forming the best part of the Canadian 

 Labrador coast, would not be renewed when it expired a year 

 or two later, was doomed to disappointment. 



In 1822 it had been leased to John Goudie, ship builder, 

 of Quebec, and others, who composed the company to which 

 Robertson referred; and in 1842, when this lease expired, 

 the property was re-leased to the Hudson Bay Company for 

 twenty years, at a rental of 600 currency per year, with the 

 exclusive right of trading with the Indians and of fishing 

 for seals. 



LAWLESSNESS ON LABRADOR. 



The condition of lawlessness upon the coast of Labrador 

 which was so bitterly complained of by the Newfoundlanders 

 at the time that the whole coast was under the jurisdiction 

 of the Government of Quebec, showed no improvement under 

 the administration of the Governor of the Island Colony. In 

 fact it would almost appear that the object of some Newfound- 

 landers in obtaining the control of the coast line of Labrador 



