10 



St. John, Port Royal, La Heve, Cape Sable, as well as Pentagaet or 

 Penobscot, were specially named in the cession, the general bounda- 

 ries were not mentioned, and the soil and the fishing-grounds were 

 again the scenes of collisions, reprisals, and fierce quarrels. A third 

 treaty — that of London — in 1686, confirmed the two powers in the 

 possession of the American colonies respectively held at the com- 

 mencement of hostilities, but left the extent and limits of all as unset- 

 tled as before. 



Sagacious men in New England had now seen for years that the ex- 

 pulsion of the French was the only measure that would secure peace 

 in the prosecution of the fisheries, and they endeavored to enlist the 

 sympathy and co-operation of the mother country. The war between 

 France and England which followed the accession of William and 

 Mary was no sooner proclaimed at Boston than the general court of 

 Massachusetts commenced preparations for the conquest of Nova Scotia 

 and Canada. Sir William Phips, who was born and bred among the 

 fishermen of Maine, was intrusted with the command of an expedition 

 against both. He reduced the first, and estabhshed a government; but 

 his enterprise in the St. Lawrence was disastrous. It is of interest to 

 add, that the first paper money emitted in America was issued by 

 Massachusetts to defray the expenses of these military operations. 



At the peace of Ryswick, in 1697, it was stipulated that mutual res- 

 titution should be made of all conquests during the war ; and, much to 

 the dissatisfaction of the English colonists. Nova Scotia returned once 

 more to the undisputed possession of the French. The strife in Amer- 

 ica had been avowedly for the fisheries, and for territory north and 

 west ; and this treaty, which, with the exception of the eastern half 

 of Newfoundland, secured to France the whole coasts, the islands, and 

 the fishing-grounds from Maine to beyond Labrador and Hudson's 

 Bay, besides Canada and the valley of the Mississippi, was regarded 

 as dishonorable to England and wantonly injurious to colonial industry 

 and peace. 



The evil consequences of the treaty of Ryswick were soon manifest. 

 A year had not elapsed before the French government promulgated a 

 claim to the sole ownership of the fisheries. In 1698, a frigate bound 

 from France to Nova Scotia furnished the master of a Massachusetts 

 vessel with a translated order from the king, which authorized the 

 seizure of all vessels not of the French flag that should be found 

 fishing on the coast. General publicity of the order followed, and its 

 execution was rigidly enforced. Bonaventure, in the ship-of-war Enviux, 

 boarded and sent home every English colonial vessel that appeared on 



flelivered up to them, to the great discontent and murmuring of the government of Boston, 

 that his Majestie, without their knowledge or consent, should part with a place so profitable 

 to them, from whence they drew great quantities of beaver and other peltry, besides the fishing 

 for cod. Nevertheless," he adds, "the people of Boston have continued a private trade with 

 the French and Indians inhabiting those parts for beaver skins and other commodities, and 

 have openly kept on their fishing upon the said coasts." 



He says further, that " Monsieur La Bourn, governor for the French king there, upon pre- 

 tence of some affronts and injuries offered him by the government of Boston, did strictly 

 inhibit the inhabitants any trade with the English, and moreover layd in imposition of four 

 hundred codfish upon every vessel that should fish upon the coasts, and such as refused had 

 their fish and provisions seized on and taken away." By the " Boston government," Randolph 

 means the government of Massachusetts. 



