462 AMERICAN DIPLOMATIC QUESTIONS 



extending from Trinity Bay to Placentia, which he named 

 "Avelon." Baltimore's hardy followers were beset and 

 harassed by the French who, from their strongholds on the 

 mainland, were determined to possess Newfoundland, hoping 

 thereby to secure to themselves the control of the fisheries. 



By the middle of the seventeenth century, the resident 

 population of Newfoundland had increased to 2000, the 

 greater part of which followed fishing for a livelihood. Be- 

 sides them, several thousand fishermen from France and 

 England came annually in the spring season to her shores, 

 returning in the autumn to their homes across the Atlantic 

 with full fares of fish and oil. 



This already extensive and rapidly growing industry of 

 the English soon fell into the hands of a number of mer- 

 chants and shippers who resided in London and in the west 

 coast cities of England. These men having ample means, 

 fitted out numbers of superior vessels, and manning them 

 with skilful crews, began a systematic exploitation of the 

 Newfoundland fisheries. It naturally came to pass that the 

 interests of these English fishermen and of those who had 

 settled permanently as colonists in Newfoundland came into 

 conflict. The former sought the most desirable harbors and 

 shore stations for erecting their stages to cure and prepare 

 their fish, and the resident colonists naturally selected these 

 advantageous coast situations as places for permanent settle- 

 ment ; and thus a petty warfare between settlers and sailors 

 took place every summer on the southern Newfoundland 

 coast. The interests of the English merchants were para- 

 mount in the estimation of the sovereign, it being conceived 

 that the only real value of the desolate island of Newfound- 

 land to the mother country consisted in its control of the 

 fisheries, for which control a mere nominal possession of the 

 island was quite sufficient. 



Legislation at London accorded precedence and preemi- 

 nence to the rights of fishermen over those of the Newfound- 

 land settlers. Laws enacted by the English Parliament 

 between 1630 and 1640 proved to be oppressive and highly 

 injurious to the colonists, and the enforcing of many cruel 



