464 AMERICAN DIPLOMATIC QUESTIONS 



be questioned whether Newfoundland has ever fully recov- 

 ered from the many sacrifices she has been forced to make in 

 preserving the monopoly of the fisheries to her mother 

 country. The wealth of her large bays and coastal waters 

 may be said to have brought to the island benefits and 

 damages in about equal proportions. 



The history of the fisheries, from the early part of the 

 seventeenth century to the treaty of 1763, is merely the story 

 of English and French conflicts for mastery in the regions 

 lying about the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and south on the main- 

 land of Massachusetts, the primary object of these many 

 encounters being to secure control of the inexhaustible 

 riches of the neighboring seas. 



Throughout the sixteenth century, the flags of France 

 were the more numerous on the fishing grounds ; and after the 

 disappearance of the Spanish, the French remained for many 

 years a formidable rival of the English. They clung tena- 

 ciously to the shore stations they had established in New- 

 foundland during the sixteenth century, and were always 

 ready to fight for the maintenance of their full rights on the 

 Banks. In 1577 they employed no less than 150 vessels, and 

 about this time the fisheries were deemed of sufficient im- 

 portance to be placed under the protection of the French 

 Government. 



Seeking a permanent base of operations on the continent, 

 the French set up a claim to Nova Scotia, which, together 

 with Cape Breton, New Brunswick and a part of Maine, 

 constituted a great tract of country known later as Acadia. 

 Basing their rights upon early discovery and upon a grant 

 of Henry IV of France to Pierre de Gast, Sieur de Morts, 

 in 1603, the French occupied this territory, built Port Royal, 

 and established a thriving fishery at Canso. It was the 

 intention of the French monarch to found a colony at some 

 point accessible to the Banks, from which, as a base, the 

 business might be easily and successfully conducted. Cod 

 was becoming a necessity as a food in France, and was espe- 

 cially suitable for use on the many religious fast days of that 

 period. The settlement of Acadia fulfilled all the needs of 



