82 HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF NEWFOUNDLAND 



day and before the eyes of all men. The New Englanders, 

 aided after 1674 by the New Yorkers, did the carrying 

 trade on the western shores of the Atlantic ; the European 

 fishermen and English sackmen were their own carriers across 

 the Atlantic ; and on the eastern shores of the Atlantic little 

 remained to be done, and that little was done by Dutchmen. 

 Newfoundland was the exchange and mart, or, in the words 

 of a Bostonian exciseman, 'a magazine of contraband goods \^ 

 Doubtless the statesmen of the Commonwealth and Restoration 

 intended to recoup themselves for the cost of providing con- 

 voys by suppressing illicit traffic in its principal seat and 

 stronghold, so that the convoys might even prove an economy, 

 and patriotism was quickened by a desire for gain. Those 

 pecuniary intentions proved absolutely futile. Smuggling 

 throve with unexampled prosperity under the aegis of the 

 convoys. On the other hand, the convoys became a regular, 

 and after 1675 an annual institution, and produced far- 

 reaching effects neither of a warlike nor of a fiscal but of 

 a purely political character, which nobody anticipated. 

 Theconvoy- ^^ ^^1B Sir J. Berry, in 1676 Captain Russell, and in 

 captains 1677 Sir W. Poole, commanded the convoys, and were com- 

 to destroy "missioned to collect statistics and to make reports. Their 

 described reports were independent but unanimous. The colony must 

 asitw^s ^^ ^ costs be saved from France. The Spanish-Biscayans and 

 saved it, Portuguese were 'few and inconsiderable' and kept to northern 

 Newfoundland and to the Great Bank where Englishmen did 

 not fish. But with France there was not only commercial 

 rivalry but a struggle for existence. If we left, the Frenchmen 

 would certainly step in, and keep the colony and its fisheries 



to themselves. Details were published for the first time 

 which threw a new and vivid searchlight on the life of the 

 community.^ There were three classes. In the first place 

 523 settlers were scattered in 28 settlements, all of which 



1 Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series, Jan. 12, 1687; Nov. 5, 

 1700. "^ This is the account of 1677 : Br. Mus. MSS. 13972. 



