THE CRISIS AND THE CONVOYS, 1656-1688 83 



except Trepassey were on the east coast between Cape Race 

 and Cape Bonavista. Of these settlements St. John's (87 ^), 

 Bonavista (63 *), and Carbonear in Conception Bay (55 ^) 

 were abnormally large, and Harbour Grace (22 ^), Ferryland 

 (21^), Renewse (19^), Bay Bulls (19^), Fermeuse (17^), 

 Petty Harbour (10 ^), and Trepassey (10^) were of average 

 size. Several names like Cuper's Cove, Aquaforte, and Quidi 

 Vidi figured in contemporary lists, but not in this list, which 

 evidently merged them in their neighbours, thus underrating 

 the extraordinary dispersion of the settlers. These thirty or 

 forty odd seaside settlements, none of which were sufficiently 

 settled, and few of which were sutiiciently large to deserve the 

 name of villages, were united by steep pathways through 

 dense woods, so that the English colony was a noun of multi- 

 tude, and resembled an archipelago between the islands of 

 which intercourse was easy and perpetual. They had no 

 intercourse with Placentia except through the fishermen and 

 traders who annually wandered in from over seas, so that, to 

 all intents and purposes, Bristol, Lisbon, and Leghorn were 

 half-way to Placentia. Of the settlers 361 were women and 

 children. To uproot these people would be to uproot an 

 entire countryside. Secondly, around this nucleus of per- 

 manent families there gathered a fluctuating body of 1,342 

 boatmen, servants, and the like, only 23 of whom were female. 

 These hangers-on came each year with the fishermen, who 

 left them behind in order to save freight and food, and those 

 who were left behind minded and mended boats, and returned 

 home next year, or dropped off and drifted away to New 

 England. All hired boatmen were, unlike the fishing crews, 

 wage-earners, who came and stayed and went wherever wages 

 were high. These were they against whom the orders of 

 1661, 1670 and 1675 had idly fulminated. The 'inhabi- 

 tants', as these two classes were called, dwelt in 167 houses, 

 tended 12 horses, 131 sheep, 480 cattle, 845 pigs, and 114 



^ = settled population, 1677. 

 6 a 



