CHAPTER V 



THE FIBST ANGLO-FRENCH DUEL AND 

 ENGLISH VICTORY, 1688-1713 



Seventy miles away to the south-west of St. John's lay TheFreuch 

 Placentia, the capital of the French colony; but no dwelling j-^-j./^^^ 

 or pathway lay between the two capitals. St. John's faced Placentia 

 eastward towards Europe, Placentia Bay southwards towards sub-settle- 

 the highway between Europe and Canada. About half-way w^«/^, 

 up the east coast of Placentia Bay there is an inlet which, 

 some two miles from its mouth, contracts into so narrow 

 a neck that only one ship can pass upward at a time, and which 

 then expands into a harbour. On the south side of the neck 

 was the finest drying beach in Newfoundland, which settlers 

 were not allowed to desecrate with gardens^; and on this 

 beach, but inside the neck, was Grand Placentia. Point 

 Verte lay outside the neck, on the lip so to speak, and Little 

 Placentia some four miles north round the corner. The east 

 coast of Placentia Bay is harbourless except at Great and Little 

 Placentia and Point Verte ; therefore these three setdements 

 clung together like one settlement, and all the settlers retired 

 in time of danger within the neck, which was guarded by a fort 

 and great guns. Placentia was a trinity of three villages, the 

 greatest of which was Grand Placentia, On the north-west 

 side of the Bay of Placentia lay Paradise Sound and the ad- 

 joining islands of M^richon, Audierne, Egeron, and the like ; 

 and tiny settlements by this sound and on these islands 

 formed the first and nearest sub-settlement of the colony of 

 Placentia. French Biscayan fishermen visited but never settled 

 in Little Burin, Great Burin, Martir (Mortier), St. Lawrence, 

 and Chapeau Rouge, on the western extremity of Placentia ^ 

 Bay; so that a wide gap separated the first from the second 



1 Canada, Documents relatifs, &c., vol, i, p. 384. 



2 La Hontan, Nouveaux Voyages, 1703, ed. 1905, p. 338. 



