90 HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF NEWFOUNDLAND 



adven- 

 turers from 

 the Con- 

 tinent 

 like D" Iber- 

 ville in- 

 truding 

 now and. 

 then. 



Before 

 D'lberville 

 arrived 

 Williams 

 aitdWheler 

 attacked 

 Placentia, 

 1692-3, 

 and Hol- 

 man de- 

 fended 

 Ferry Ian d^ 

 1694. 





L*Hermitte, the third wheel of the chariot of State, was ' Major 

 at Placentia' (1695-17 14). As though these three func- 

 tionaries were insufficient, there were many priests, there was 

 one superior ruler, the Governor of Canada, and a famous 

 French Canadian named Dlberville received from time to 

 time roving commissions from the King to destroy the 

 English settlements in Newfoundland. His commissions, like 

 those of privateers, were to be executed at his own expense, 

 md the booty was to be shared between him, his associ- 

 ates, and the King. Privateers usually confined themselves to 

 white men and the sea, but D' Iberville preferred forays by 

 land, and with red-skinned troops who knew nothing of the 

 sea. He was a born coureur des bot's, had sped by land with 

 his American Indians from Quebec to Hudson's Bay, and from 

 Quebec to Schenectady, and midsummer and midwinter mid- 

 day and mid-night were alike to him. His first plan to destroy 

 the English colony in Newfoundland was laid in 1693, but 

 before it could be carried out this missionary of destruction 

 was spirited away on a like errand, first to Hudson's Bay, then 

 to Schenectady and Pemaquid, and he only arrived in New- 

 foundland in 1696. 



Before his arrival no incidents of importance had occurred. 

 At Trepassey, which was the only settlement where Frenchmen 

 and Englishmen lived side by side,^ the former drove the 

 latter out and burnt their houses in 1690. In 1692 Com- 

 modore Williams, and in 1693 Admiral Sir Francis Wheler, on 

 returning homeward from the West Indies, appeared before 

 Placentia Harbour with a powerful fleet, fired a few shots and 

 retired.^ Privateers damaged the fishing-fleets on both sides. 

 In 1689 Captain Herman Williamson, a privateer, sailed 

 against Grand Placentia, seized it by means of a landing party, 

 imprisoned its Governor and inhabitants, plundered it and 

 then left; in 1690 French privateers paid return visits to Bay 



1 Canada, Documents relatifs, &c., vol. i, p. 384 ; Calendar of State 

 Papers^ July 3, 1697. 



2 La Hontan, Nouveaux Voyages dans PAmerique, ^c, Letter 23. 



