of settle 

 nient the 

 fittest sur- 

 vived ; 



J I 



IIO HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF NEWFOUNDLAND 



The wheels of the chariot of history moved very slowly as 

 though tortoises were in the shafts, and it took three centuries 

 to arrive at the starting-point of other colonial histories. 

 Before Other self-evident truisms were laboriously evolved at the 



T tr T 3 sett- 



lersstir- ^^^^e of the first period of two centuries, and the Treaty of 

 vived Utrecht proved a landmark and signpost in the history of 



TttTofihe Newfoundland in more senses than one. 

 two systems In the first century four nations fished, in the second 

 ^century four nations fished and two of these self-same nations 

 settled in Newfoundland; at the Treaty of Utrecht no 

 other nations except the nations of settlers disposed of New- 

 foundland ; and of the nations of settlers, the nation whose 

 settlements were most widespread and spontaneous prevailed 

 .against the nation whose settlers were most orderly and 

 organized. Nature overcame Art, and clumsy half-hearted 

 'defenders expelled spirited and skilful aggressors. The 

 Anglo-French settlements left no room for the Spaniards and 

 Portuguese, and the Anglo-French duel left Englishmen 

 masters of the field. Thenceforth fate spun from a single 

 and New- European distaff". And thenceforth — if the metaphor may 

 came under be pursued — one spindle was used. In Guy's, Lord Balti- 

 one owner more's, and even in Kirke's grants, Newfoundland was not 

 regarded as ^^K'^^^^^ as one independent unit, but the subject of the 



one with grant was sometimes less, sometimes more, and sometimes 

 itself 



both more and less than the island. The image was seen in 



part, or with a blurred or even double outline. The very 

 convoy-captains patrolled the coast ' as far ' only * as 

 Trepassey ' ^ and enforced regulations applicable only ' between 

 Capes Race and Bonavista \^ The Act of 1699 for the first 

 time anticipated rather than asserted, and the Treaty of 

 •^ Utrecht for the first and last time uncompromisingly asserted 

 |he unity of the island and of the Power that owned it. 

 England was declared supreme over the whole island, and 

 nothing but the island and its attendant islets. The nations 

 * Ante,p. j2. 2 Ante, pp. 72, 77, 97. 



