A HALF-CENTURY OF PROGRESS, 1 7 13-63 121 



(1747), Rodney (1749), and Drake (1752) expressed alarm 



at their numbers and at their refusal to take oaths of 



allegiance, or rather abjuration. Captain Drake pointed out 



with dismay that they were half the inhabitants of the colony, 



and that in St. John's Irishmen and Englishmen fit to bear 



arms were nicely balanced, the former preponderating in 1747 



and the latter in 1748, and that in some places in the south 



the Irishmen were in a large majority. The Protestant 



Succession was not assured ; and French priests were never 



far oif, so that the political danger was not pure illusion, and 



assuming that it was illusory there was a very real social 



danger from Irish criminals. Drunken brawls between Kelly, 



Murphy, Doyle, Quinn and other Irishmen, were frequent; 



and all, or nearly all, the murderers of W. Keen bore Irish which was 



names. At one time convicted felons were preferred to Irish- J'^^^J^-^^*^ 



men; thus in 1731 Captain Osborn wrote that 'it is no^N presence of 



become a practice of masters of ships to bring over here trans- %fj^^° 



ported felons instead of Irish servants ', and Captain Clinton 



enclosed a petition in which the petitioners ' represent the 



danger we are exposed to by the transportation of felons from 



Great Britain hither, which before this year hath not been 



known, and since which five of the basest and most barbarous 



murders have been committed, not without strong suspicion 



of its being done by some of them, one of whom is at this 



time in prison for theft' (1731). But out of evil good 



came, and convicts and Irish criminals were the first cause of 



Criminal Courts being instituted. 



New industries of a watery character were developed, and Seal-catch- 



sealing became an industry instead of a pastime, bringing in ^^g ^'^^ . 

 r . J r . rr^ • •. J T> s almonries 



:fc 4,000 m 1720 and £3,379 m 1735. Trmity and Vton?,- tegan, 



vista Bays were the principal places where seals were caught; T-1^o,Sal- 



and a district north of Bonavista Bay was for the first time 1^22, Fogo 



occupied by fishermen, sealers, and salmon-catchers. The ^{^^ Twil- 



north coast of Bonavista Bay had been inhabited as early as 1732, being 



1698, and George Skeffington had made the district famous occupied. 



