A HALF-CENTURY OF PROGRESS, 1713-63 123 



1754 attested. Heads of families accounted for a third more, 

 so that in round numbers permanent residents were 800 in 

 1710/ 1,800 in 1738, and 3,400 in 1754. The ships' crews 

 of English ships, for whose sake the older theorists taught that 

 the fisheries primarily existed, numbered 3,600 in 1738 and 

 4,500 in 1754, so that they outnumbered residents, in the 

 strictest sense of the word residents. But if residents included 

 all those who wintered in the island, they outnumbered 

 ships' crews during this half-century. On the other hand, if 

 passengers were added to ships' crews, the visitors outnumbered 

 the settlers, except when there were war scares. ^ So far as 

 figures went a devotee of the divine rights of majorities to 

 rule minorities might hesitate whether to sacrifice the settlers 

 to the visitors or the visitors to the settlers. The problem, 

 when regarded from this point of view, was puzzling. As 

 before, both classes lived only by fish and trade. Cattle were 

 300, sheep 600, swine 300 (1738), ' and ' improved land ' less 

 than a square mile ^ ; so that farming was stationary, and the 

 visitors and settlers were rivals whose interests being similar 

 were mutually repulsive. 



The very soldiers were drawn into the prevailing industrial Placentia 

 currents. In 1 7 1 4 Placentia was occupied by four indepen- ""^^^ garn- 

 dent Companies raised in Ireland and commanded by Colonel 

 Moody, the hero of 1705, who was made * deputy governor of 

 the Fort ' under the Governor of Nova Scotia, who was also 

 Governor of the town and garrison of Placentia. The 

 Governor of the town neither visited nor governed it, and 

 the garrison was for practical purposes under the indepen- 

 dent control of Colonel Moody and his successor, Colonel 

 Gledhill. Except in military matters — an exception which 

 was removed in 1729— the convoy-captains ruled over, and 

 the Act of 1799 applied to the town of Placentia as much or 

 as little as to the town of St. John's. As in Acadia, the 



1 Ante, p. 103. 2 e.g. 1745, 1746, 1757. 



^ Comp. ante^ p. 83. * e. g. 516 acres in 1741. 



