136 HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF NEWFOUNDLAND 



There were 

 no impor- 

 tant mili- 

 tary in- 

 cidents^ ex- 

 cept the 

 mutiny of 

 1800, 



Admiral 

 Richer^s 

 attack^ 



and the 

 taking of 

 St Pierre. 



may be cured may not be killed ? If not, which presupposes 

 which ? or are they identical ? 



The military incidents of this half-period shook the con- 

 tinents of America and Europe to their foundations, but were 

 scarcely felt in Newfoundland, and the immunity of New- 

 foundland was due partly to its own preparations for defence, 

 and partly to the absence of an effective French base. 

 St. John's and Placentia were garrisoned even in peace 

 time; in the first war Governor Edwards (1779) commanded 

 nine men-of-war, 450 regulars, and 300-400 paid local 

 volunteers ; and in the second war a regiment of Royal 

 Newfoundland Fencibles was raised in Newfoundland and 

 served there (i 794-1800), but it contained many Irishmen, 

 some forty or fifty of whom took the oaths of United Irishmen, 

 and formed the nucleus of a conspiracy in which 200-400 

 citizens of St. John's were implicated. Five of the mutineers 

 were executed, the conspiracy evaporated, and the regiment 

 was disbanded, and was succeeded by the Newfoundland Light 

 Infantry, one thousand strong, and they by the Royal New- 

 foundland Rangers until the close of the war. The services 

 of the local troops were required in 1796, when Admiral 

 Richery appeared off St. John's with a powerful French fleet. 

 Governor Wallace immediately proclaimed martial law, en- 

 rolled every male in the district, and formed a camp of 

 2000-3000 men on Signal Hill. The French Admiral 

 retired, attacked and burned Bay Bulls, did some damage to 

 English shipping off Labrador in Belle Isle Strait ; and then 

 went home. St. Pierre and Miquelon never served like 

 Placentia as a base for operations against St. John's ; but, 

 conversely, St. Pierre and Miquelon were four times attacked 

 from St. John's in 1778, 1793, 1803, and 181 5. On the 

 first and second occasion all the settlers in these islands were 

 sent back to France ; and France sent them all back in 1783 

 and 1 816. The poor islanders were beaten to and fro like 

 shuttlecocks by battledores. The islands, which were scarcely 



