138 HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF NEWFOUNDLAND 



increased; and the 12,000 inhabitants of 1764-74 swelled to 

 17,000 in 1792, 20,000 in 1804, and 52,000 in 1822, without 

 any corresponding increase on the part of those who ap- 

 peared every spring and faded away every autumn, like leaves 

 or flowers. 

 and came New sources of supply were tapped and home ports took 

 from more j^ore part, or more home ports took part in the life of the 



or from r > r r 



larger home colony. Not but what there were drawbacks. Reeves wrote 

 portSi jjj jj^^2 ^jj^j. I ;Bideford and Barnstaple were once great towns 

 and have long ceased to employ any ship' in this trade*; 

 and it was the same with Gweek, St. Loo, Mevagissey, Fowey, 

 and Topsham, which used to contribute their tiny quota to 

 the fishing-fleet, and now contributed no more. Reeves 

 suggests that Dartmouth rose out of the ruins of the smaller 

 ports ; adding that whether this was so or not, ' Dartmouth 

 and Poole were now the two great towns in this trade'.* 

 The Poole merchants, who had long since led the van, now 

 occupied Twillingate in force, and had been preceded or 

 accompanied by salmon-fishers as well as sea-fishers in their 

 northern migrations. Jerseymen and Guernseymen were 

 busier than ever in parts which had been French, not only 

 fishing, but settling, trading, and smuggling French brandy 

 and cordage.'^ The lesser lights went out, but the larger 

 lights burned more brightly and steadily; large progressive 

 towns took the place of small villages, and Newfoundland 

 was '■ thrown much more open than it used to be, . . . instead 

 of being confined to the West country merchants and to those 

 e.g. Liver- of Poole and some few other towns *. * London and Liver- 



pool, Cork, pqqJ j^q^ entered the fists: and in 176^ Cork, Waterford, 



Glasgow, ^ ' 



Belfast, and Glasgow, as well as the south-western towns of 



England, advised the Privy Council on the afl"airs of New- 

 foundland. The places of origin were no longer ' solidaire ' 



^ J, Reeves, Evidence, pp. 42, 83, 84. 



^ Captain Griffith Williams, Account of the Island of Newfoundland, 

 1765. 



