BAIT-FISH — EXPANSION — AND CONFLICT 217 



at St. John's sent a fishing-ship northward to Croc ; but the 

 ship was turned back even as Taverner's had been in 1729.* 

 Since 1830 Englishmen took the second place, and French- 

 men the first place in the north-east. And the disparity was 

 enhanced by the annual presence of French cruisers in 

 Croc. 



In 1839 and onwards English cruisers patrolled the Treaty inaMafter 

 shore of Newfoundland for the same reason as they still visit 1839 ^n/- 

 Patagonia from time to time in order to look after the waifs French 



and strays of our Colonial Empire. Ever since 18^9 the <^^^^^^^^ 

 . . r . . , . n . , , patrolled 



Visits of one cruiser, or in later times of two cruisers, along the the Treaty 



western coast have been annual, and, when steam was f'^^^^. '^^"" 



, trolling 



introduced, Captain Cook s Port Saunders in Ingornachoix their 

 Bay was the coaling d^pot. In 1848, while one English ^^^l^Jlfll„ 

 cruiser was employed, the French had two cruisers between «« impor- 



St. Pierre and Port-au-Choix, two at Croc, one between 1^''^^^^^''^^' 



' ' base, 



Croc and Port-au-Choix and one between Croc and Cape 



St. John, which was the southern limit of the Treaty shore 



on the east coast. Croc was not only a fishing resort but 



a great French naval centre in the summer. It is not 



possible to exaggerate the serious position of affairs when 



English and French fleets met one another year after year, and 



claimed to exercise jurisdiction in the territorial waters and 



on the coasts of a thinly-peopled English colony. Moreover, 



irresponsible but serious disputants urged that the French 



claim was contrary to Treaties which made England sovereign 



over the entire island, and one of the provisions of the same 



Treaties was strained, to say the least, by English colonists. 



The Treaty of Paris, 1814, article 13, 'replaced' the 



French rights of fishery * upon the footing in which it stood in the French 



1792 ', in other words incorporated the Treaty of Versailles ^^^3\ 



(1783) and the Declaration of Versailles (1783). ^\i<^ straining 



Treaty of Versailles defined the Treaty shore as extendinor %^^-^. 



•^ / o obligations, 



from Cape Ray to Cape St. John, where the French were 



^ Ante, p. 131-2. 



