98 NEWFOUNDLAND 



the nefarious practice for centuries, and could with difficulty 

 be persuaded that they were doing anything that was not 

 perfectly legitimate. Whatever came ashore as the flotsam 

 and jetsam of the ocean was theirs by right, so they con- 

 sidered, and many cases of a shocking character were dealt 

 with by Judge Prowse, who was sent to enforce the law. 



" Seafaring people," he says, " look upon wrecks as their 

 lawful prizes, gifts sent to them direct by Providence, and 

 their views about these fatalities were characteristic. Mostly 

 the vessels contained valuable cargoes, but occasionally it was 

 otherwise. 1 heard an old Irishwoman declare about one 

 'wrack,' 'I don't know what God Almighty is thinking 

 about, sending us a terrible bad fishery, and then an old 

 Norwegian brig full of nothing but rocks.' 



"In one instance I was sent to look after a very bad 

 case of absolute piracy. The fishermen attacked the master 

 and crew whilst their schooner was ashore, cut her masts, 

 and forcibly took away all her gear and stores. I had to 

 put up at the principal settler's house in this little cove. I 

 well knew all were implicated in the wreck. They asked 

 me to go in and see the mistress of the house, an old 

 woman suffering from asthma. After I had told her of 

 some remedies, she gasped out, ' Oh, why did they come 

 so near the shore ? Oh, why did they come so near the 

 shore to timpt the poor peoples ? ' 



" Wrecking cases always gave me capital sport, as they 

 all happened in very out-of-the-way places, where there 

 were very good grouse-moors. I once shot a whole covey 

 of a dozen birds with the police, witnesses, and prisoners 

 acting as beaters and markers. The grouse were scattered 

 and rose in pairs. I had to swing round each time to shoot 

 the second bird. The last killed was a very long shot, and 



