1188 MISCELLANEOUS. 



As late as 1840, a gentleman officially connected with its fisheries 

 gave a most lamentable description of the poverty of those who de- 

 pended upon them for subsistence. Having stated that, while in pos- 

 session of the French, the exports were of the immense value of 

 927,577 sterling, that 564 ships and 27,000 men were employed, and 

 that the whole produce now was only 80,000 quintals, and 50 tuns of 

 oil, he proceeds as follows: "The fisherman is supplied at such ex- 

 tremely high prices, that, after his season's work is over, what he has 

 caught frequently does not amount to the cost of his outfits : thus he 

 returns to his family with a poor prospect of providing for their win- 

 ter's supply." "I have seen families," he continues, "covered with 

 scurvy, applying for medicine, and although they obtained it, were 

 informed by the doctor that it was fresh and wholesome provision 

 they wanted most; at which time one of the parties admitted that his 

 stock was reduced to some herrings and a few potatoes." "In like 

 manner," he adds, "when the militia muster took place, I knew of 

 some who came seven miles, and who, without money to purchase 

 food, returned home fasting." 



Had the cases related by this functionary been such as exist in every 

 community, they would not have been thus mentioned. It is not to 

 be presumed, however, that while so great destitution is prevalent, it 

 is general among the fishermen of Cape Breton. Yet tales of their 

 wretchedness and poverty are common. Masters of our fishing ves- 

 sels, who visit the coast, have told me repeatedly that in the spring 

 they were beset by persons who offered to barter away almost their 

 last article of value, and even begged for food. To make every allow- 

 ance, we may still fairly conclude that those- who earn their bread in 

 fishing boats and shallops, as a body, enjoy few comforts, and often 

 suffer for the absolute necessaries of life. 



The seas of Cape Breton, neglected, shunned even, as if a curse 

 rested upon them, and as if the spirits of the slain of a by-gone gen- 

 eration hovered over them, are as rich as they ever were; and as safe, 

 too, for the employment of capital, skill, and labor, as when the suc- 

 cessful adventures of the Catholic French roused all Puritan New 

 England in a crusade to possess them. Were these seas ours, we 

 should soon prove the truth of this remark. Could the descendants 

 of those who first won Louisbourg for its present nominal owners, 

 settle amid its ruins, the few fishers' huts that serve to mark its site 

 would disappear, and a thrifty, well-built town take their place. The 

 harbor is one of the best on the eastern coast, and the situation such 

 as to render access to the fishing grounds in the waters of the St. 

 Lawrence easy. In a word, distant, lone, and dreary as is the ancient 

 fishing capital of France, enterprise and industry are alone wanting 

 to restore it, in some measure at least, to importance and prosperity. 



