6 THE ARGUMENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 



discouraged permanent settlements in Newfoundland with the object 

 of preserving the island as a place of resort for British fishermen 

 where they could find shelter in its numerous bays and use the strand 

 for drying and curing their fish before returning to their home ports 

 across the ocean. As a result of this policy, which was continued to 

 a time subsequent to the year 1818, Newfoundland was in 1775 sub- 

 stantially uninhabited. As to the other islands and the shores of the 

 continent, ceded by France to Great Britain in 1763. twelve years of 

 possession had been too brief a period for extensive development, 

 and only a few settlements had been made throughout the thousands 

 of miles of coast stretching from the Bay of Fundy to the Straits of 

 Belleisle. 



Previous to the American War for Independence the colonists of 

 New England had engaged extensively in the North Atlantic fisheries 

 as British subjects, and had freely resorted to the harbors of the 

 unsettled coasts of the continent and islands, using them as bases for 

 their fishing operations in the inshore waters and upon the outlying 

 banks. To these hardy settlers had been due, in large measure, the 

 success of Great Britain in the long struggle with France for the 

 sovereignty of America, and it was a just recompense for their patri- 

 otic efforts that they should share in all the benefits which accrued 

 to Great Britain from the conquest of New France. 



The fishing grounds upon the coasts of Newfoundland were then 

 the resort of two fleets of fishing vessels coming from a distance ; one 

 from the British Isles, the other from the ports of the New Eng- 

 land colonies lying almost as far distant to the southwest as Great 

 Britain lay to the east. Both fleets were under the British flag, and 

 neither of them was subject to any competition or interference from 

 local fishermen or dwellers upon the shores of Newfoundland. Both 

 in 1783 and in 1818 the problem for the negotiators to solve was to 

 reconcile and adjust the rights of these two bodies of fishermen long 

 accustomed to sailing from distant ports to their common fishing 

 grounds, there to pursue their calling. 



The use of the harbors of the* coasts, adjacent to the fisheries, for 

 purposes of shelter, and of the protected shores for drying and 

 curing fish, then the only method of preparing them for market, 

 was necessary to the successful prosecution of the industry. When, 

 therefore, the thirteen American colonies had won their independ- 



