94 NEW ENGLAND FISHERIES 



to England and most unjust to New England. The chief 

 conquest of England Louisburg with Cape Breton Island 

 was made possible through the valor of the farmers and 

 fishermen of New England. 1 Yet the king of England 

 yielded this important province in exchange for Madras, 

 in India, greatly to the chagrin of the people who captured 

 it. This was but another instance when the people of New 

 England were prevented from reaping the fruits of a vic- 

 tory over their rival and foe by the discreditable states- 

 manship of the home government, one more stroke that 

 helped to alienate the affections of these people from Great 

 Britain. 



It was not until 1763 that England became practically 

 mistress of the North American fisheries. In the meantime 

 she and her colonies had to pass through a life and death 

 struggle with her old foe, carried on in three continents. 

 In the end she was triumphant, but victory was gained too 

 often at the sacrifice of colonial trade and development. 

 Foreign wars break up the industries of the sea more 

 quickly and more completely than those on land. There 

 was a noticeable decline in the fisheries of New England 

 during the twenty years between 1743 and the close of the 

 French and Indian War. The causes of the decline were 

 emigration from Gloucester, Marblehead and Cape Cod to 

 the coast of Maine where new towns were founded, the call 

 for seaman to man privateers and to enter the naval service 

 of England, and chiefly the two wars in which England 

 and consequently the American colonies were engaged. We 

 have just seen how, in the first of these wars, the fisher- 

 men left their lines and flakes to take up guns and to en- 

 gage in the expedition against Louisburg. The activities 



i It is interesting to note that a monument was erected on the 

 site of the old fortress at Louisburg by the Society of Colonial Wars 

 in 1895, "to Commemorate the Capture of Louisburg, A.D. 1745." 

 No mention is made of the taking of Louisburg in 1758. 



