28 LABRADOR 
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Admiral Richery, one of the ablest of the admirals of the 
French republic, made a flying visit from Cadiz to the 
Banks of Newfoundland. After having wrought cruel 
havoc among the fishermen on the Banks, he despatched 
three of his ships, the Duquesne, the Censeur, and the 
Friponne, under Commodore Allemand, to visit the coast 
of Labrador. Allemand was delayed by wind and fog, 
and when he arrived at Chateau Bay, most of the fishing 
vessels had left for Europe. Several ships, however, still 
remained, among them part of the rich convoy of peltries 
returning from Hudson’s Bay. These Allemand captured. 
He then sent a summons to the commandant of Fort York, 
the blockhouse which Governor Palliser had built at 
Chateau Bay, demanding his surrender. When the com- 
mandant refused to surrender, Allemand opened fire on 
the fort, and soon silenced its fourteen guns. The English 
thereupon took to the woods, but not before they had set 
fire to all the buildings and stores at the post. The French 
landed, but found “nothing but ashes’; after a vain 
attempt to pursue the English garrison in the woods, they 
put to sea again, taking with them those prizes which they 
had not sunk or burned. They had done as much damage 
as it was possible for them to do. The people of Labrador 
have small reason to love the warships of revolutionary 
states. 
In 1809 Labrador was given back to Newfoundland. 
The arrangement was once more, however, found to be 
unsatisfactory. The Céte du Nord was really a part of 
Lower Canada, and it did not fit in, either legally or socially, 
with the system of government in Newfoundland. The 
