11 



his 'cruising-ground ; while Villabon, governor of Nova Scotia, in an 

 dfficial despatch to the executive of Massachusetts', declared that in- 

 structions from his royal master demanded of him the seizure of eveiy 

 American fisherman that ventured east of the Kennebeck river, in Maine. 

 The claim vs^as monstrous. If I understand its extent, the only fishferies 

 which were to be open and free to vessels of the English flag were 

 those westerly from the Kennebeck to Cape Cod, and those of the west- 

 ern half of Newfoundland. It seems never to have occurred to a single 

 Ftench statesman that the supply of fish in our seas is inexhaustible, 

 arid that, reserving certain and sufficient coasts for the exclusive use of 

 their own people, other coasts might have been secured to their rivals, 

 without injury to any, and with advantage to aU. In fact, evidence that 

 such a plan was suggested by our fathers, or by the ministry " at home," 

 does not, I think, exist. On both sides the strife was for the monopoly 

 and fijrthe mastery. 



Richard, Earl Bellamont, arrived in Boston in 1699,* and, having 

 assumed the administration of affairs in Massachusetts, pointedly re- 

 ferred to these pretensions in a speech to the general court, and to the 

 execrable treachery of the Stuart who had parted last with Nova 

 Scotia and "the noble fishery on its coast." But his lordship could 

 afford no redress. 



In the first j^ear of the reign of Queen Anne, the two nations were 

 iagain involved in wax. Among its causes was the claim of France to a 

 part of Maine and to the whole of the fishing-grounds. The people of 

 New England, driven from the Acadian seas by the common enemy, 

 needed no solicitation from the mother country to engage heartily in the 

 contest. On the other hand, employing armed vessels of their own, 

 they were hardly restrained, in their zeal and success, from hanging 

 as common pirates some of the French officers who had been the in- 

 struments of interrupting their pursuits in the forbidden waters. 



Nor was this aU. They attempted the conquest of Nova Scotia, and 

 equipped a fleet at Boston. The enterprise failed. Promised ships 

 from England three years later, but disappointed, a second expedition 

 failed also. 



At last, in 1710, Nova Scotia became an English colony. Its reduce 

 tion was a duty assumed by the ministry, while, in truth, it was accom- 

 plished principally by colonists and colonial resources. Of the force 

 assembled at Boston, six ships and a corps of marines were, indeed, 

 sent from England; but the remainder, thirty vessels and four regi- 

 ments, were furnished by the four northern colonies. Strange it was 

 that Anne, the last of her family who occupied the throne, should ha,ve 

 permanently annexed to the English crown the colony and the " noble 

 ■fishery " which all of her fine had sported with so freely and so disas- 

 trously. 



I havetiarely glance" at events which occupy hundreds of pages oi 

 documentary and written history. Whoever has examined the trans- 

 actions thus briefly noticed has ceased to wonder that the Stuarts were 



* It was a new thing to see a nobleman at the head of the government of Massachusetts, 

 and he was received with the greatest respect. "Twenty companies of soldiers and a vast 

 concourse of people met his lordship and the countess, and there was firework and goed 

 dfink all night." He died in Kew York in 1701. He was an enemy of the Stuarts. 



