harbors and beaches, gave rights on the Petit- Nord peninsula to the Bret- 

 ons and to the Malouins in particular. This monopoly was abrogated in 1671 

 by an act of the Council in which Louis XIV declared common to all his sub- 

 jects "the rule made by the negotiators of Brettony regarding the subject of 

 cod fishing. " 



In support of their exclusive claims to the Petit-Nord fishery, the Mal- 

 ouins made much, moreover, of the important state of their outfitting. They 

 attested it by the fact that in the month of May alone, in 162 8, 112 of their 

 vessels were fishing from Newfoundland harbors. 



Thus the convention of 1635 had no other object than affirmation by Eng- 

 land of theoretical sovereignty in Newfoundland. In practice, nothing was 

 changed from its former state. The tax was never enforced; it was even a- 

 bolished, purely and simply in 1660, by Charles II who did not forget that he 

 owed to Louis XIV the restoration of his throne. No objection was raised to 

 the presence of French troops in the island, nor to the founding in 1660 of the 

 town of Plaisance which the French hastened to fortify after driving out the 

 English and Portuguese. Both had used for a long time this site which offer- 

 ed them a magnificent drying place in its beach, a veritable mosaic of large 

 pebbles of equal size, which extended, perfectly uniform, a length of 1-1/2 

 kilometers and an equal width. The French fishermen, becoming masters of 

 this beach, divided it in lots, the frontage of which was proportional to the 

 tonnage of their boats. At the end of the season, each crew buried its excess 

 provision of salt in a circular hole. The hole was covered with pieces of 

 silex (silex-flint. The substance actually used is not clear to the translator. 

 Flint would not fuse in an ordinary fire. ) above which a great fire was built. 

 Thus a hermetic. closure was effected, under which the salt was preserved 

 intact until the following season. 



Things went thus until the ascent of William of Orange to the English 

 throne in 1689. The new king, a resolute enemy of Louis XIV, sought re- 

 spect for the rights which his predecessors had claimed in Newfoundland. 

 Encouraged by the war of Augsbourg, he sent, in 1692, an expedition against 

 Plaisance. At the height of the situation, the place was commanded by a 

 governor, the Count de Brouillon; but the garrison was dangerously reduced: 

 seventeen men in all. The settlers were called to reinforce it; then the gov- 

 ernor had anchored sixty fishing vessels across the arm of the sea which 

 commanded the entrance to the port, with orders to their crews to make a 

 great disturbance, as if clearing the decks for action, when the English fleet 

 appeared to attack. 



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