Nevertheless, the negotiators accredited by Louis XV were forced to 

 lessen the wrong done to the French fishermen by the recognition of English 

 sovereignty in the regions where they had exercised their industry for more 

 than two centuries. They succeeded in making an agreement, at least in 

 part, for the compensations claimed in their favor, by obtaining a conces- 

 sion of their right to continue to fish and to dry cod on all the northern coast 

 of the island, from Cape Bonavista on the east to Point Riche to the west. 

 This was the institution of the French Shore, which made the object, in the 

 drawing of the treaty, of which the official text was in Latin, of Article XIII, 

 translated thus in the French of the period: 



"The island of Newfoundland with the adjacent islands belong henceforth 

 absolutely to England, and to this end the Very Christian King will deliver to 

 those who find themselves entrusted in that country, in seven month's time 

 from the day of exchange of ratification of this treaty, the town and fort of 

 Plaisance and other places which the French yet possess in the said island, 

 without said Very Christian King, his heirs, or his successors, or any of 

 his subjects, henceforth claiming whatever may be, in whatever place, on 

 said island and adjacent islands in whole or in part. It will not be permitted 

 them to fortify any place, nor to establish any habitation of any kind, except 

 docks and cabins necessary and useful for drying fish, nor to live on said is- 

 land in times other than those proper for drying fish. In which island it will 

 not be permitted to the said subjects of France to fish and to dry fish in any 

 part except from the place called Cape Bonavista at the northern extremity 

 of said island, and from there following westward to the place called Point 

 Riche. " 



One would think that these stipulations would have eliminated for the fu- 

 ture all cause of conflict between the French fishermen and the British im- 

 migrants. The fishermen, Basques for the most part, who had followed the 

 shore fishery in the Plaisance region, went to Cape Breton and especially to 

 the Gaspe, a region where the cod was as abundant as in Newfoundland, and 

 where there was room for them beside the first Canadian practitioners of a 

 local fishery. The northern part of the island, along which extended the zone 

 of the French Shore, had not yet been settled by the British. The Bretons, 

 and especially the Malouins continued to fish and to salt their cod consider- 

 ing that nothing was changed for them by the terms of the treaty, since they 

 had never made permanent installations in this region. On the other hand, 

 the outfitters for the bank fishery, interrupted by the war, underwent a new 

 prosperity at the return of peace; and as the high seas are the domain of 

 everyone, there was little fear that there could be incidents, especially from 

 the practical standpoint, since the English did not fish the bank. 



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