Scurvy, so justly feared during this period, made less ravages among 

 the bank fishermen than among the sailors engaged in other long voyages, 

 because the latter were nourished, during their long crossings, exclusively 

 on salted and dried foods, while the former had, for a long time, taken to 

 the custom of making a major part of their diet from the fresh daily soup 

 prepared from the heads of cod. In spite of this, this affliction was not un- 

 known among the boats of the great fishery, and there was hardly a year 

 without a certain number of men dying from it. 



The period of peace which followed the institution of the French Shore 

 in Newfoundland lasted until 1744, the year when open hostilities again broke 

 out between France and England, to continue the following year with declared 

 war. 



From the 14th of March, 1744, Maurepas, then with the title of port- 

 folio of the Marine, advised the outfitters of the imminence of a declaration 

 of war with England. The 20th of May following, an act of the Council de- 

 clared null and void all agreements between outfitters, captains and sailors 

 of boats not yet at sea destined for the cod fishery, the bank as well as the 

 shore fishery. However, hostilities not yet being officially declared, many 

 boats, according to custom, had already left in January to take aboard their 

 salt at the salt works and had gone thence directly to the banks without worry 

 or thought to return safely to their ports of outfitting in October. 



The following year the fishery was limited to a small number of boats 

 outfitted for the bank. There was no question of sending boats to the French 

 Shore, nor even to the coast of Cape Breton. The English colonies in New- 

 foundland and Nova Scotia had armed a veritable flotilla of war to the end of 

 driving decisively the French from the maritime regions which they posses- 

 sed or which they still enjoyed in America. In March of the year 1745, their 

 forces carried the attack to Cape Breton and succeeded in taking Louisburg. 



The return of a state of peace came again without any gains, for in 1748 

 the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle which put an end to the war stipulated that each 

 of the belligerents give up, purely and simply, his conquests, with no change 

 in the clauses of the Treaty of Utrecht instituting the French Shore. Thus 

 the following year saw the resumption of fishing on the bank, on the French 

 Shore, and at Cape Breton. 



37 



