The Story of Newfoundland Part 3

[21] "A report of the voyage and successe thereof, attempted in the yeere of our Lord 1583 by Sir Humfrey Gilbert Knight, with other gentlemen a.s.sisting him in that action, intended to discover and to plant Christian inhabitants in place convenient, upon those large and ample countreys extended Northward from the cape of Florida, lying under very temperate climes, esteemed fertile and rich in minerals, yet not in the actuall possession of any Christian prince, written by M. Edward Haie gentleman, and princ.i.p.all actour in the same voyage, who alone continued unto the end, and by G.o.d's speciall a.s.sistance returned home with his retinue safe and entire." See Hakluyt (ed.

1904), vol. viii. pp. 34 seq.

[22] Rogers, _op. cit._, p. 40.

CHAPTER IV

EARLY HISTORY (_continued_). BEGINNING OF A PERFECT ENGLISH COLONY

We have seen that many nations shared in the profits of the Newfoundland trade, but the English and French soon distanced all other compet.i.tors. The explanation lies in the conflicting interests which these two great and diffusive Powers were gradually establis.h.i.+ng on the American mainland. It is worth while antic.i.p.ating a little in order to gain some landmarks. In 1609 the colonization of Virginia began in earnest; a few years later sailed the Pilgrim Fathers in the _Mayflower_, to found New England. In 1632 Lord Baltimore founded Maryland, to be a refuge for English Roman Catholics. Meanwhile, France had not been idle in the great northern continent. The intrepid Champlain trod boldly in the perilous footsteps of Cartier, and Port Royal was founded in 1604, Quebec in 1608. Later still came the splendid adventure of La Salle, who forced his way--a seventeenth century Marchand--from the sources of the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico, thus threatening to cut off the English settlers from expansion to the west. A glance at the map will reveal the immense strategic importance of Newfoundland to two Powers with the possessions and claims indicated above. No doubt a consciousness of deeper differences underlay the keenness of commercial rivalry.

The hardy sailors, mainly from the west country, who carried on the trade for England, came when the season began, and sailed away with its close, returning in the following year to the portion of the beach which each crew had pegged out for its own operations. A feeling of proprietors.h.i.+p soon sprang from uninterrupted user, and signs of jealousy appeared of any attempt at permanent settlement. This local feeling, combining with interested influence at home, did much to stunt the growth of the colony; the old colonization theory inherited from Spain was still powerful, for the American Revolution had not yet revealed the handwriting on the wall.

In 1585 English vessels and sailors were seized in Spanish waters under the pretext of a general arrest. Accordingly, by way of reprisal Gilbert's plan of 1577 (which has already been referred to) was revived by Walsingham, and Sir Walter Raleigh, then vice-admiral of the western counties, was instructed to despatch vessels for the purpose of intercepting Spanish fishermen proceeding to the Newfoundland waters. A flotilla under the command of Sir Barnard Drake (cousin of Sir Francis) sailed to Newfoundland, and took a considerable number of Spanish and Portuguese prizes and prisoners.

The disaster to the Spanish Armada in 1588 was a drastic blow to Spanish power at sea, a signal for England's maritime ascendancy, and an impetus to more rational, consistent, and practical methods of colonization, in which great Companies and great fleets partic.i.p.ated--fleets that prepared the way for the establishment and development of our incomparable Navy, the mighty bulwark of our Empire. The turning-point at the close of the sixteenth century is thus indicated by Mr Rogers: "Large creative ideals, the usual delusions about Cathay, gold, and silver, and a desire to retaliate against Spain, inspired both Raleigh's and Gilbert's efforts; and after their failures the history of colonization turned over a new leaf. There were no more colonies founded in anger, the old delusions about Cathay and gold and silver melted into thin air, and the large Elizabethan ideals were accompanied by small projects, which after a time dimmed and obscured them."[23] With James I. and the wise influence of Bacon came an increased interest in the "plantations,"

and G.o.d's silly va.s.sal (as a justly irritated divine called the King to his face) does not suffer in this respect from a comparison with his contemporaries.

After the colonization of Virginia and Maine had begun, Sir John Popham, who had done much to set on foot the schemes relative to these American settlements, recollecting the attempts that had been made to colonize Newfoundland, suggested to the merchant adventurers of Bristol that they should make new efforts to establish colonies on the island. The King's support having been promised, funds were raised, and a royal charter was granted to a company on April 27th, 1610, designated "The Treasurer and the Company of Adventurers and Planters of the City of London and Bristol for the Colony or Plantations in Newfoundland." London and the West of England were thus a.s.sociated, as they had been in the Virginian Company of 1606. There were forty-six members, including the Earl of Northampton, Sir Francis Bacon, Thomas Aldworth, Mayor of Bristol, John Guy and Philip Guy of Bristol; and the territory granted to them comprised the lands from Cape St. Mary to Cape Bonavista. The same year John Guy, the first Governor, led out the first colony to Newfoundland, landed at Conception Bay, and selected for his capital Cuper's Cove (Port de Grave). Guy and his companions then built a fort, a dwelling-house, a workshop, and a boat, sowed corn, and made preparations for the winter. Next fis.h.i.+ng ordinances were issued by the Governor. "That struck the first note of a conflict which was to last for 150 years, and of which the echoes may yet be heard. The fishermen, merchants, and seamen who flocked to the coast for the fis.h.i.+ng season vehemently resented anything which might seem to threaten their turbulent lawlessness, and the great merchants in England, who were profiting by the fisheries, were jealous lest the planters should in some way interfere with their operations; but, for a time, the planters had sufficient influence through the patentees in England to maintain themselves."[24] After a sojourn of six summers--though only three winters--in Newfoundland, Guy returned to Bristol, and spent the remainder of his life there in his aldermanic dignity.

He was succeeded (1615) in the Governors.h.i.+p by Captain John Mason who, together with Sir Ferdinando Gorges, founded New Hamps.h.i.+re and Maine.

Mason stayed six years in the island; he explored it, prepared a map of it, encouraged the growth of corn successfully, and with less success endeavoured to establish commercial intercourse with the Red Indians.

In 1618 appeared the "Briefe discourse of the New-found-land by Captain John Mason." After a discerning account of the attractions of his theme, the writer concludes:

"I might hear further discourse of our discoveries ... but these may suffice as _verb.u.m sapienti_; being of sufficient trueth to remouve errours ... also to take away malicious and scandelous speeches of maligne persons, who out of envy to G.o.d and good actions (instructed by their father the Devill) have sought to despoil it of the dewe and blamish the good name thereof."

Disorders having occurred after Mason's arrival, Sir Richard Whitbourne, an Exmouth sea-captain who had had many years fis.h.i.+ng experience in the Newfoundland waters, was despatched to investigate the disputes between the settlers and the fishermen. He reported that 250 sail of English fishermen, and 400 of "French, Portugals, and Biscaines" resorted to the coast. His mission failed, owing to the dilatory nature of the inquiry and the difficulties in getting the contesting parties to attend, as they were in scattered places. Then the merchants, having an eye to their own profit, proceeded to divide the occupied territory into a number of shares, which the recipients afterwards resold.[25] "The colony from time to time shed portions of itself, division led to sub-division, and new characters appeared upon the scene."[26] Other companies were thus formed, charters granted, and settlements made, most of which were confined to the peninsula of Avalon. With these enterprises several distinguished names were connected: for example, Sir William Vaughan, who sent out colonists in 1617 and 1618: Henry Cary, Lord Falkland, who bought land on the east coast, called it South Falkland, despatched a number of emigrants, but did not himself visit the island; Sir George Calvert, a leading Roman Catholic, who took out co-religionists.

In 1627 Sir George Calvert, better known as Lord Baltimore, was granted by charter the fancifully named Province of Avalon (after Avalon in Somersets.h.i.+re), which embraced a considerable portion of the island's area. Calvert established himself at Ferryland--the name being a corruption of Verulam, so called after the great Chancellor--and stayed only long enough to infuse a tenacious Roman Catholic strain into the island. Finding the climate too cold, however, he applied for a more southerly colony for himself and forty companions. In reply, the King said that the climate was not too cold, but that Sir George Calvert was too soft, and had better return home.

But he had in the meantime transferred himself and his forty followers to the milder climes of the south, and there established Maryland, whose capital, Baltimore, was named after the founder's family t.i.tle.

Perhaps the turbulence of his surroundings, and the troubles with the French, were not to his taste. Law and order were indeed far to seek, and there were neither civil tribunals nor military forces. We may suppose that the "Fis.h.i.+ng Admirals," authorized by the Star Chamber and confirmed in their authority by 10 and 11 William III., c. 25, had already a.s.serted a _de facto_ jurisdiction on the spot, for it is hardly credible that the mere wantonness of legislative invention can have produced such a tribunal. To antic.i.p.ate for a moment: the Act provided that the master of the first s.h.i.+p arriving from England with the season should be admiral of the harbour; to the masters of the second and third in order were given the t.i.tles of vice-admiral and rear-admiral. To this tribunal were committed fis.h.i.+ng disputes in general, and the maintenance of peace among sailors and fishermen. It may be supposed that these rough sailors were both corrupt and inefficient. "I must be a pretty sort of a judge if I could not do justice to myself," said one west country sailor, when charged with delivering an interested judgment. At the close of the season the judges disappeared, together with their cargoes of blubber and cod.

In spite of all these drawbacks the island was gradually increasing in reputation. Writers, as well as returned "planters" and visitors, did much to make it known. Thus Sir Richard Whitbourne, to whom reference has already been made, wrote in his "Discourse of Newfoundland"

(1622): "Divers wors.h.i.+pful citizens of the City of Bristol have undertaken to plant a large circuit of that country, and they have maintained a Colony of his Majesties subjects there any time those five years who have builded there faire houses, and done many other good services, who live there very pleasantly, and they are well pleased to entertaine upon fit conditions such as wilbe Adventurers with them." And he quotes from a letter from Captain Wynne of August 17th, 1622: "At the Bristow Plantation there is as goodly rye now growing as can be in any part of England; they are also well furnished with swine, and a large breed of goates, fairer by farre than those that were sent over at the first."

In 1628 Robert Hayman, who accompanied the above-mentioned expedition of 1610, published a book ent.i.tled "Quodlibels, lately come over from New Britaniola, Old Newfound-Land," etc. Among the "epigrams" are a number of verses, in which he pays a tribute to leading North American colonizers, sets out the advantages offered by the new colony, and makes many apt and wise observations regarding colonization. The reader will no doubt welcome a few pa.s.sages, which he may regard--to use Livy's phrase--as "deverticula amoena" in this account of our subject.

_To the Wors.h.i.+ppful Captaine John Mason, who did wisely and worthily governe there divers yeeres._

The aire in Newfound-land is wholesome, good; The fire, as sweet as any made of wood; The waters, very rich, both salt and fresh; The earth more rich, you know it is no lesse Where all are good, fire, water, earth, and aire, What man made of these foure would not live there?

_To all those worthy women, who have any desire to live in Newfound-land._

Sweet creatures, did you truely understand The pleasant life you'd live in Newfound-land, You would with teares desire to be brought thither: I wish you, when you goe, faire wind, faire weather: For if you with the pa.s.sage can dispence [= bear]

When you are there, I know you'll ne'r come thence.

_In praise of my Newfound-land._

Did some know what contentment I found there, Alwayes enough, most times somewhat to spare.

With little paines, lesse toyle, and lesser care, Exempt from tanings, ill newes, lawing, feare....

_To the first Planters of Newfound-land._

What ayme you at in your plantation?

Sought you the honour of our nation?

Or did you hope to raise your owne renowne?

Or else to adde a kingdome to a crowne?

Or Christ's true doctrine for to propagate?

Or drawe salvages to a blessed state?

Or our o're peopled kingdome to relieve?

Or shew poore men where they may richly live?

Or poore mens children G.o.dly to maintaine?

Or aym'd you at your owne sweete private gaine?

_To some discreet people who thinke anybody good enough for a plantation._

When you doe see an idle, lewd, young man, You say hee's fit for our plantation.

Knowing your selfe to be riche, sober, wise You set your owne worth at an higher price.

I say, such men as you are, were more fit, And most convenient for first peopling it: Such men as you would quickly profit here: Lewd, lazy lubbers, want wit, grace, and care.

_To the famous, wise and learned sisters, the two Universities of England, Oxford and Cambridge._

Send forth your sons unto our new plantation; Yet send such as are holy, wise, and able.

The same writer submitted to Charles I. a remarkable "proposition of profitt and honour," in which he unsuccessfully called for the King's help and patronage in regard to the colonization of the island.[27]

In 1637 the Commissioners of Foreign Plantations, who had been appointed three years before, resolved that the old colonial grants had lapsed, and transferred them to new patentees, prescribing, under the new fis.h.i.+ng rules made by the Star Chamber (1634), one system and area of control for settlers, and another for fishermen, and restricting their respective activities. The first Governor under this regime was Sir David Kirke, who established himself at Ferryland (1638) with a number of settlers variously estimated at from thirty to one hundred persons. His charter was a liberal one, embracing the whole island, and was the reward of his gallantry in the capture of Quebec. He introduced the practice of levying rent, imposing licence fees, and exacting an excise of 5 per 120 fish on alien fishermen. The convulsions of the Civil War were felt even in Newfoundland, and Kirke paid for his Royalism by the loss, under the Commonwealth, of his n.o.ble possession (1651).

What has been described as a period of repression in the history of Newfoundland began with the reign of Charles I. and continued to the end of the eighteenth century. As a recent writer observes: "In the fairy story it is the youngest sister, but the eldest sister is the Cinderella of colonial history. If Newfoundland had experienced only the healthful neglect under which the other colonies prospered, she too would have grown into vigorous life. But a strong and influential cla.s.s in England was interested in hara.s.sing the settlers, in depreciating the resources of the island, and in throwing every obstacle in the way of permanent settlement. This policy came in with Charles I. and continued down to the very commencement of the nineteenth century. Captain Mason, Sir William Vaughan, and Captain Whitbourne had written favourably of the island; but from their day down to 1842, when Sir Richard Bonnycastle wrote his book, every writer described it as barren; in summer gloomy with perpetual fog, and in winter given over to excessive cold and blinding snowstorms.

The west country people of England, generation after generation, drew from the fisheries of Newfoundland enormous profits, upon which prosperous mercantile establishments and n.o.ble families were built up and sustained in England. They considered and called them 'their'

fisheries, and their interests required that there should be no resident population to compete in their monopoly, to share the best fis.h.i.+ng rooms, and to grow up to be dangerous rivals in foreign markets. The influence of this cla.s.s upon the government was incessantly exercised in framing regulations and laws to choke the growth of the colony.

"The confused annals of this period can only be understood by remembering the existence of two antagonistic parties, the 'planters'

and inhabitants on the one hand, who, being settled there, needed the protection of a government and police, with administration of justice; and the 'adventurers' or merchants on the other, who, originally carrying on the fishery from England, and visiting the island only for the season, needed no such protection for themselves, and had various reasons for preventing its being afforded to the others.

"If the Mother Country had only forgotten the island it would have prospered; but in 1633 the English merchants succeeded in procuring from the Star Chamber rules and regulations drawn solely to advance their own private interests, and these rules were supplemented always in the same direction, by the same oppressive agency."[28]

At this time the resident population of the island cannot have exceeded a few hundreds, and every step was adopted which a vicious political economy could suggest to keep the numbers down. It was made penal for a settler to dwell within six miles of the sh.o.r.e, for a planter to cut down wood or plant within six miles from the sh.o.r.e, for any planter or inhabitant to take up the best positions in the harbours before the arrival of the fis.h.i.+ng-fleet in the spring; and every master who sailed with a crew to Newfoundland was under bond--lest here and there a permanent settler should filter through--to return with his exact complement of hands. Their Lords.h.i.+ps of the Committee of Trade and Plantations were not superior to the prejudices of the day, and they resolved in 1675, "That all plantations in Newfoundland should be discouraged ... or that the western charter should from time to time be put in execution; by which charter all planters were forbid to inhabit within six miles of the sh.o.r.e from Cape Race to Cape Bonavista." Equally considerate and attentive were the efforts of the home country to cope with crime in the island. The Star Chamber ingeniously provided that persons charged with homicide, or with stealing to the value of 40s., should be brought home and submitted to the judicial experience of the Mayors of Southampton, Weymouth, and other specified towns. The discrimination may also be admired which prohibited stealing _from the fis.h.i.+ng nets_. It must be supposed that time hung heavily on the hands of the settlers in the intervals of the fis.h.i.+ng, for we find at the period much time and industry wasted on pet.i.tions to the Committee of Trade, who possibly treated them as Grenville's predecessors are said to have treated the American despatches. The Board of Trade, which inherited the duties and the incompetence of the Committee, proved more complaisant, and was indeed prepared to tolerate permanent settlers to the number of one thousand. A struggle was imminent, if only they had known it, when the presence of a few thousand resolute settlers in Newfoundland would be of high moment to the interests of England.

The life of such as were allowed to remain must have been wild and strange, alternating between the populous alacrity of the fis.h.i.+ng season and the hand to mouth struggle of the long winter months.

Perhaps the amenities of life were not missed because they can hardly have been known; but the restrictions on building and the absence of local authority must early have given rise to bitterness and discontent. Certainly we must admire the constancy of men who were content to live, a solitary cl.u.s.ter, on the coast, with an unexplored interior and savage inhabitants behind them, and with no more secure prospect of material progress than a process of undetected squatting on the forbidden ground.

With regard to the plantations that have just been mentioned, reference may be conveniently made here by way of parenthesis to the survival in Newfoundland of certain terminology and customs, which form an interesting connecting-link between the early enterprises and modern usage and practice. In the words of a writer[29] fully conversant with the present conditions of the island: "Because of its early 'plantations,' the word 'planter' is still current in the insular vocabulary, and the 'supplying system' still prevails, the solitary links which connect with these bygone days. A 'planter' in Newfoundland parlance is a fish trader on a moderate scale, the middleman between the merchant, who s.h.i.+ps the cod to market and the toiler who hauls it from the water. 'Plantations' are yet interwoven with local tradition, and show on ancient maps and charts. The tenure of some has never been broken; the names and locations of others are perpetuated in the existing fis.h.i.+ng hamlets which dot the sh.o.r.e line.