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LONDON GRANT RICHARDS 9 HENRIETTA STREI:t, COVENT GARDEN 1897 ^(<^L So (0 ^ ^^ Some place far abroad Whaur Sailors gang to fish for cod." BUKNS. Upon a recent re-pcnisal of Mr Rudyard Kipling's " Song the English," I was not a little struck by the absence Ikerein of any reference to the " Tenth Island." Happeningf hortly thereafter, to discuss the poet with a Newfoundlanderf r George F. Beam, we both speculated upon the omission. suggested, playfully of course, that he should wr'ie to Mr Kipling asking him for an explanation. My suggestion as adopted. " I really must point out to you," wrote Mr Beam, " hoto eatly disappointed we Newfoundlanders have been at your oring us in your stirring and eloquent ' Song of the English.' mi speak of Montreal, of Auckland, of Victoria, of Halifax : yet seem to pass purposely by that deserted and ruined adel of the first-bom of England's colonies, least blessed 7nost banned by the Imperial Mother. " Read our history, sir ; read Lord Dufferins speech at the 'abot celebrations the other day at Bristol, and see if we have t been loyal and long-suj^ering. Come amongst us and see if to-day are less loyal or less ready to shed our blood for the d of our fathers. We too have our message to the Imperial 'iother, although the poet of the Empire has not thought fit to cribe it. " We have long been accustomed to have our geography ignored and our politics and our resources misunderstood ; hut I beg of you, sir, to repair the injustice you have done to our loyalty." To this letter Mr Kipling responded as follows : — "North End House, " Rottingdean. " Dear Sir, — What can I say in reply to your letter of the 1 3th, except that it is rather a large order to compress allusions to the whole of our Empire into two hundred lines of alleged verse. And when it comes to my sins of omission — well, I ought to have included Perth, West Australia ; Dunedin oj the Southern Island, N.Z. ; the West Indies, and a few other places. "But indeed I am not unmindful of Newfoundland. Perhaps I may know more about it than you think; and cer- tainly no man in his senses ever doubted the loyalty of the senior colony. We can leave that, I think, to the Yankees, who seem to take comfort from inventing curious fictions of that nature. ''However, when and if there is another edition of my verses, I will do my best to put in Newfoundland's voice also, but Ihe task is not a pleasant one. If I leave out all reference, I am taxed with ' injustice.' If I make a pointed reference, as 1 did in ' Our Lady of the Snows,' I am, to put it mildly, supposed to be scaring away immigrants by misrepresenting the climate of the dominion. " But we will make a bargain, I will put in a four-line r li Vll Iter of the fs allusions of alleged n — Tvell, I edin oj the few other foundland. and cev' Ity of the Yankees, fictions of iverse among * The Song of the Cities^ if you, on your part, ill drop, and influence other people to drop, allusicts to the loyalty ' of the * colonies.' In the first place, I dislike the ird ' colonies,' and, if you look through my verses, you will I very seldom use it. It is out of date and misleading, esides being proimwial. In the second place, there is no need talk of ' loyalty ' among white men — that is to say, races leaking the English tongue, with a high birth-rale and a low lurder-rate, livitis^ quietly under laws which are neither lught nor sold. That is one of the things we all take for ranted — because the Empire is Us — We ourselves ; and for the \hite man to explain that he is loyal is about as unnecessary as v a respectable woman to volunteer the fact that she is chaste. '* Like yourself, I am a colonial in that I was bom in tombay, but it has never occurred to me to say that I am oyal,' because, like you, I am a while man, and — one can't out of one's skin. " Very sincerely yours, *'RUDYARD KIPLING." ion of my voice also, II reference, Vference, as \t it mildly, representing a four-line 1 1 A FORE-WORD tY Sir William Vallance Whiteway, K.C.M.G. lT this critical juncture in our history the food opinion of the English-speaking world is the matter of the most vital importance to us, m opinion based not upon such comparative trivialities as our social refinement or the 'eadth of our public spirit, but upon the ^onesty and good-heartedness of our people and le capabilities of our country. I am a sanguine believer in the resources of fewfoundland, although it has been kept in its 'esent backward state for a period of t> ir hundred years. Efforts were systematical lade to prevent the colony being settled, so that le fisheries should be carried on there by those jsident in the old country. And in this manner ^e fisheries were prosecuted until early in the resent century. It will hardly be believed, Jvertheless it is a fact, that when I myself ligrated from Newfoundland, about fifty IX t^mmemm. I I mrm "^Bi^ y^^irT9'^»f^^»"»»i X THE TENTH ISLAND years ago, there was only one important road in the country: that to Portugal Cove. Now we have a network of roads reaching to all the principal and a majority of the smaller towns and settlements in the country — in t .Cy thousands of miles — and our roads are, as a rule, good. Such is the remark of strangers visiting us. If our present population were relegated to the condition existing fifty years ago, when the hardest ship's - biscuit, fish, Hamburg butter, and pork was the food, scarcely ever a potato or vegetable on the table, when cabbage was an imported luxury almost unknown, when a path over the hills was the road around Conception Bay, what we have accomplished would be more vividly seen. Our colony has spent a great deal which is represented in assets. St John's alone has cost upwards of £400,000 in widening, making, and straightening its streets. In Harbour Grace and Carboniere a very large suia has been ex- pended from time to time for a like purpose. We cannot have these advantages without paying for them. There are forty-nine light- houses and fog alarms, thirteen hundred and thirty-five miles of telegraph line and cable, the dry dock, all the public build'ngs, Go^'^ern- ment House, the Colonial Building, the hospi- I mm mm A FORE-WORD XI nt road e. Now g to all smaller try — in d are, as trangers on were ty years lit, fish, tie food, on the 1 luxury the hills ly, what 3 vividly sal which one has making, ur Grace been ex- purpose, without ine light- rlred and id cable, Go^'^ern- le hospi- kls and asylums for the lunatic and the ^oor, the post offices, court-houses, peniten- iary and gaols, and an immense mileage )f roads, a great portion of which has been lade f "om money borrowed on capital account, ['hen we have the s.s. Fiona^ costing £8000, mblic wharves, and some breakwaters. We lave six hundred miles cf railway across the sland, yet our population is only 210,000 )eopie; wherefore I say these are great works |;o be achieved by so small a number. It has )eeD said that Englishmen at home hardly ippreciate the work we have had to do in ^he colonies, and in this colony in particular. !'et I could point to huridreds who have lade their money in the colony I represent, ^nd come home to spend it. Were the money lade in the colonies spent in the colonies, ^ne of them, at least, would be in a different )osition to-day. Nevertheless, we do not desire that a man should not spend where he pleases the money he has made ; but we do desire |hat when we are asked to give large amounts )r the defence of the Empire you should msider these few facts. When muscle is Required and men are required, and when Sngland may be in difficulties, Newfoundland ill not be backward in shedding its blood xu THE TENTH ISLAND for her. I remember that the initiatory step in the long series of developments which have made England to-day the supreme ruler of the seas, was one with which my colony of Newfoundland was associated. The fishing- vessels on its coast, and the thousands and tens of thousands of men engaged in that great industry, were then forming the founda- tion of England's present supremacy, and they stand to-dtvy ready at any moment of England's peril to come forward to her aid. But what has been secured in times past by the bravery of the soldier and the sailor has, unfortunately, been disposed of by the diplo- matist. We have suffered in all times past, and we are struggUng to-day under treaties — ^/l may call them infamous treaties — which surrender to France two small islands off our coast, and convey to the French fisher- men, in the most ambiguous language, what we claim to be a concurrent right of fishing along part of the shore of our own island, but what they claim to be an exclusive right, and are exercising as an exclusive right. It seems difficult to believe that not long ago, when endeavouring to arrange for the construction of a railroad across the island, Jt was contended b^ the French that we ay I A FORE-WORD Xlll |uld not even erect a railway station on lat is termed the Treaty Coast — ana we jre precluded for years by the Govern- mt of this Mother Country from building lat road! During the present year we shall ^ve completed that road; but I may almost that we have secured the railway station 'reptitiously. We hesitated about giving \j information whatever as to what we jre doing until we had the road and the tty constructed, lest the French would pro- st that they would interfere with their on the coast. These are facts, and jts which are operating so prejudicially as retard the progress which we ought to tke as the oldest colony of Her Majesty's ipire. ^he question of the future of our growing )ulation has, for some time, engaged the rnest attention of all thoughtful men in country, and has been the subject of seri- solicitude. The fisheries being our main )urce, and to a large extent the only de- Idence of the people, those periodic partial lures which are incident to such pursuits Itinue to be attended with recurring visita- is of pauperism, and there seems no remedy |be found for this condition of things but /•^ XIV THE TENTH ISLAND that which may lie in varied and extensive pursuits. This reflection would apply with force to the present population, but when we contemplate it in relation to our increasing numbers, the necessity of dealing with the subject urgently presses itself on our consideration. Our fisheries have no doubt increased, but not in a measure corresponding to our increase of population. And even though they were capable of being further expanded, that object would be largely neutralised by the decline in price which follows from a large catch, as no increase of markets can be found to give remunerative returns for an augmented supply. It Ir evident, therefore, that no material in- crease of means is to be looked for From our fisheries, and that we must direct our attention to other sources to meet the growing require- ments of the country. Our mining industry may now be regarded as an established fact. Large areas of geological formation similar to that in which the mines are being successfully worked are known to exist, and there is every reason to believe from recent explorations that a great* amount of wealth in copper and other ores is waiting the application of enterprise and capital to bring them into profitable use, Our agri- A FORE-WORD XV cultural industry, though prosecuted to a valuable extent, is yet susceptible of very en- larged development. Vast stretches of agricultural land, extending from Trinity Bay north, along the heads of Bonavista Bay, Gander Bay, and Exploits River, as well as on the West Coast, need only the employment of well-directed labour to convert them into lueans of independent support for thousands of the population. We have in the capital a large market for agricultural produce and live stock, which at present is mainly supplied from abroad ; and, as an illustration of what might be done by the cultivation of the land when a market is within reach, we have the fact that amongst the most prosperous of our labouring people are those who live by the land in the vicinity of St John's, though the average conditions of fertility are far below those which exist in the interior of the island. There are in- dications, moreover, leading to the conclusion that we shall hereafter be more dependent than before on home supply of live stock, ' for in those places from which we have hitherto received our meat supplies attention is being given to the English market, which is supposed to offer better prospects, and an XVI THE TENTH ISLAND advanced value may therefore be reasonably anticipated. With an improved market on the spot, the inquiry is further suggested whether this colony should not become an exporter of live stock to England; and we have little difficulty in affirming this position. For grazing purposes we have large tracts that, we believe, cannot be surpassed in British North America; and when we regard our proximity to England, and the all-important consideration of a short voyage for live stock, the advantages we possess in this connection are too manifest to be subject of question or argument. To practical persons the minor criticisms that are made in this book are matters of supreme insignificance. On the other hand, it does matter to the outside world who may propose to have dealings with us that we are a "hospitable, amiable people," that our language is beautiful, that our mineral wealth is real and extensive, and our agricultural re- sources many and promising. These chapters carry with them all the weight of competent and disinterested authority. Much of their matter I cannot undertake either to defend or refute. It is, as one critic has observed, "mere obiter dictUt sayings by the way, humorous com- A FOREWORD xvii ments on our necessarily somewhat narrow existence; and, as for the much-resented re- flections upon some of our insular customs, though unflattering, they can hardly be called unkind." We have passed through an ordeal which is unprecedented in the history of any colony. The fire of 1892 laid a great portion of the city in ashes. The failure of the Banks and of many mercantile firms, the poor Labrador fishery of last years, and the unfortunate result of the present seal fishery, present a sad picture; but there are yet good grounds for substantial hope and we should not be cast down. We know the fisheries are ever varying, but they will never fail. The mining prospects are bright. The surplus population must look more to the land ; and I have every confidence, if we sink these petty party squabbles when we have to meet outside difficulties, and there is a cessation of these defamatory telegrams and newspaper articles as regards the people and the country — communications in the shape of sensational tele- grams which are a disgrace to the senders are being sent abroad, to the great damage of the country — and if we cultivate a spirit of patriotism, good days are in store for us, for I have every confidence in the future of the ^ XVIU THE TENTH ISLAND country. Her fisheries, her minerals, her timber and agricultural lands bespeak a bright future for our Island Home. It has been too often the case that a class of persons who have not even seen the Island nor had any knowledge of its inhabitants or its institutions have rushed into the press to air their crude ideas and express decided opinions upon the subject of which they know nothing, and so heartburnings are caused and injuries inflicted, not probably intended by the writers, but yet the consequence of their rashness. Anything which tends to make the Island better known, and, if better known, it must make it more favourably known, has my cordial support. Newfoundland has been my adopted country for upwards of half-a-century during thirty-nine years of which I have taken an active part in the management of its public affairs ; and I think I may be excused if I seize this opportunity of calling attention to the progress which has been made, for it is now a source of much gratification to me that I have been permitted to assist in bringing about the improvements which have ;;been accomplished. I entertain little doubt that if the reader's thoughts are turned, or are likely to be turned, I A FORE-WORD xix towards colonial enterprise, he w 11 carry from the perusal of this book the fixed impres- sion of a country full of great possibilities, teeming with a vast almost untouched mineral wealth, and the home of a brave and vigorous people. I THE TENTH ISLAND CHAPTER I Newfoundland is not on the visiting-list of countries. It is a terra incognita to tourists. Albeit at the very portal of the Western Continent, hundreds of thousands annually pass her by — this Cinderella of the Colonies, who, somewhat lean and rather ragged, as yet, sits patiently in her corner of a hemisphere. Newfoundland is our first-born, our oldest colony. Here were made the beginnings of Eng- land's empire, and the Newfoundland fishermen were the early core and backbone of her navy. But England has always been a stern parent to her children; it therefore follows that Avalon has suffered most injustice and neglect. Her sisters have flaunted her; and all her relations have heaped calumny and cod-fish upon her headlands. If she opened her mouth to speak, they have thrust a cod-fish down her throat. Did she smile? then they taunted her with her fogs. If you were to consult a chart of the ten largest islands on the world's surface, you could place your finger on one and almost be conscious 2 THE TENTH ISLAND of its heat, you could touch another and feel its cold : one would inevitably suggest beauty, another ugliness; this would be distinguished for its history, that for the density of its popu- lation ; this would be rich and powerful, another poor and weak. An island is a standing invita- tion to the imagination — and, in fancy at least, mankind is for ever sailing to an island. May not the political future of the world be said to lie with islands? After England it may be, thousands of years hence, the Empire of New Zealand, of Ceylon, of Borneo, of Jamaica ; but if there be truth in that dictum which declares that "the law of the world's progress is an advance from the warmer to the colder latitudes," destiny must have much in store for that island which occupies a similar geo- graphical relation to the New World that England occupies to Europe, and Japan to Asia. Putting aside all material, political, and his- torical considerations, and regarding size only, you would begin with Australia and end with Newfoundland, It is not only because it is the first of England's colonies, nor because its fisheries were the foundation of England's naval greatness, nor because during two cen- turies it contributed many millions of pounds sterling to our national wealth, nor because of its bearing on international relations, that THE TENTH ISLAND this Tenth Island is to me the most curiously fascinating of them all. It is fascinating, too, because of the peculiar progress an isolated Anglo-Saxon-Cultic race is making to-day from rudeness and jxnorance and ugliness to culture and enlightenment and beauty. Newfoundland's vicissitudes have been numer- ous and picturesque, and she has been, in Lord Salisbury's phrase, the "sport of historic mis- fortunes." The island is the possessor of a romantic history, at which it might be as well to glance before entering on a description of it as it is to-day. The earliest known inhabitants were the Beothuks — a numerous and powerful race, who may have been allied to the North American Indians, or have been, on the other hand, a distinct and older race who at some date lost in antiquity migrated to the island. When John Cabot came upon these shores in 1497 the Beothuks were at the height of their numbers and prosperity. The island possessed an abundance of wild game; its shores and innumerable lakes swarmed with cod, trout, and salmon ; countless herds of reindeer roamed over the interior; and the thick forests afforded the aborigines a grateful hermitage when they ceased from their annual wanderings. Physic- ally they were a well-developed race, "ingeni- ous and of quick intelligence, gentle in their THE TENTH ISLAND manners, tractable, and not indisposed to friendly intercourse with the pale-face." They inhabited this fine rude country in perfect peace and goodwill, practising no agriculture, attired in the skins of beasts, happy in the chase, in their camp fires, and in their simple loves and pleasures. In all of these respects the Beothuks must have borne a striking re- semblance CO the earlier inhabitants of another rude island in a slightly less southerly latitude, which has by centuries of cultivation become one of the gardens of the world, and to which about a third of the civilised world at present owns sovereign allegiance. But the doom of the Beothuks was sealed when the white nien came. The same contest which was carried on in the mainland between Europeans and savages was carried on in New- foundland. It was little to be expected that the first white trappers, hunters, and fishermen would have much toleration for aborigines who interfered with their pursuits. The utmost bru- tality was evinced by the whites, and responded to with interest by the Beothuks. But when the latter vowed "war to the knife," the white invader declared war to the pistol and carbine; and the fire-arms of the white man soon began to wreak a terrible destruction on the natives of the island, thinning oat their numbers, and driving them into the interior. If a whole THE TENTH ISLAND tribe can be said to have died of fright aT\d despair, it can truly be said of the Beothuks. For iii this shelter, their spirit crushed and their most powerful chiefs slain, and fearful of ven- turing again to the coast, they gradually decayed, being thenceforward seldom seen by the eye of the white man. Their last stand seems to have been made at Red Indian Lake: and here the bones of their ultimate hundreds only yesterday strewed the ground or are yet embedded in the mould — here the Beothuks perished to a man. In 1828 a missionary, journeying to their settlement with Bible and cross in hand, found the ruins of their wigwams, fragments of their canoes, remnants of their dresses, and the graves of their dead; but all around, as far as the eye could pierce, was pervaded by the silence and sombreness of the tomb. What remain of the Beothuks to-day are a few skulls, a skeleton, some bones, and a collection of their implements which I saw in the Museum at St John's. Long before Sir Humphrey Gilbert, in 1537, thought of colonising the island, the great value and importance of the Newfoundland fisheries were appreciated ; and an interest existed which could not have been surpassed had the Grand Banks been instead the mines of Golconda and Peru. One must remember that the sixteenth ^^ century was the golden age of fish. England, " rtS 6 THE TENTH ISLAND like the rest of Europe, was a Roman Catholic country, and the fasts and ordinances of the Church were respected everywhere by the masses. Fishing was not only profitable, but, carried on with enterprise, was a sure road to great wealth. The monopoly of the herring fisheries by the Dutch was one of the causes of that country's mediaeval opulence. The tidings, therefore, that a watery tract had been discovered off the shores of Cabot's New-Found-Land which bore within its bosom millions of shoals of the largest and finest of that highly-prized fish, the cod, was received with wonder and delight. Not only rich mari- ners, but richer nobles, took part in the new fishing emprise ; and soon all Europe rang with the fame of Newfoundland, as all its marts groaned beneath countless quintals of its cod. Yet England was not the first to avail herself of this new treasure ground. As early as 1504 the hardy and adventurous fishermen of Brit- tany and Normandy were engaged off the Newfoundland shores ; and the Basque, Por- tuguese, and Spanish mariners came closely in their wake, even making settlement on the shore. And then, by -and -by the English fishermen came to claim thei^* own, in small numbers at first, but increasing until they had outdone their rivals, profiting thereby to such purpose that Sir Walter Raleigh was able to I THE TENTH ISLAND declare in Parliament that the Newfoundland fishery was the "stay and support of the West counties of England." Thus the zeal and ardour which first led men westward in large numbers, and even led them to erect dwellings on the land, was born of a desire to supply cod-fish to Europe; and the diet of the Church was to influence more than any other factor the destiny of a continent. It is a curious reflection that when Sir Humphrey Gilbert first set out to colonise Newfoundland, France and Spain were dividing among themselves the whole of the New World; and England, who was subsequently to be mistress of a continent, did not then possess a square foot of American territory. But Gilbert's expedition, although undertaken under royal auspices, and under the direct patronage of Elizabeth, was foredoomed to failure. The English did not then understand those minor arts of colonisation v/hich every petty trader in Africa hR,s at his finge" ends to-day: and which, indeed, of themselves make of colonisa- tion an art. Their supplies gave out, their shelter and clothing was insufficient; but, before Sir Humphrey Gilbert sank beneath the billows on his return home to England, he had the satisfaction of planting the Royal Standard on the site of the future city of St John's, and ^ 8 THE TENTH ISLAND declaring Newfoundland the possession of his monarch, the Virgin Queen. Twenty-six years later came Guy's colony, a scheme promoted by John Guy, a merchant of Bristol, who set fort'a the attractions and possibilities of the island in a pamphlet which commanded such attention that a company was formed, settlers enrolled, a vessel chartered, Guy appointed Governor, and sail set for Newfound- land. Guy's plantation was, however, unsuccess- ful, owing chiefly, it is said, to the piracy then prevailing. Nothing daunted, in 1623, three years after the «ailing of the Mayflower ^ there came Lord Baltimore, and a cargo of superior emigrants, with a patent conveying to him the whole Southern peninsula, which he forthwith named Avalon. He built a splendid man- sion at Ferryland, and set his energies to work to make the colony prosperous. But England was new at Empire in those days, and allowed tlie French, who had got a strong foothold on the mainland, to so harass him and his colony that Baltimore at length returned home, leaving his colonists to fight and shift lor themselves; and they have been, alas! fighting and shifting ever since. Even the novelty of the Mother Country's first steps in Empire-founding will scarcely excuse the great blot in the history of her re- lations with her first New World Colony. For THE TENTH ISLAND 9 it was about this time that she began that policy of allowing the slender flicker which some of her best and bravest blood were try- ing to fan into a flame, to be almost totally extinguished. For more than a century and a half the settlement of a great and fertile island, one- sixth larger than Ireland, was discouraged, not merely morally, but through system and statute; and no endeavour spared by a large and in- fluential class of persons to both blacken the fame of Newfoundland and to keep it a mere fishing-station for the fishermen of Devon. The island became thenceforth a temporary habitat for the mariners of the West Countree. They went out in their ships each year, and at the close of ths season they returned. Newfound- land represented nothing more to the merchants and shipowners of England than a barren clod of earth — or, at most, a certain limited line of shore — and, to be frank, to them it is little more to-day. Their business was then, and is now, with fish and the money they make out of the fishermen. These "merchant-adventurers," as they were called, having resolved that the fish wealth of Newfoundland should pass into West Country coffers, rather than it should be diverted, even in part, to residents of a new colony, were able to influence successive English Governments to I i \ ; II 10 THE TENTH ISLAND the passage of unjust and deleterious laws which came perilously near throttling the colony in tho first days following its birth. These laws prohibited anyone to go out to I^ewfoundland as a settler, and "ordained that all fishermen should return to England at the close of each fishing ooason." Masters of vessels were required to give bonds in £100, binding them to return each year with such persons as they took out. Settlement within six miles of the coast was prohibited under heavy penalties ; nor could one cultivate or enclose the smallest piece of ground without licence, which was rarely granted. But for these vicious and selfish enactments, which, in spite of their occasional evasion by hardy spirits, effectually thwarted the fair growth of the colony, can it be doubted that Newfoundland to-day would contain large cities and smiling estates — that the towns of St John's, Placentia, and Harbour Grace would re- semble in size and character Boston, Portland, and Halifax; and that the island, instead of being merely a coast-line — a collection of fish- ing villages — would have its interior densely populated with a healthy, contented, and loyal race? The battle between the earlier colonists and their oppressors lasted until about eighty years ago, when the English Government awoke to THE TENTH ISLAND 11 a sense of its disgrace, and the last of the noxious statutes was repealed. In 1729, how- ever, England had appointed a Governor and given formal recognition to the island as a British colony. At that time the population only numbered 6000 persons; but the number is large when one considers the obstacles and oppression they had to face. Courts of Justice were established; the navigation laws were extended to the island, and a collector and comptroller of customs appointed. Freedom of religion was proclaimed, and the existing de- plorable system of religious persecution abated. Immigrants began to find their way to those shores; yet it was not until 1820 that the re- strictions on building houses and cultivating ground were entirely abolished. Even then, and to this day, as the shadow of the system which had gone before, there remained in the mind of Europe the image of a fog-bound rocky isle, devoid alike of foliage, sunshine, and fer- tility; and existing only for the drying of the fish entrapped in the wild and dreary waste of waters. Since then a new battle has been waged by the unfortunate Newfoundlander — a battle for the recognition of its forests, its fer- tile prairies, its blue skies, its majestic mountain scenery, the intelligence and culture of its in- habitants, and the island s progress generally. These claims, coming from Newfoundlanders O 12 THE TENTH ISLAND themselves, have been received by an incredu- lous universe without enthusiasm. It is still regarded by many as a. "land of cod-fish and dogs, fogs and bogs." Yet Newfoundland has not been without her share of attention. The monstrous treaties enacted between Great Britain and France on the subject of her terri- tory have been brought up more than once in the eye of the world in the light of a burning question; and having been brought up and made to pose picturesquely for a period, are retired at the expense of England's honour, to the shame of her statesmen, and to the de- spair of her first-born and harshly-used colony. CHAPTER II Considering the popular ignorance of its as- pect and capacities, the Tenth Island should be distant at least ten thousand miles. It must be a matter of some surprise to discover how near Newfoundland is to the British Isles. Speaking for myself, a voyager to a land wrapped almost in fable, I could scarcely realise it. A passage by a fast steamer of three and a half days is all that separates Queenstown from St John's. Approaching the harbour of the colonial capital I fancied, as I stood in the stern of the vessel, and scented the breeze, that I was being pur- sued by the vivid odours of Irish peat. And what a new area this proximity to England may open up for this colony ! Why should she not become one of the highways of Em- pire to the West? The great British North American — nay, the great Imperial dream of the future is Newfoundland received into the bosom of the other Confederated provinces: a fast alternative steamship service from Milford Haven to Bonavista Bay accomplishing the journey in three days; a Pullman express train across the island; and so via packet to Sydney, and from thence to Quebec and Montreal by 13 u THE TENTH ISLAND rail. In such a fashion, not only could the Canadian metropolis be reached in a matter of five or six days, but the abbreviated ocean pas- sage would tempt thousands to travel to the New World who shrink now from lengthier com- munion with the sea. But I shall have occasion to speak of this Fast Line project hereafter. Just now we are approaching St John's. No one would suspect that behind these dark frown- ing cliffs, these miles on miles of rocky heights, whose bold promontories and headlands have been sculptured fantastically by the action of the waves, there lie towns and villages and a habitable country. Newfoundland presents a stern exterior to the world; and this per- haps is not least among the causes which have retarded her advancement into the good graces of mankind. Dull lowering cliifs warn off the intruder, fogs in summer and ice in winter zealously guard its shores — how irre- sistibly it all reminds one of the fairy tale in which the dragons and their treasure so prominently figure ! A brown mountain cleaves for us abruptly in twain, and with this great towering rocky mass on our right and on our left, we enter what is called the Narrows. The aspect is not unlike Gibraltar, especially on the left, but where are the fortifications? A fellow-passenger pointed out to me, indeed, THE TENTH ISLAND 15 the ruins of a barracks on the slope. The main structure and the outhouses had lingered on, untenanted for twenty years. Once or twice, so my informant told me, a homeless fisherman, or one of those waifs to be found in every community, had been driven to a scant refuge within those walls; and there is even the story of a man found mysteriously drowned in a cistern beneath the flooring. But the regiment of red -coats had departed; and the populace took only a melancholy interest in the fate of their former habitation. Then a few years ago the great fire came along and left the establish- ment a mass of smoking ruins. "I shall never forget," quoth my Newfound- lander, "the spectacle that day in 1871 of Her Majesty's soldiers and their officers filing slowly down Signal Hill on their way to the ship which was to bear them away for ever. Gladstone will always be remembered in this country for that act. It seemed as if the last tie was being broken. We felt, too, that St John's was the key, not only to this island, but to the whole continent — not even Quebec is so impregnable as this would be with a moderately-equipped battery. We ourselves offered to pay; but, of course, the English Ministry would not hear of it. 'It wasn't a question of money.' Then, if it wasn't, good God, what was it? And philosophise as we would, with the breaking up of that garrison 16 THE TENTH ISLAND every man of us felt that the colony, vhich had never ascended many, had gone down another step in the world." Truth to tell, it strikes even the unpractised eye as difficult to over-rate the strategic im- portance of these heights of St John's in the event of hostile attack. The city is placed almost in the heart of the Peninsula of Avalon, the nearest point to Europe, with a port the most secure perhaps in the world; how easily might St John's be made the Gibraltar and Sebastopol of America. A few thousand pounds and a regiment or so of British soldiers and the thing is done. Where- fore it is impossible to believe that the Home Government was not thoroughly aware of the importance of maintaining an effective garrison, from one standpoint; and of the eminent un- desirability of doing so if regarded from another — i.e. as a temptation to the colonists toward self-assertion and even belligerency in their attitude towards their aggressors. The fact of the matter is this — the Newfoundlander is, in his attitude towards the outside world, the most helpless creature in the universe. Docility having thus been inculcated by nature, iOias been the policy of successive British adminis- trators and Colonial governors, in view of his unparalleled gri evan ces, to continue him in that blissful state. This ingenious policy has THE TENTH ISLAND 17 not only evacuated the gF^rrison, and dismantled the batteries, as evincing a bad example to the colonists, but has repeatedly discountenanced, and so far successfully, the establishment of any volunteer militia force for the protection of the island. I think I do well, at the outset, to present the reflections which were uppermost in my thoughts at the moment of my first glimpse of the island — for if I believe truly there is no property of similar value and extent, not merely in our Empire, but in the unij^se, so absolutely undefended and unprotected, there is no similar property which must inevitably, if things continue as they are, stand in need of such defence and protection. I have heard said, and with much truth, that this island is the one appanage of the British Crown which wouH have the least chance of success- fully alienating itself politically from the Empire. But supposing that the attitude of the Mother Country amounts at length to a virtual abandonment of her interests in the colony — a solitary interest, for all one is able to discern — into whose clutches will the island, naturally, and as if by reversion, fall? The French have long claimed partial sovereignty over the territory, and the guns of the last fort they have remaining to them in North America are within sounding distance. It is t 18 THE TENTH ISLAND likely that tlie Americans would be heartily pleased to see rapacious John Bull displaced by the " lawful owners of Newfoundland." The Newfoundlanders, it seems to me, though as stalwart and brave as Poles, would, like Poland, have to suffer territorial dismem- berment, if not complete conquest. In view of the Fre nch c laims, and England's, apathy and acquiescence, no other result can happen. It would not be a case of war; but of simple acquisition. England, if not diplomatically, has long ago, morally, abandoned the island to the French. Her ludicrous abdication of her rights in consequence of aggression and threats has been all but complete ; and if she had intended that the retention of the is -and should cost the life of even a single English soldier, she would have made war long ago. It is while I am surveying Signal Hill and its departed glory that the city of St John's bursts out of its hiding-place. It is on the right bank of the little oval harbour — a slim town of obviously greater length than breadth, yet looking compact enough as it sits smiling on the slopes of a hill with a forest of shipping at its feet. The object which most effectually strikes the eye is the Roman Catholic Cathedral with its twin towers, which, being posed on tl o town's highest land elevation, lend it the grace- ful aspect which it would otherwise lack. This THE TENTH ISLAND 19 Cathedral alone of the chief churches escaped the great fire of 1892. "D'ye ken for why?" inquired the cabnian of extraordinary appearance, and of still more extraordinary dialect, who drove me from the wharf to my hotel. "'Twas the stones v/ere a' fetched from Ireland, sor." This, en passant, was my first experience of the Newfoundland dialect — one of the most marvellous composites on earth. To the home Briton it cannot fail to be most diverting. For the first five minutes you are confident you are conversing with an Irishman — the next five minutes you are highly amused at your mistake. The man is a Scot — probably from Skye or Shetland or some remote community you have neT'^er visited. The next five minutes you ask him how long he has been from Devonshire. Sometimes he brings all thr^^a nationalities to bear on you in one sentence, as did a Placentia man with whom I climbed a hill. When we had reached the summit, "Aweel, sor, ye 're afther being athwart the rudge," he said. "Athwart the rudge" is pure West Country, as Mr Blackmore can testify. It is amaidng how quickly St John's has arisen from he?' ashes. The town has been the prey of many conflagrations. In 1816 three distinct fires occurred, the first of which, in I 20 THE TENTH ISLAND February, corsumed 120 houses and left 1500 people homeless; the second, in November, de- stroyed 130 houses; and the third, in the same month, reduced a large part of the business portion of the city to ashes. But even this memorial year of fires was as nothing com- pared to 1846, when 12,000 persons were burnt out of house and home and three-quarters of St John's was a mass of smoking ruins. But the conflagration of July 8th, 1892, was the greatest in the history of the colony. Fully one half of the town was consumed, including the Church of England Cathedral, the wo- 1' of Sir Gilbert Scott and the pride of St Joiin's, with a loss of three millions sterling. The truth is, the town is set in a trough; and the wind sweeps through it incessantly winter and summer. Repeated trials have caused the St John's firemen to become among the most expert I have ever beheld (I was shown how they get their engines and apparatus into the street seven seconds from the sounding of the alarm), but the utmost celerity and heroism fight an uneven battle when they fight with the wind. In addition, most of the houses — even the mansions of the best class — are built of wood. In contemplating the general architecture of the capital, one is led to speculate on the different aspect it would have presented s / 'I li THE TENTH ISLAND 21 i had the conditions of its settlement and the system of its commerce been different. For nearly four hundred years the dwellings of rich Newfoundlanders — men who made their for- tunes out of the industry of the island — have graced London, the Clyde, Bristol, Plymouth, and many provincial towns. The millions which in England have been but as a drop in the bucket of the general opulence, would have erected stately mansions and designed elegant en- closures. The cod-fish and the seal would have made of St John's what the fox and the beaver have in part made of Montreal, what the pine and the cedar have made of the New Brunswick capital. But were St John's to resemble otb'^r cities in its appointments, half its interest, for me, at least, would evaporate. It is what the town will become, in a mental comparison of its present appearance ^ that it will have in the course of the next twenty years, that con- stitutes its chief attraction. The incessant process of building, consequent upon the recent devastation, and the manner in which private dwellings are built close up to the line of pave- ment, with little or no suggestion of trees or gardens — this is hardly calculated to give one an impression of municipal beauty or of muni- cipal pride. At present the citizen generally is dead to beauty, and uniformly without imagination. On the other hand, St John's is m 22 THE TENTH ISLAND well policed, well watered, lighted, and sani- tated, and the telephone is in every office and even every sitting-room. The many thoroughfares of St John's (which, as I have said, is set on the side of a not too gently undulating hill) are very steep, very wide, and very long. One of them, Gower Street, is famed, and I am ready to believe justly, for having seventy hills. Some of them are so steep that it is a marvel how the horses manage to ascend them in winter time, when the ground is frozen hard and slippery ; but they are of a tough, wiry breed, these horses of St John's, and a level country would prob- ably puzzle them. At the top of Cochrane Street, on the ridge of the hill, the flag of England flies over Government House: a large plain building enclosed within spacious grounds ; while close at hand, to the westward, is the Parliament building, a low stone structure beautified by a fine pillared portico. I ob- served from the first a monument at the top of Cochrane Street, a stone's-throw away from where I had taken up my quarters, and was impertinent enough to suggest that this was probably erected to the memory of that ex- cellent Governor and zealous innovator. Sir Thomas Cochrane, who ruled over the colony some seventy years ago. But I was mistaken. This pretentious shaft, THE TENTH ISLAND 23 exalted in the most prominent portion of the city, was to the memory of some humble individual who had rescued another humble person from drowning, a private act of valour ; whose memory, but for this memorial, would probably live enshrined only in the hearts of that humble person s relations and friends. During the fortnight I spent in St John's I was unable to pick out a more apt and striking illustration of the utter lack of imagination and perspec- tive which distinguishes the inhabitants than this monument standing there in its lonely significance before Government House. But the chrysalis already shows signs of bursting its shell, for one of the natives said to me — " I am beginning to think that it was a mistake to allow that poor fellow's friends to choose that site. It looks terribly parochial. Sure, it 's where the statue of the Queen herself ought to stand." Although there are numerous thoroughfares in the capital, there is only one street, and that is Water Street. I am moderately familiar with a hundred of the world's cities: and I have spent many hours in contemplating their meanness, their opulence, their beauties, and their uglinesses, but I am ready to back Water Street of the fish capital to be the most amazing of them all. Though ill-paved, ill-kept, and running parallel to the wharves, it attracts all the com- merce and fashion of the town. If you can I 24 THE TENTH ISLAND 11 imagine Lower Thames Street, Billingsgate, with Oxford Street and Pall Mall all bundled together, with a bit of the Mile End Road thrown in, you will form a fair conception of this singular avenue. Possibly the St John's people will one day arrive at a sense of its incongruity, and con- trive that a new fashionable shopping street shall be instituted in the more select portion of the town. I spoke of Water Street attracting all the commerce and fashion of the town. If Newfoundland is St John's, then St John's is Water Street. The great merchants here ^re the descendants and legatees of the English mer- chant-adventurers of ancient days. Their estab- lishments are huge general stores of the Hudson's Bay Company pattern, devoid of pretensions to beauty, either within or without. To the eye accustomed to the order and neatness of Whiteley's or Wanamaker's shops, there seems, probably or the surface only, an absence of form and method. Slippers are mysteriously dragged out of biscuit boxes, and barrels conspicuously labelled flour are found upon inspection, and often to the obvious astonishment of the clerk, to contain corsets. The interior of several such establishments I visited struck me more as factories or warehouses than as shops. Yet so they have been conducted almost for centuries, doling out to the fisherman the necessaries of life (and a few luxuries) and receiving in return his THE TENTH ISLAND 25 quintals of cod. Undoubtedly the business trans- acted is immense. One firm turns over to the value of some three million dollars annually. A million and a half is handed over the counters of another. At the farthest extremity of Water Street, at the head of the harbour, is perhaps the chief of St John's public works — the dry dock, which is capable of accommodating all but the very largest steamers afloat. It is 600 feet long, 83 feet broad, with a depth of 25 feet on its sill at low water. It was opened in 1884, and cost nearly 600,000 dollars. Chief among the architectural beauties of the city are the two Cathedrals, with the Bishop's palace, St Bonaventure's College, and a Convent. The capital also boasts a public Museum, in which are stored and arranged a very creditable collection of minerals, relics, and stuffed animals pertaining to the island. The curator and official geologist, Mr Howley (the brother of the Archbishop), I found to be an acute and highly capable gentleman. The Newfoundlander is very proud of his Newfoundland dog; and it is a pity that the admirable local museum does not possess one or two specimens — stuffed. For there are no live ones — at least very few. I was told that when the Prince of Wales was here in 1860, a superb specimen was presented to His Royal Highness ; but even then the best " 26 THE TENTH ISLAND breeders and fanciers had removed to England. Newfoundland itself can take little credit for the superb and now almost extinct animal associ- ated with her name. It was a happy accident — a cross, I believe, between a mastiff and a spaniel or setter. But it was not about dogs, but about goats, that the capital was exercised just prior to my visit. The goat is a virtuous quadruped. He cleaves to the poor, and he has a habit of in- creasing. He has also other habits — such as roaming at large, and taking an unfair advantage of unoffending pedestrians. So that now the Municipal Council of St John's have fallen foul of this animal, and shipped him off into the wildernesses of the interior, indemnifying the owners at 3 dols. a head. Several sportsmen returning from the Exploits river region report meeting a shivering herd of these unfortunate creatures there, who, should they survive the winter, will be added to the list of game which inhabit the island. .A CHAPTER III Politics run high in Newfoundland, and they run all the time in St John's. " If Newfoundland ever conies into the Dominion," the l^tc Sir John Macdonald used to say, " we shall never be able to find places enough for them. They eat too much fish." The lamented Premier was wrong as to the diet of the Newfoundlanders, but right as to the number of place-hunters. There is more fish eaten in St Giles parish on a Saturday night than there is in a week in St John's. The Newfoundlander of the outports — the name given to every coast settlement out de the capital — lives much more largely on salt pork or dried beef than on fish. There are two parties — the Liberals and Conservatives — and I have the authority of that genial and accom- plished judge and historian of Newfoundland, Mr Prowse, for saying that so far as the char- acter of their public men is concerned, there is "not a pin to choose between them." On the great national issues, such as that of the French Shore question and the St Pierre smuggling question, they are as one man. And, very curiously, it was the Conservatives, or 27 28 THE TENTH ISLAND Merchants' party, that granted the boon of manhood suffrage to the island at large. But all political parties, whatever their devia- tions and subsequent character, have fundamental principles. To arrive at the fundamental prin- ciples of the Merchants' party one must go back to that period, extending over three centuries, when settlement was systematically discouraged for the benefit of Bristol, Plymouth, and Barn- staple. The profits still, in the main, find their way to the old country — the funds of the local capitalists go to England or the United States. ThejcQlfifiy is sucked dry. Local capital is rarely invested here: the great field for local philanthropy in the way of public charities, public institu- tions, and public churches is unoccupied. Rich deposits, according to the testimony of ex- perts, of copper, of iron, of coal, and of gold stand begging for capital simply because the foreign capitalists are inclined to rate the country no better than the home capitalists rate it. In the course of a talk I had with a member of the Merchants' party, he stated his attitude fervently and succinctly. " Newfoundland began with fish, and we must go on with fish. It is good enough for us. If we want to invest in mines, there are plenty elsewhere. They may be no better or no worse THE TENTH ISLAND 29 than Newfoundland mines; but there must be no clashing of interests." The merchants, however, although holding the wealth of the country, are a small section numerically. Therefore, the spokesmen of the party to which they belong do not make too much of this argument. They even take it upon themselves to deny it. But the great fact remains that the great railway just being completed across Newfoundland was built in the very teeth of the Merchants' party, and that it is being operated by a Montreal capitalist. The merchants had formerly great political power and influence with the masses of the fishermen ; but they lost this when they con- ferred upon them the boon of the secret ballot. The masses now vote fearlessly for whom they choose — and naturally against their masters. Party feeling is apparently very bitter, but I strongly suspect much of this bitterness is on the surface. But, real or apparent, it is sedu- lously fostered by the three daily papers of St John's, two of which belong to the Opposition. For whatever scurrilities and discreditable personalities the Western American press is famed, I have yet to see the prints, either in Texas, Arizona, or Colorado, which can at all approach the delicious blackguardism of those three St John's newspapers. Every day when I took up my Herald or X 30 THE TENTH ISLAND Daily Xckh I would find HontoiiccH directed ngainst the Gove-'ninont, in the following amiable vein : — "The Whiteway party is a shameless gang of boodlers, rogues, and jobbers. The citizens are sick of them and their ringleader." "The generous and peace-loving citizens of Newfoundland are at the mercy of moral cut- throats and assassins. But the time of retribu- tion is at hand ; and the knees of Morris, Bond, and Whiteway were seen to tremble with a consciousness of guilt as they strolled along Water Street yesterday." Yet the Herald^ by the way, is edited by the very talented yoang gentleman who acts as correspondent for the London Times sr leading American newspapers, and thus may .aid to stand sponsor for the colony to the outside world. The Telegram^ being the Whiteway organ, naturally voices the virtues of those in office ; while attributing at the same the worst motives to their antagonists. One of my first calls was upon the Premier of the colony. Sir William Whiteway. The name of this gentleman is not altogether unfamiliar in England. For thirty years he has been a factor in the island's politics. He is rather a handsome, bearded man, whom I might readily have mistaken for Sir Walter Besant had I seen him coming down Chancery Lane into the i THE TENTH ISLAND 31 Rtraiul. Ho is not a native of Ncwt'oundhind, but was born in Devonshire. It must not be forgotten that Newfoundland itself is largely an offshoot of Devon. I could detect nothing of the professional politician about Sir William. He talked at first very keenly about shooting cariboo and catching trout. He is a keen sportsman ; and his sunny personality made me comprehend at once the hold he has on the masses of the islanders — a hold that no amount of calumny can loosen. "What are the colony's prospects, Sir William?" I asked. "We have emerged from the shadow," he replied. "The crisif- is over, and signs of pros- perity are on every hand. Newfoundland is about to be opened up to the world. Ten years ago we were a coast line — now we are a coun- try; and the railway across the island, which for twenty years I have striven for, is now within thirty miles of completion. Our mines of copper, of iron, of coal, and of gold are forcing themselves on the attention of Europe. Oil has been found in great quantities, and is now being worked. Everything, especially the railway, fills us with confidence." Knowing that the Premier had been, in principle at least, a firm believer in union with Canada, "What about confederation, Sir WiUiam ? " I asked. !? i 32 THE TENTH ISLAND "That is shelved for the present. We wanted to come in two years ago, but the Canadian Government would not agree to our terms." "What were those terms?" I asked. "Their assumption of our public debt of 16,000,000 dollars, contracted chiefly in building our great railway. They were ready to assume 10,000,000 dollars only, and the negotiations fell through. Had Sir Charles Tupper, instead of Sir Mackenzie Bowell, been at the head of affairs, we might have been a part of Canada to-day." "Do the masses of Newfoundland favour confederate* on ? " "No; I do not think they do. As yet the majority is against it; but the benefits result- ing from the confederation are so apparent to the thinking men, that that majority is dwind- ling daily. Understand, it has never been made a party question. When our credit was ruined in 1894, we took the issue in our own hands. It was either confederation, reversion to a Crown colony, or a European loan. We secured the loan, and the crisis passed. I may add the bonds of the colony are now at par." The Premier has one sore spot: it is his in- tense dislike and distrust of newspapers. Some of his experiences have been so exceptional that one can readily comprehend and even condone his bitterness. Considering the sources of New- foundland news which has hitherto been sent THE TENTH ISLAND 33 ^ to the English newspapers, I promised the Premier to record the following utterance : — "There are," he said, "five species of state- ment regarding thjs colony against which I wish to warn the British reader. They are the absurdly exaggerated, the utterly ridiculous, the genial fabrication, the ignorant falsehood, and the malicious lie. As much harm is done this colony through mistaken zeal as through malice." The leader of the Opposition — i.e. the Con- servatives — is Mr Morine, an undeniably able lawyer — the legal ferret of Newfoundland — whose governing puiposc seems to lie in the direction of a betterment of his political fortunes. He emigrated a few years ago from Halifax, and has since tried in vain to enter Dominion politics, under the wing of Sir Charles Tupper. This goes far to explain the bitterness of the term " alien " as applied to him, for the Newfoundlander is nothing if not parochial. With a rud^, ignpr- "*aV ant popyj^tion to appeal to, Mr Morine is not always the Mr Morine of his own drawing- room ; and even the niceties of political eti- quette are not always rigidly adhered to. The thing for the stranger to do is to know the situation, and then he might be at Exeter Hail for anything he would find startling or offensive. " You 're a low, dirty blackguard," vociferated the Opposition leader to a man who interrupted him at a meeting I attended in the British Hall \ ssmsmm 34 THE TENTH ISLAND "You're a low blackguard yourself," retorted the int< rupter. Both statements were thought sufficiently interesting to applaud. Before this meeting, Mr Morine told me that he intended bringing a charge against the Whiteway Government of giving away two and a half million acres of public land to the contractor who had built the railway. An elector had said to him that if this charge were true, he himself would take down his sealing gun and shoot Sir WiUiam Whiteway and Mr Bond. The charge was brought, but it fell rather flat. It was plain these men were fishermen, not land-lubbers. Sir William might give half the island in fee simple to the Emperor of China: it was all the same to them. The facts are, however, that land in the interior is worth about thirty cents an acre. Any settler can go and procure uncleared land in any quantities at this figure. Mr Reid, the contractor, agrees to operate the new road for ten years, and to take land in lieu of cash. The cost of operating the line is estimated at 100,000 dols. a year. If anyone with an earth-hunger wants land to-morrow, Mr Reid will dispose of any part of his property on precisely the same terms as he received it. Mr Bond is the Colonial Secretary, an office corresponding to the American Secretary of State. Ke, with Mr Morris and Mr Horwood, is f THE TENTH ISLAND 35 of ice of .is among the youngest and most cultured of the governing class. He is the gentleman who came to England and negotiated the loan of some 3,000000 dols. when the colony was in sore straits in 1895 — ^just after the failure of its Banks. There is no doubt that this Bank crash was due to gross mismanagement; but, in spite of repeated charges and counter-charges, I do not believe that any public officials were crimin- ally culpable. Yet I should not be surprised to discover that " Who broke the Banks ? " were yet made an election cry at the date of the next quadrennial election. My impression of all the Government officials — the so-called Whitewayites — is that they are ambitious men, who, nevertheless, have the interests of the colony at heart, who are doubt- less bent on doing their duty, but who suffer much from an anomalous system of conducting public aflPairs, as veil as from the absence of a more numerically equal Opposition. This anoma- lous system is the result of the sparse settlement of the island, which leaves work usually under- taken by local boards to the member for the district, who himself makes grants out of the public moneys. The Opposition availed them- selves of this in 1^, to bring charges of cor- ruption, which temporarily unseated the White- wayites. Albeit, they soon returned to office, in the language of the judiciary, "without a stain on their characters." V 86 THE TENTH ISLAND Commerce in the colony learnt a salutary lesson from the commercial dehdcle of 1894. The chief cause of that disaster was beyond question the "vicious and dangerous system of banking on which for years the business of the country had been conducted." Before the crash came it was the easiest thing in the world to obtain credit, even to the extent of hundreds of thousands of dollars, and naturally advantage was taken of this by firms who were hopelessly entangled in debt. An inflation of trade was the result : and the capital of two Banks soon exhausted. Yet business went on, and the community suspected nothing, until one morning the Union and Com- mercial Banks stopped payment. As their notes constituted the entire currency of the colony and were held by everybody — high and low — a panic was inevitable. There being no money to pur- chase goods, shops and places of sale were de- serted, and shortly afterwards began to announce their insolvency. But the worst was to come. A run on the Savings' Bank — a Government insti- tution — began, and then the moral and pecuniary depression of the colony was at its lowest ebb. But the situation, sad as it was, had been inevit- able for years : and even now there was supplied the element of humour. No sooner did the news of the island's distresses reach Halifax and Mon- treal than several young men began flying across intervening land and sea, in a terrible anxiety to \ THE TENTH ISLAND 37 reach the fish capital ahead of their rivals. In a comparatively few hours after the " Black Monday " crash the citizens were startled to see the shutters of no less than three hitherto un- tenanted offices down and placards severally inscribed : Bank of Montreal. Now OPEN FOR Business. Notes discounted Here. Bank of Halifax. Now Open. Mortgages Transacted. Bank of Nova Scotia. Deposits Received. Etc., Etc. The condition of the two defunct Banks was, on examination, found to be hopeless. The only excuse that can possibly be alleged for their directors is that, Uke Micawber, they were wait- ing for " something to turn up " — some rise in the fish markets, or some other lucky chance which would lift them out of the mire of in- solvency. While they waited the Government was induced to lend them money out of the Savings' Bank, little suspecting, of course, their true status. 38 THE TENTH ISLAND The three before-mentioned Canadian Banks have now probably replaced permanently the defunct institutions, the Savings' Bfxnk has again been rendered safe by Government, credit has been restored, and a blow has been dealt the pernicious credit system, by the improved bank- ing methods introduced by the Canadian Banks. After each visit I paid to the Provincial build- ing, I remarked a numerous body of fishermen and nondescripts loitering in the vicinity. They were dressed in every conceivable shape and style of garment, with some quite inconceivable details as to fit, colour, and patch, with tanned, whiskered countenances, and chewing tobacco, for the most part. These, I was informed, were influential electors come up to demand work and favours. Rough, hardy, and unlettered mariners these, who had smelt of politics from afar, and seemed to have acquired a zest for the banquet. And so they came up, and chewed and spat on the Ionic porticoes and exchanged stories of marine adventure, patiently waiting until they could unfold their grievances or their demands to the "skipper," as Sir William is called. For they are "afther having nothing else in the world to do." As I called to pay my respects at Government House I was struck by the beauty of the country about me, as far as eye could reach. Who would have believed this was Newfoundland ? The roll- THE TENTH ISLAND 39 ing lands were bathed in the sunshine of Italy, and studded with trees and houses, and inter- sected with picturesque brooks and fine roads. Pursuing my path, I caught a glimpse by the wayside of a finely-built, ruddy, white-bearded gentleman in a tweed cap toiling resolutely with a shovel. It was the Governor, Sir Herbert Murray, ICC.B. I CHAPTER IV f W I I !1 i Parochial as it is, the Tenth Island boasts an Upper Ten. The judges, lawyers, merchants, and higher grade public officials constitute the aris- tocracy, if so it can be called, of the colony. These are so inter-married and connected socially or commercially that, as was observed at the time of the Bank crash in 1894, " to touch one reaches all." But this is only true in part and of late, for the merchant, like the merchant- adventurer, even when he condescended to reside in the colony, which, in truth, was not often, held strictly aloof from the rest of the community. The reason is not difficult to seek. Newfound- land was merely a means to an end: and he distrusted the ability of her inhabitants to support that distinction with equanimity. No country feels flattered at being regarded as a means to an end. He credited them with de- signs on his purse in the shape of railway communications, general enlightenment, and the fostering of industries not connected with his own. Little by little there has developed a class, small indeed as yet, of the well-to-do who look at Newfoundland as their home and that of their children; and with the spread of this 40 i THE TENTH ISLAND 41 class the public spirit and well-being of the capital and of the island will advance by leaps and bounds. Of course all society in St John's revolves about Government House; but the functions which have their centre here Rie unfortunately the tamest possible affairs, and by no means calculated to allay that thirst for luxury and excitement which youth and beauty even in St John's experience. Government House, in however remote a colony, should be a great and splendid refining influ- ence—a sort of branch court of Buckingham Palace or Windsor Castle, where the latest topics of art, and politics, literature, fashion and the drama might be interchanged; and where even the most untravelled and insular might snatch something of that grace of culture, that gospel of good-breeding which make London and Paris delightful places to live in. But to accom- plish this, ever so slightly, requires money and — a hostess. Fancy Sir Francis and Lady Jeune set down for five years in St John's. Figure to your- self this pair — chosen at random — the dual personification of hospitality, tact, and, I might add, munificence — how they would galvanise the social energies of the colony — arouse it^ best and most admirable qualities in a way that religion itself is powerless to do. For, the reader must be informed that although Government House is the nominal high temple of society, its altar is 42 THE TENTH ISLAND really in the Cathedral. To this altar — and when the pulpit is occupied by youthful and comely vicars and curates, to say nothing of bishops, it is no mean shrine — the belle of St John's brings her most spiritual thoughts and her prettiest frocks. St John's, barring a few Scotch and Asiatic communities — is the most religious town on earth. There is more religion here to the square inch than in any place I have ever visited. It is a curious fact that when any society, through lack of exhilarating outlook, is driven to prey upon itself, it invariably turns won- drously religious. In its faith, and in the beau- tiful visions which that faith conjures up, it appears to find all the solace and entertainment it requires. For a long time, when the country is barren and the horizon dull, it refuses any bliss that is not born of religion. It was so, and is so largely yet, in Scotland, but not so much as some of its novelists would have us believe. But let the hand of man wrest from Nature her charms, let smiling fields and green pastures appear on her bosom, and men reach Art by the pathway of Nature. Banish both Art and the beauties of Nature, and the world is a prison-house. Newfoundland has probably produced hundreds of painters and poets and musicians ; but, unfortunately, their talents have all been stifled by the spirit of their THE TENTH ISLAND 43 environment. It has produced thousands of beautiful women and graceful men ; but the spell of the cod-fish is over all, and boorishness and uncomeliness soon supplant beauty and grace. I visited the studio of a native artist, a lady, who had just returned after many years' absence in Scotland — and I must say this lady's work delighted me by its freshness and skill. But she seemed to shrink from native subjects as a pre-Raphaelite would shrink from a stereotype; yet surely a great opportunity awaits her in portraying the singu- larly beautiful scenery and picturesque human types of her native land. The two denominations — that of the Church of England and the Roman Catholics — run each other hard for precedence in the capital, as in the isla'^d ; but I believe there is comparatively little proselytism. The clergy have charge of the entire educational system of the island, all attempts to establish an undenominational establishment having failed. More than that, they are entrusted with whatever form of secular entertainment . or diversion with which even the better classes beguile themselves. St John possesses no theatre; but it is doubtless unaware of any deprivation: for one of the most delightful chai-ms of its people is their total inability to perceive that their city is any wise lacking in culture, u THE TENTH ISLAND beauty, or equipment. I do not think I have ever known a society freer from intro- spection and fault-finding. It is only among the very young that a spirit of unrest occa- sionally creeps out; but age and a perpetual consciousness of futility soon represses this spirit, if it does not lead them to join the larger life of Canada or the United States. Here then we have the prospect of a Celtic- Saxon community, strong of mind, body, and moral and spiritual purpose, at the eve of the twentieth century slowly developing itself according to the canons of the past. Mails are seldom, and correspondents rare. Immigration having ceased many years ago, the ties with the outside world are slender. Even when they exist, the Newfoundlander seems to be conscious of an inferiority which he cannot explain, and which makes him shrink within himself. The outports turn to St John's for social comfort and inspiration and the capital feasts upon itself. The result is a social — nay, even a moral — dyspepsia. In an English provincial town one occasionally ( ncounters a great deal of gossip, of scandal, of petty slander. It is worse in the colonies; but in St John's, I am grieved to say, this spirit achieves a triumph. On the day following my arrival, the Daily News con- tained the following advertisement in a pro- minent place: — -It THE TENTH ISLAND 46 "As a large number of people in this city are given to gossip concerning my actions and personal affairs, I hereby give notice that on and after this date I intend lying on my right side instead of my loft as heretofore. (Signed) "Reuben Wall." That this spirit should characterise an other- wise hospitable, amiable, and even cultured people, I ascribe in large part to a lack of opportunity on the part of the colonists to make themselves acquainted with what is hap- pening from day to day in the great outside world. Will it be believed when I say that, although Newfoundland is a great centre or terminus of many Atlantic cables — that at Heart's Content thousands upon thousands of words and messages are passing and repassing on their way to London and Paris, New York and Chicago, Boston and Montreal — barely a word of this does the colonist see or hear. The deaf Cinderella holds the trumpet to her ear while speaks the wit and the commerce, the statesmanship and the art of two hemi- spheres, and wistfully wonders what it is all about. The world of civilisation palpitates with all that goes to make up our golden nineteenth - century heritage, and the genial current speeds to the Newfoundland shores; but by a whimsical fortune the cold rock alone feels its contact. cec^')f HIP* Ti 46 THE TENTH ISLAND ''yhile enlightened public opinion is daily warm- ing the heart and minds of 200,000,000 of people, the daily papers of St John's are busy calling each other " thieves " and " liars," " boodlers " and "sharks," and it is over this feeble flicker of recrimination that the inhabitants are expected to warm themselves. The Governor of the Island, Sir Herbert Murray, K.C.B., is a widower. Anyone talking to him for five minutes must perceive that he has both great strength of character and execu- tive ability, but that, as an Englishman who has spent his career at home in the Customs, / he fatally misunderstands the colony, its needs, and, more emphatically, its politics. Indeed, the Governors of Newfoundland con- tinue to be, as they have been in the past, amiable gentlemen of advanced years, to whom the last idea that presents itself is a mingling with the politics of the island, a staunch support of their own Ministry, or a championship of the colony against the encroachments of the Foreign Office. Newfoundland has the veriest shell of self- government: the kernel she never tasted. CHAFTER V Newfoundland is maligned as to fogs. Be that «i8 it may, there is a fog, not a physical one — lowering, opaque, and impenetrable --- a fog beside which the November blacknesses c. London are but thin June mists. It has settled down over tho island; it is called the French shore question. To begin with, there exists a misapprehension as to the geographical situation of the fisheries themselves. The French fisheries are two altogether dis- tinct affairs. The one is the fishery on the Banks of Newfoundland, the other that which is undertaken on that portion of the Newfoxind- land coast commonly called the " French shore." The fishing-grounds on the Banks lie along to the southward of the island, covering a, great area, and distant from the coast of the colony about thirty miles at the nearest point. To these Banks — which are in effect huge sub- marine islands — the fishermen of France, Canada, America, and Newfoundland resort during the fishing season. These fishing-grounds are on the "high seas"; and therefore subject to the jurisdiction of no country or nation in partica- 47 48 THE TENTH ISLAND lar. The Grand Banks are common property. With this fishery, therefore, the treaty business has no direct concern whatever. Its connection with Newfoundland is only in the fact that there exists on the south coast of Newfound- land a couple of islands called St Pierre and Miquelon, which form an entire and separate French colony, inhabited by an almost exclu- sively French population. From these islands the Bank fishing is prosecuted by the French in vessels, of which some come to St Pierre in the spring from France, and others are owned, kept, and fitted out in St Pierre. To these islands, for the purpose of curing and drying, the French fishermen bring the fish which they catch on the Banks. In the port of St Pierre, until recently, the French banking fleet have been accustomeii to procure the greater part of their necessary supplies of bait, consist- ing of small fish taken by Newfoundland fishermen in the bays and harbours of New- foundland adjacent to St Pierre. This bait is carried to the latter place by Newfoundland fishing craft, and sold to the French. These two little French islands — the sole rem- nant of France's sovereignty in North America —are 140 miles distant from the nearest point ^' j of the so-called " French shore." The fishing- '^ grounds to which the French fishermen resort on the Banks are about 100 miles from the THE TENTH ISLAND 40 rica same point, so that the reader will perceive that, geographically, as well as diplomatically, the French "rights" and "claims" on the New- foundland coast have no real connection or relation whatever with the large and important business of the French fishery on the Banks, or with the French occupation or government of St Pierre and Miquelon. The Bank fishery, for which St Pierre is merely a basis of operations, is, as already stated, the common property of all nations, with which the treaties have nothing to do. Yet, notwithstanding this, there has arisen latterly a very important connection — entirely unforeseen when the treaties were made — be- tween the French claims on the "French shore" of New^Dundland and the Bank fishing from St Pierre. But this is another branch of the muddle. It is as well to take one thing at a time. The position of Newfoundland is unique among the colonies: although "daughter in her mother's )use," she is by no means "mistress \\^ in her own." While the sovereignty of the e tire territory is vested in Great Britain, a t]iH'aty with the French was made in 1713, under wh ch their fishermen were granted fishing privileges along something more than half the coast of the colony. So far, so good. The island was unsettled. Nobody cared whether D I y 50 THE TENTH ISLAND the French did or did not fish ofip the shore, or whether or not they occupied the shore after- wards for the purpose of drying their catch. But times changed. The treaty shore became by degrees settled by resident English fishermen; and for a century or so the EngHsh and the French pursued their vocation side by side. At last, the English settlers, discovering that the French were becoming more numerous than desirable, and believing that the island belonged to them as subjects of Great Britain, took occasion, when a British warship steamed alongside the shore, to appeal to its commander for protection. Wherever they laid their nets, they said, or established drying sheds, the French demolished them. The admiral looked over his instructions, landed his marines, who promptly took up more nets and tore down more sheds of the English! The native fisher- men remonstrated. "This land and these waters belong to us," they declared. "Exactly," retorted the naval authorities; "for six months of the year — that is, from November to May — they are yours; but by the treaty of 1713 the French practically possess both for the remaining months." "But that is precisely our fishing season!" "The treaty explicitly says the French fisher- i\ men must not be interrupted. If your own % V y THE TENTH ISLAND 51 us, |"for iber [y ^^ the sher- own (\ V fishing ojierations interrupt him, you must move on. This is the French interpretation of the treaty ; and the British Government has, I regret to inform you, acquiesced in that interpretation. Our instructions are, in effect, *Keep the peace between the French and the English. Protect the English if you can; go as far as possible in the assertion of their rights, but you must draw the line somewhere, and draw it at that point, wherever it may be, when danger of serious trouble with the French begins. And do not go beyond that limit, even though your holding back may involve hard- ship or injustice to the colonist; for if we are driven to choose between offending the French and neglecting to care for the colonist, the colonist must go to the wall.'" This proceeding fell like a thunderbolt on the unfortunate colonists, the efforts of whose "village Hampdens" had at last, after a struggle of 150 years, succeeded in obtaining something like justice from the Mother Country, and in wresting from her reluctant parent the most elementary freedom and local government. Those brave spirits, who throughout every hardship had striven to advance the island's prosperity, and to place it on the plane of its sister North American colonies, were chagrined and disheartened beyond measure. For the line of coast comprehended by the wmmmmmmmmm 52 THE TENTH ISLAND fj aforesaid treaty (or rather treaties, for there were four at different times between the two Governments) extends from Cape Ray, at the south-western extremity of the island, around the western, northern, and north-eastern shores to Cape St John, as will be seen by consulting the map. This territory is, in respect of soil, climate, forest, and mineral wealth, undoubtedly the most superior portion of Newfoundland. By these treaties it has been practically closed to settlement; and this fertile and promising West Coast, which would have been occupied by fishermen, farmers, lumbermen, and miners in great numbers, by factories, villages, and towns, is in this year of grace 1897 a region literally uninhabited. Newfoundlanders are thus excluded from the fairer half of their own territory. Confined to the eastern and less desirable portion, they may, with the assurances of the English Government that all will yet be "satisfactorily adjusted," gaze longingly, like the Israelites, upon the Promised Land, an innocuous proceeding — one may rea- sonably hope still sanctioned by the French. The Treaty of Utrecht, ratified in 1713, stipu- lates that the island of Newfoundland should belong of right wholly to Great Britain; that it shall be allowed to the subjects of France "to catch fish and dry them on land on that part only of the coast" defined in the treaty, THE TENTH ISLAND 53 rea- 1. itipu- lould that ance that eaty, and that it shall not be lawful for the subjects of France to fortify any place in the said island, or to erect any buildings there besides stages made of boards and huts necessary and usual for drying of fish, or to resort to the said island beyond the time necessary for fishing and drying of fish. Another treaty in 1783 provided that the French fishermen should not be "interrupted" in their labours by the English fishermen. The next treaty dealing with i,ae French on the subject of Newfoundland was that of Paris, 1763. Therein was renewed and confirmed the previous treaty, with the following article: — "The King of Great Britain cedes the islands of St Pierre and Miquelon in full right to His Most Christian Majesty, to serve as a shelter to French fishermen; and His Most Christian Majesty engages not to fortify the said islands, to erect no buildings upon them but merely for the convenience of the fishery, and to keep upon them a guard of fifty men only for the police." En passantf it is significant to note that these conditions have been entirely disregarded by the French, who have made St Pierre a colony and erected defences and buildings of all kinds. The Treaty of Versailles, 1783, was in con- firmation of previous treaties, and in addition, a Declaration was attached to this treaty, by which His Britannic Majesty, "in order that •- ■?? mm 54 THE TENTH ISLAND the fishermen of the two nations might not give cause for daily quarrels," engaged to "take the most positive measures for preventing his subjects from interrupting in any manner by their competition the fishery of the French during the temporary exercise of it which is granted to them upon the coast of the island of Newfoundland; but he will for this purpose cause the fixed settlements which shall be formed there to be removed." This was quite in keeping with England's traditional throttling policy towards her first- born colony. The Treaty of Paris, 1815, confirmed the pre- vious arrangements, and no modification or alteration has since been made. So long as the French shore remained un- settled it was really not worth while for the Quai d'Orsay to bother if^s head about the matter. France sent her fishermen to the Grand Banks, away to the i30uth-east of New- foundland, where the fishery was infinitely more profitable. Indeed, had the treaty shore become settled without some discordant agency, some fermenting spirit, we should have heard little or nothing of the terrible French shore question. But as the coast became dotted with villages an old controversy as to whether the Frentjh fishing privileges were concurrent or exclusive 'i 'M THE TENTH ISLAND 55 was revived. Nobody could see exactly why it was revived; the sovereignty of the island seemed securely vested with the British; the French had nothing to gain by coming so far for their fish when they were debarred from settling on the territory, or even permitted to remain after a certain date each year. The British might have revived, too, the theory that when the adjoining islands of St Pierre and Miquelon were ceded to the French in 1763, it was under a distinct agreement that they should not fortify the place or station troops there, that no foreign ship should enter the port, and that an English commissary ^ should be allowed to reside in St Pierre. All -* four conditions have been violated: therefore the islands revert to the British. To support this revival of a doubtful inter- pretation, to say the least, the disputed shore must be fortified by greater numbers of French fishermen. But the shrewd, sturdy tribes from Brittany and the Basque Provinces could not be tempted to leave the Banks for the Treaty shore, even for the prospect of rubbing shoulders with the Englishmen. The opportunity was not one to be lost, and a bounty, therefore, amounting to a third of the market price of the fish, was ordered to be paid to the French fishermen. This bounty annually amounts to many thousands of pounds. The French mmm mm 56 THE TENTH ISLAND ^ Government pays it cheerfully. Its fishermen, armed by this bounty, are enabled to make Treaty shore-fishing profitable. That was only the beginning. The Quai d'Orsay determined to push matters to a con- clusion. They declared that, their rights being exclusive, it would no longer be possible for the colonist to fish at all in his own waters. This was bad enough, but the Note went on to say that the shore itself was theirs as well. A railway had just been projected — the survey was completed — the first sod cut. Downing Street was appealed to — the terminus would be in French territory. The British Liberal Government o ored the railway to be aban- doned. One reason advanced by the French I must not omit to record. It was delivered, besides, with great gravity. The screeching of the railway locomotive would frighten away the fish. Thenceforward no mills, no piers, no struc- tures of any kind were countenanced by the French, and the Newfoundlanders woke up one fine morning to find themselves called "foreigners" by M. Waddington, in his Note to Lord Roscbery, the Foreign Minister. The Ford-Pennell convention was Keld, but fizzled out without coming to terms on the question of exclusive or concurrent rights. The situa- THE TENTH ISLAND 57 tion then remained as before. Great Britain and France pounded away at each other, and Newfoundland got all the blows. This, also, as before. Driven in desperation to do something, the unfortunate colonists hit upon the catching and canning of lobsters. Here was a profitable industry, and one from which, by the very nature of the process, the French were de- barred. Lobsters may or may not be classed as fish to-day, but they were clearly not in the mind of the negotiators of these antiquated treaties. Moreover, how could the treaty privi- lege of "drying" be construed into "canning"? Such factories must be permanent buildings — with bricked boilers and corrugated iron roofs. By 1889 they were flourishing — sixty of these lobster factories. To their confusion, the French followed suit in the indu.-try. Lobster catching and canning they defined as fishing and drying, and the unscrupulous French agents clamoured for the removal of the British factories. The British admiral again came gallantly to the rescue of the French. . But the work of de- molishing the factories was suddenly inter- rupted. A strange and startling discovery was made : to wit, that the Act of Parliament empowering British naval officers to enforce these treaties had expired by virtue of its own provisions in ^oBsgmmmmm ■■9 58 THE TENTH ISLAND i i the year 1834 and had never been renewed. Wherefore, from that time forward, no legal authority had existed for the enforcement of the British Government's instructions to naval commanders upon the coast of Newfoundland. Downing Street, informed that these illegal enforcements had been going on for fifty-six years, was taken completely by surprise. Sir Baldwin Walker, the gallant British admiral, was sued in the courts, and mulcted in 5000 dollars, and at length, after much ado, an objectionable modus Vivendi was agreed upon. While it continues, no more lobster factories can be erected, and the colony has to put up with the loss of £40,000 a year. I spoke of a sinister agency at work some- where throughout the whole later French shore treaty business. I now purpose disclosing what — or more properly, who — that agency is. *>^ l\\ CHAPTER VI an And what is this sinister agency — this " worm i' the bud" of Newfoundland's progress. In the light of my further inquiries into the vexed French shore question of to-day, it con- tracts — the units become proportionate — its per- plexities fade away or fall into their proper places — the theme is shot with colour — and lol what was a Blue-book becomes a romance. What follows might be a chapter from Sue or Stevenson; it is actual fact. In a two-storey wooden house in St John's I have discovered the greatest diplomatist on earth. I take some pride in the quality of my discovery. France has had many clever spies and persuasive emissaries; but she has, I make bold to say, none more clever or persuasive than Mo nsieur C, Biballier des Isles. It should be understood that M. des Isles has been a great patriot all his life. From his entry into the Consular service, many years ago, he varied his official duties by reading the history of his nation, its conquests, and its defeats. Its conquests stirred his soul; its defeats pained and humiliated him. In the course of time M. des Isles was sent to 69 mrpvt 60 THE TENTH ISLAND Quebec — that once proud capital of the French North American dominions — and it was here that, marrying a lady of pronounced Anglo- phobe tendencies, a splendid scheme sprang into his brain. He declared he could no longer remain in Canada while it was under the British flag, and forthwith got himself trans- ferred to the little French colony of St Pierre, ofp the Newfoundland coast. Up to that mo- ment the French shore question had practically no diplomatic value. Let us^ be concise : Monsieur C. Riballier des Isles is the French shore question. This humble little gentleman, peacefully strol- ling the St John's streets, and invariably shown the outside of every official door, is the author of the whole wretched business. In 1883-4 all French diplomatic circles — nay, every man, woman, and child in France and her colonies — understood that "all the rights of France in Newfoundland were definitely and finally surrendered and completely extin- guished" by the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. M. Gambetta had admitted it. M. de Freycinet admitted it. It was left for one lonely little Consul in St Pierre to make the startling assertion that a good half of Newfoundland — our oldest colony — belonged to France. He returned home and laid the case before his superior officer. A week afterwards he was informed that M. de Freycinet had considered wmmm THE TENTH ISLAND 61 M. it " untenable." The Consul was politely ordered back to the post he had quitted. Then something happened to change the mind of the Government with regard to the scheme. It was laid before the Cabinet. The Cabinet were delighted. M. des Isles was sent out as a Consul to Newfoundland. Anything to make trouble with the British Government — anything to divert attention from certain ma- noeuvres of France elsewhere. His instructions were the vaguest imaginable, and amounted in effect to this : " We know nothing of this ques- tion. Make your own case, and, right or wrong, we will back you up." M. des Isles then went to Newfoundland — not in any official capacity — because the Newfound- landers refused to receive him — but as a French spy. Lest I be thought injudicious, I will state the exact language of Judge Prowse to me: — " The status of M. des Isles in this colony is that of a French spy." For eleven years this energetic little gentle- man has laboured to bring about unpleasant- ness between England and France. At one time it looked like war; had Newfoundland been in greater proximity to the Mother Country it would have been war. He has incited the colonists almost to rebellion against Great Britain, and has cost their Treasury and their merchants millions of dollars. H€» has w^ 62 THE TENTH ISLAND 11 1 \.. personally stirred up inoffensive French fisher- men to take advantage of "rights" which are impossible under the several treaties, and, in short, I have made only a plain statement of fact when 1 said that but for the existence of Riballier des Isles, the French shore question would not cause another diplomatic pang. M. des Isles is the avowed author of the following remarkable dictuin, which was laid before Lord Salisbury by the French Ambas- sador in 1890 : — " France preserved the exclusive right of fishing she always had. The right of France to the coast of Newfoundland reserved^ to her fishermen is only a part of her anciend*'^ sovereignty over the island which she retained in ceding the soil to England, and which she has never weakened or alienated." If M. des Isles was indefatigable before, thence- forward he became colossal. He travelled in- cessantly on the treaty coast. He talked with the fishing compatriots — he explained to them the situation, p,nd urged them to assume the "dog- in-the-manger policy " upon every opportunity. The British Government shuffled with its respon- sibility, and at length, by the fatal modus vivendi, agreed to disagree with the French Government. This was an evil move : for it gave some shadow of right to the French contention. A modus vivendi in such circumstances is but the feeble trick of a destitute statesmanship. y a I I ) THE TENTH ISLAND ea The Consul had asked for French warships to take up the nets and tear down the sheds of the English. On hearing, however, of the modus vivendi, he countermanded the request. The British warships would now perform the agreeable task. They did it, sorrowfully and reluctantly; but they did it, as I have already explained. They are doing it to-day. The objectionable modus vivendi continues; it is renewed from time to time; the impudent con- tention of the French grows with precedent. Last year, I am told, a Frenchman landed at the Bay of Islands. " Bay des Isles," he cried, raising his hat in the air. " At last — at last we have regained our own!" In England we should call Riballier a mis- chief-maker and a spy. In France the Govern- ment has jurt loaded him with decorations — he is an officer, and will soon be a commander in the Legion of Honour, and he has just been created Consul-General to Newfoundland. In person it is difficult to withold admira- tion from M. des Isles. He is a typical French detective — thin, yellow, and with the eyes of a ferret. His English is execrable; nothing escapes him — he is continually on the watch, and he strives to ingratiate himself with every- body. I approached him cautiously. " Will any solution be achieved of the French shore question?" I asked. p H THE TENTH ISLAND J i i i I "There is no qviostion," sententlously replied the quasi-Consul. "Then France is in tbo right?" " Parfaltement ! There is the treivty.'^ ♦ But which treaty?" "One will suffice. The modus vivendi will exist for centuries." "But suppose we abrogate the treaty?" The Consul smiled cynically, shrugging hi* shoulders. " You dare not. The business of your Govern- ment at present is to fulfil its obligations. But if you like, tear up the treaty, and put us out — if you can." "But will France not listen to terms? Will she not make a settlement on the basis of ex- change in return for St Pierre and the treaty rights? There is Dominica, for example." "Never. It is a matter of sentiment. This is the sole relic (with St Pierre) of our North American dominions. The case is this : You English have possession here of a house, and you have given us the right to occupy the parlour. We take you at your word. We are comfortable, and we intend to remain. But, sapristi! you English say, 'We do not like you there. You make too much noise. You hanuner against the wall; you destroy the furniture.' * Never mind,' we say, * it is ours to destroy. We are comfortable.' Ty suis, fy reste. No, you are THE TENTH ISLAND e5 wiso. Newfoundland is only one of your colonies. You cannot afford to be rash for her sake. No, Monsieur, you have your Empire to look after." " But," I ventured to observe, " the treaty coast will be built up, the French will be forced to retire." "We will see to that," responded Riballier; and thou he added, "I do not know what the New- foundland Government can have been about, iliHl II ban not made a milch cow of the British Govermnoiit on account of this question. But they are foolish ; they have not got a sou,'' On the whole treaty shore the French have 987 men employed in cod-fishiiig, and the total number of their fishing vessels on tlie coast is twenty-seven. In the lolister fishery they have 200 mej), and the value of their catch last season was about £30,000. To obtain this insignificant sum they umnpy a coast line of over btH) miles, and though iiwy have only certain concurrent lUhing rightn, they press thcHB so pertinaciously and aggressively that <^c»y have actually succeeded in occupying the best half of the island, and prevented hitherto the development of its rich natural resources. By the treaty they have no tarri torial rights whatever, but in maintaining choir fishing rights they keep up an incessant worry and uneasiness, and frequently endafl^^/ tiie B / .».-nw"«-»»»^™»w" 66 THE TENTH ^SLAND peace of two great nations. To France the treaty shore represents a loss, but whatever their nature they refuse to be bought out or to exchange it for territory elsewhere. One of the delegates to England in 1890, Mr Scott, Q.C., made the following statement to me: — "It is the clear and settled conviction of the whole people of the colony," said Mr Scott — "the result of law and better experience, and of a full knowledge of the whole subject — that upon no other basis than that of an entire extinguishment (of course upon some honourable and satisfactory terms) of French rights and pretensions in the colony of New- foundland can there be any solution of the difficulties which have now become so grave and acute. To no settlement of the French shore question which does not contain this as an essential basis will the colonists agree." England and her Ministers have persistently refused to acknowledge that the treaties con- vej^ed any exclusive right to the French; but what is a refusal that is not carried to the moraT length of an ultimatum ? When in 1886 France, fortified by England's evidently mod- erate attitude, again put forward its claims to exclusive rights, threatening to confiscate the gear of any that were found fishing on that coast, to disregard the jurisdiction of the 11 , .mw THE TENTH ISLAND err colonial magistrates, to prevent the working of mines, and to forcibly protect French fisher- men in taking salmon and lobsters as well as cod. Lord Rosebery, then Foreign Minister, re- sponded as follows: — "I have no desire to re-open the discussion on the numerous points in dispute; but I cannot refrain from deprecating more particularly the claim put forward by your Government to ignore during the fishing season the territorial jurisdiction flowing from the sovereign rights of the British Crown over the whole of the island of Newfoundland, expressly conferred by the thirteenth article of the Treaty of Utrecht ; nor can I pass in silence the reiterated assertion in your^oiote of an exclusive right of fishing on the part of the coast on which the French treaty rights exist. There can be no doubt that the inhabitants must not 'interrupt by their competition the French fishermen'; but Her Majesty's Government can hardly believe that the French Government could intend to apply to them the term * foreigner ' ; or to question the right of the colonists to procure the means of subsistence by fishing on their own coasts, so long as they do not interfere with the treaty rights of the French fishermen. Such a claim has no precedent in history; and would be not only repiigfiant to reasoii, but opposed to the practice of trade and to the i\ 68 THE TENTH ISLAND actual terms of the Declaration of Versailles,* which provide that the old methods of fishing 'shall not be deviated from by either party,' showing conclusively that the French right to the fishery is not an exclusive one." In 1889, when the lobster-canning episode to which I have alluded arose, the colonists be- lieved that the whole wretched business had been brought to a head. Surely the Imperial Government's apathy was now at an end. Burn- ing with zealous indignation, they despatched a delegation to England to lay their grievances before Parliament and the British nation. The (rovernmont seemed to lend a sympathetic ear; and the English press lent its outspoken support. The delegatoM returned to Nowfnundlnnd ; and the Ooveiinnent began a series ul' remonHJ I'fUKMtfi with France, who obstinately refused to budge 1^ inch from their position. Wearied by their pertinacity, the British Government olVered to submit the lobster question to arbitration. Herein the Mother Country roohniUMl without *The French hiew well how weak their cane w on the treaties, ho in all their official correspondence they fall back on the Declaration qf Oeorye III. in 1783 attached to the IVeaty of Vermilles, I haoa shoion under what fiuudiUent circtimstances that treaty fcas >nade. It was part of a treaty. K\nv it in a u>t (I recognised principle that a treaty and all its concomitants is abrogated by war. To make thcU declaration legal and binding upon the English Government, it should have been repeated in succeeding treaties, but it was never renewed. — D. W. Prowse. THE TENTH ISLAND 69 her colony — to whom she had given a solemn undertaking, under date of March 26, 1857,* to consummate no affairs relating to itself with- out the previous knowledge and sanction of its Legislature. For the French accepted arbitra- tion; and without consulting Newfoundland, the Imperial Governmont arranged with the French the before-mentioned modus vivendi. The re- sentment of the unfortunate colony knew no bounds. The Legislature, which opened March 6th, 1890, unanimously adopted r "solutions con- demning the modus vivendi; and mass meet- ings of the people denounced it in the strongest language. But Newfoundland's protest came too late : England had pledged herself to France ; and the arrangement went into operation to the colony's detriment, and in spite of its indignation. In the language of M. des Isles : Newfoundland is only one of our colonies ; we cannot afford to bo rush for her sake. We cannot even afford to |)H Just ni|(( honest for her sake. We have much IliHio l(ii[Hi( liilil work to look after elsewhere. A modus vivendi cannot, however, endure for over: especially Vt'lien it Ih cont-inued without the colony's moral consent. Nor can any intelligent pei'Hofi, on reviewing the case I have here but crudely presented, believe that any of the French pretensions to the island can endure. * The Tenth IsLandcrs vail this dacHiUnit thdr MfJQna Ghartit, The sigimfure appended to it ia "Jjeniy I iiliourhere." 11 CHAPTER VII Whatever may be the future of Newfound- land, she has had a past in the cod-fish. Amidst the direst pangs she has suffered of contumely and neglect, one friend — and one friend alone — has remained at her side, or, more properly speaking, at her coasts, with almost touching constancy. And now, they say, the cod-fish is leaving her. The cod finheries of Newfoundland are still the greatest in the worH; but they appertain, as I have shown, chie^ / to the Grand Banks. Newfoundland itself has long supplied Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Brazil with that most substantial and palatable product of the sea. Newfoundland has even her commercial tra- ditions. » » There used to be, in the '40's and '50's, a If deferential duty in favour of Spain, amounting to four shillings a quintal. For several years there were often sixty and seventy Spanish vessels loading fish in the port of St John's alone, and a large number at Harbour Grace. Many of these were slavers : you could see the ring-bolts in the hold, to which the wretched Africans were chained. Spanish onzos and 70 • THE TENTH ISLAND 71 Mexican dollars were then common, even to abundance, in the island. But the alteration in the tariflp, doing away with the preference given to Spain, ended this trade. When I had spent a week or so in the capital, I turned to the nearest outport where I could behold the "noble cod," us the Newfoundland writers term him, if not in all his glory, at least in all his degradation. A chaste Yankee writer observed that, of all animals, a dried cod-fish appeared to him the most "helpless and homely." Certainly the noble cod's relatioi would have difficulty in identifying him when the art of the fish-maker has put in its broader touches. As was to be expected, one hears a great deal of fish and fish-making outside St John's, Dvhere, indeed, the subject is slightly tabooed for its vulgarity; and to a stranger ear "fish- making " has a whimsical sound. But the fish - maker is a simple, not too skilful person, usually the wife, son, or daughter of the fisherman. The fisherman himself, pleased with his exploits and the extent of his catch, surveys their performances from the adjacent cottage — fortified by his bottle and pipe. There are a number of little square one-storey cottages jumbled together at the bottom of a high hill, looking very much as if they had rolled down from that eminence and not since r ]|i ■^'k. 'v^ >^'^.. w IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-S) A V ^ ^ r :-?o fe 1.0 I.I 144 B 28 ■ 50 "^" 6" 2.5 2.2 2.0 1.8 1^ IIIIIM llliil.6 ^ P^ <^ /i V 7. '/ A /A Hiotographic Sciences Corporation ^ \ ^. :\^ \ A^^ -«^ k %" ^ '% 33 WtST MAIN STREET WEBSTEir, N.Y. 14580 (716) S72-4503 ti "^tt'mmim ^•ift^^rt T ttm 3^ ^ f0^!mmMm \ m mmm T 72 THE TENTH ISLAND been straightened out, or even put right side up. In the vicinity of each is a strip of herb- age, upon which a goat browses ; while from an open window comes the robust squalling of an infant, and the pungent perfume of an odorifer- ous stew. Such is Quidi Vidi, a typical fishing village. Out into the water of the little harbour or inlet, which laps the rocky beach, are erected the stages at which the men land their fish, and where the scaled creatures are received by each of their families or helpers and subjected to the necessary processes of " splitting," " heading," and "salting." This accomplished, the decapi- tated cloven fish a,re dragged in their thousands to the "flakes" — rude scaffolds, covered with under-brush — and there spread out to dry. The surroundings are not unpicturesque„ Fantastic brown cliffs almost completely en- viron the spot. The little fishing-boats dance and caper in the green waters. A tiny white cascade tumbles over the rocks into the har- bour. An aged dame in a red shawl sits at the door of one of the cottages knitting. The arm of her son, a great burly fishermp.n, is on her shoulder. A glass of rum is in his hand (he has just offered me a similar glass, which I have lamely declined), and he is even more in the mood for talking than usual. "There'll be seventy quintals there," he says THS TENTH ISLAND 73 complacently; "allowing fifty fish to the quin- tal: and that'll make two hundred and ten dollars coming to me. But last season was a bad one, and I owe a hundred and fifty dollars to the 'planter' — so that I'll have a bare sixty dollars over and above. But ye '11 have your new shawl, mother; an' Katie yonder '11 have her caUco; an' I'll borrow a bit against the sealing time." And so t'lese tough, sturdy fellows live on, apparently from hand to mouth — unlettered themselves, knowing no horizon that is not bounded by a cod-fish wall, nor any pleasures that are not of the rudest and most primitive order. But their sons and daughters, during the winter time, are being taken in iiand by the prici^t, clergyman, or minister, and taught to road and write, and derive from chance books and papers an idea of that vast intellectual tur- moil that is going on thousands of miles away. The Newfoundland fisherman inhabiting a hundred such villages is, in sooth, a burly, un- couth personage, v/hose salvation lies in his brawn : for while he has been storing up physical energy, the rest of mankind has been wasting it; and that sinew and energy, unle&s I an much mistaken, will stand him or his descendants in very good stead when New- foundland's time comes. Although the returns for the last ten years if if ^T^^SS I 74 THE TENTH ISLAND / show, perhaps, a slight decrease in the amount of the annual catch, yet the authorities are slow to believe that the cod - fisheries are declining. Only each year it is plain the fisher- man is obliged to move farther afield for his fish. Once he could cast a line or net in his own bays and harbours within sight of his own cot, and drag up the cod by the hundreds. Now he must sail out to the Banks with the rest, or along to Labrador — worse luck! The reason for the vast sea harvest which has #^ for centuries centred about this island is most interesting. It seems that the Arctic current which flows past Newfoundland carries with it a vast slime — hundreds of thousands of tons of minute living matter, upon which the small crustaceans, annelids, and mollusca feed. In turn, these latter become the aliment of the vast schools of cod which are lying in wait for it there. It is strange, but true, that the Arctic seas and rivers, in spite of the great cold with which they are surrounded, contribute most abundantly to this supply of living slime. Un- less something like a con^'^ulsion of nature occurs, and this flood from the Pole is arrested, the fishermen cannot with every ordinary resource at their command cause any perceptible diminu- tion in the general supply of cod. Its annu- 1 average for eighty years has been about the same. THE TENTH ISLAND 76 Yet the apparatus for taking fish is greatly increased, besides being more efficient in every way, and there are thrice as many persons engaged in the industry as there were early in the century. Cod-traps, huge seines, nets, bultows, jiggers, are some of the implements introduced in recent times ; and the primitive hook and line of earlier times is used by a comparatively small number of fishermen. In the opinion of some of the natives, this stationary condition of the fishery, when one considers the new Labrador fields now at the disposal of the fishermen, is due to the "reckless and destructive modes of fishing, unrestrained ly any legal enactments, or proper rules and regulations," which have been practised for generations. Whether this view be just or not, there certainly could not have been any harm in placing the whole fishery of the island, as was done recently, upon a scientific basis. The destruction of young fish before reaching a reproductive age should certainly be prohibited; and the observance of " lose seasons," when the fish are spawning, insisted upon. At present the demand for dried cod-fish does not seem destined to fp.ll off. It could be considerably stimulated if there was any systematic effort made to introduce it into countries like Africa, or if the conditions of ^ I j: if i I' m 76 THE TENTH ISLAND the industry were characterised by that enter- prise and ability which marks other trades. But even if the universal consumption were increased, as I shall proceed to show, it would, under the economic conditions at present pre- vailing abroad, scarcely benefit Newfoundland. The totr.l value of the exports from the colony amount to something under 6,660,691 ^ dollars annually. The number of those engaged / in the fishery is about 55,000. The salmon, herring, and lobster fisheries are also carried on on the shores and bays of the island. The number of men engaged in the lobster factories is about 3400, and 1400 women. Norway, Newfoundland's nearest rival, exports annually 50,000,000 cod-fish. The aggregate annual catch of cod in these waters by French, American, Canadian, and Newfoundland fisher- men is estimated at 3,700,000 quintals. Allowing fifty fish to a quintal, the total number of cod would be 185,000,000. As "every bullet has its billet," so every one of this enormous number of cod-fish finds a stomach — and finding it empty, fills it. There is nothing so filling as cod-fish. The Roman Catholic countries alone spend a millio:^ pounds sterling annually in the pur- chase of Newfoundlard and Canadian cod-fish. If they turned Protestant to-morrow, and Lent and Friday fasts were abolished — Newfoundland THE TENTH ISLAND 77 would then be forced to find other markets for her staple product, or else to adopt a dif- ferent method in handling and exporting it. Dried cod would then be found to have had its day; and the era of fresh fish, which is the source of such vast wealth to Europe, would perforce begin. The product of the North Sea fisheries is worth sixteen millions sterling annually, the value of British fish alone being eight million pounds; yet strange to relate, apart from the oyster fishery, the whole deep- sea fisheries of America are well under three millions. England, with half the populatior, consumes three times as ^nuch fish as America. It is not that the American palate does not naturally relish a fish diet, but the facilities for carriage inland are so imperfect, and the price generally so high, that it has never be- come a food staple in anything approaching the same measure that it has in England. Judge Prowse of St John's has long been a believer in the establishment of a market for fresh cod in the American cities. " The old- fashioned plan of salting and drying the cod- fish must be abandoned," he says; "it is most absurd and wasteful to actually destroy two- thirds of a most valuable article of food in order to render the remainder uneatable. What we require is a new method of selling our fish in its most palatable form fresh." i 9 £-'i i I 1 1 f 1 i nd ^T 78 THE TENTH ISLAND ■ t There certainly seems a great future for New- foundland cod, salmon, and lobsters — if one con- siders the now increased facilities for trans- portation afforded by the new railway, and the price which these articles fetch in the island as compared with the ordinary quotations in fish-markets of New York. Salmon of a su- perior quality is valued at only five cents (2|d.) and lobsters fivepence a dozen. In New York salmon is from forty to fifty cents a pound, and lobsters from thirty-five to seventy-five cents apiece. We have only to compare these prices with those obtained in England — to con- trast the plenteousness of lobster, salmon, and trout with which the rivers, lakes, and bays of Newfoundland teem, in order to appreciate the opportunities which lie within the reach of the Tenth Island to secure p. place for its products even in Billingsgate Fish Market. Transporta- tion, if undertaken under favourable circum- stances, is only a matter of three or four days ; and when mutton is carried fourteen thousand miles, and fresh cod, mackerel, and oysters into Texas and Colorado — the capabilities of the cold storage system are instantly perceived. Even as matters stand, the Newfoundlanders assure us that their cod-fish has not really de- clined in value in communities where it is not brought into unfair competition with the bounty- fed product. On the contrary, it has advanced more than fifty per cent, within the laot twenty- THE TENTH ISLAND 79 five years. Under new and improved methods of cure and packing, in such communities it finds a readier market, and its flavour is declared finer than the Norwegian article. One might have travelled yesterday in Spain or Portugal and, in the most remote and primitive villages, have been regaled with a dish made from the prized baccalhao or curadillot as is still called from the Basques that which once swam inno- cently in Newfoundland waters, and was " split," "headed," "salted," and "dried" by Newfoundland swains and maidens. To-day it is all — or nearly all — French " bounty fish." The article known as "boneless cod-fish" is increasing in popularity: the manufacture of cod-liver oil is profitable ; the best glue is made from the skin of the cod, and a much-prized fertiliser is obtained from the bones and head. In short, every portion of the cod-fish can be put to a good and profitable use. To go through one of the great fishing establishments of St John's or the outports, is of itself a speedy education in the value and uses of the cod-fish. It is a pity the cod has not more picturesque personality. I could find it easier to write about him with enthusiasm. A sad neglect has overtaken the Newfound- land herring fishery. Otherwise the herring might have proved as profitable as it formerly did to the Dutch, whose city of Amsterdam 80 THE TENTH ISLAND ^ had a "foundation of herring bones." Herring is employed chiefly for bait; but they are to be had in inexhaustible quantities, and some £35,000 sterling worth is annually exported. The trouble with the herring industry is that the Newfoundlanders never took the pains in curing and packing that they should have done. Their product, therefore, has managed to obtain a reputation for inferiority, which an im- proved method is doing its bestt^i- putdpwn. W^ The canning of lobsters was a great success ^ from the start; and I believe the men engaged on the west coast in this industry are making money, and plenty of it. About two million one-pound tins were exported last year. In the old days the Newfoundlander stuck to his plain, dried cod with a blind devotion — neither viewing nor seeking anything further to enhance his fortunes. Even cod-glue and cod-fertiliser left him cold, and cod-liver oil stirred him to no more enthusiasm than it stirs in the nursery. Now he is just waking up from that lazy contempt which he felt for the herring, salmon, and lobster innovators: and the day may e\en come when he will merely hand over his catch of cod fresh to the merchant, and allow his wife and family, re- leased from arduous "salting" and "drying," to devote themselves to his and their moral and more assthetic welfare in the kitchen and garden. II t»t ' «» ••« o o i. it IS re bo n- 1. iSS Bd ag on ck Dn er [id [)il it g or s: le 'e- »> id i«^ f CHAPTER VIII Thomas Codlin is a " planter " of one of the out- ports. The title of his profession takes us back to the time when all the colonies were planta- tions and the colonists "planters." In person, Codlin is above the middle height, tan-visaged, and burly. He is not too particular about his dress, which is patched and weather-beaten, and he wears a beard ci la Terre-Neuve — i.e. unkempt and straggling. Mr Codlin is a capitalist on a small scale, and having through his clientMe some political influence, he has developed a taste for politics. As a matter of fact, Mr Codlin is . the "middleman" between the fisherman and ■^' the merchant. He takes his supplies — groceries, dry-goods, and fishing requisites — from the mer- chant in St John's, with whom he has a standing account, and doles out such suppHes from time to time in advance to the fishermen. For the fisherman as a rule lives a hand-to-mouth exist- ence ; and the product of a fair season, instead of enriching him, only leaves him just quits with our friend the planter. But this is not Mr Codlin's fault ; indeed, he is for ever declaring it to be his misfortune. " Rich, Jim Bate ? Come, man, don't talk like a fool. How d'ye s'pose I'm going to make money with such seasons as the last two, an' F 81 I I ^" 82 THE TENTH ISLAND tho price o' fish what it is? I've got mor'n twenty bad debts on my books, and who d'ye s'pose supports Houligan and Briggs, what have been hiid up these eighteen months? If the boys bring in the fish, I '11 pay the money every time and willingly ; but if they don't bring it in, well, wc 're both in a hole, that 's all," " Sure," says a man in the fishing-room, pulling hard tack out of his pocket, " it 's all very weel, Mr Codlin, but is it no true ye 're after sending your son and daughter home to England for their education ? " " Ay, ay," cry the others, who, though tall and big-boned, have undeniably a hungry look; "is that a fact, sor ? " The "planter" turns almost fiercely on his interlocutors. " True ! Mike Shea, ye 'd believe every lie ye heard about me ? No, it 's not true, and even if it were, I should like to know who'd a better right to do as he pleases with the precious little money he could ever make here. I 've stuck to this outport for twenty years. I was one of you, boys, and a sealer myself, until my grandfather left me the seven hundred dollars he had saved. I 've stuck here twenty years ; and cursed sorry I am, too, for with the same capital and half the work, I reckon I could ha' sent my gal to St John's for the winter 'thout being bullied for it. You, Michael Shea, I 've given you supplies when ( 18 ), I h i : THE TENTH ISLAND 88 no other planter in Harbour Grace 'd ha' trusted you wi' s'^ much as a dozen o' hooks ; an' I 'vo taken risks with ye all without weel seein' mo way clear, an' more than once been on the verge o' bankruptcy for me pains. An' what ha' yo done for me, faith? Three years gone, when I stood for the Legislature, ye all came nobly for- ward and vote*! against me to a man." " Sure ye 're wrong there," spoke up several ^;oices. "I give ye my vote." "An so did I." " And I too, Mr Codlin." " So all I can say is," went on Mr Codlin without heeding the interruptions, " if ye can get along better without me, ye 're welcome to try. See if Simpson and Grant, or ould Munro give ye better terms." Whereupon the indignant planter began stalk- ing up and down the great piles of cod outside the fishing-house, on the wharf, stopping here and there to take a brown carcase and smack it viciously against the others; or give orders to the two or three men who were engaged in loading the fish on the schooner for St John's. The price of fish is regulated by the demand for it in foreign markets and by the quantity taken. The larger the catch in the island and in Norway, the island's greatest rival, the lower the price. But from talks I have had with the planters, the grea,test possible alarm is felt at the continuous loss of markets which once li „P — a. ■ jmrnr^m^fmrnm 84 THE TENTH ISLAND belonged to NewfouDdland as of right. The cause of this will be seen when I come to speak of the action of the French bounty system. It seems that the operation of the French bounties has so lowered the price of fish in y/'the markets of Europe as to make the fishing far less profitable to tho colonists than formerly. Fish now brings about 14s. a quintal (112 lbs.) In recent days the sale price was anywhere from 15s. to 20s., even going as high as 25s. on occasion. Naturrlly the price of fish is a great topic iv the outports — just as the price of wheat is of mighty importance to the farmer. Peter Anderson, who caught 120 quin- tals the past season, is elated beyond measure — until he discovers that Codlin, owing to the quality of the fish and the lowness of the market price, can only aiford to credit him with 12s. a quintal, and he owes that amiable gentleman for provisions £72, 15s. — which balance of 15s. the planter generously offers to overlook.* The fisherman's great grievance is that he is absolutely at the mercj'^ of such petty capitalists as Thomas Codlin. If he has only a moderate quantity of fish to turn over each season — what t^ith the high prices charged for provisions by his " planter," he can never quite reach a balance in his favour — and a single bad season throws * It ia said that stvciUeen torn of fish contain the ntUritive vafim of 50 hentl cf catth or 300 sheep. The average annual yield from the fisheries is 2,300,000 ciots.—i.Q. 338,235 cattle or 2,029,410 sheep. mmm ■p ^mf^- -^1 THE TENTH ISLAND 85 \ 1 I. B S e s le him "all out of gear" for years afterwards. I heard of a hard-working fellow, with a large family, who had been twenty-three years in debt to his "planter." Each season he would try harder than ever to extricate himself, but with- out success. He had got apparently hopelessly into the power of Codlin, who used him pretty much as an English farmer of the old school might be supposed to use a tenant long in «.rrears. Such complete thraldom would have broken the spirit of most men, and that is pretty nearly the way it acted on this old fellow. Once or twice, it is true, he landed as much as 90 quintals in a single season; but the whole lot went into the capacious hand of the middleman ; and still the balance was against him. And then it was that he took to drink, losing all hope, and his family turned against him and treated him in a heartless manner, as being the cause of all their misfortunes. His two sons were rather sickly, and therefore not able to make any very strong bid for fortune. Once they came upon their father dead drunk, with liquor whose cost put him still farther into debt and the clutches of the planter, and they left him where he lay. The next morning he was found by a neighbour nearly perished with cold. One March day this man was missing. The truth - "s he had tramped across country to a neighbouring outport where he was unknown, •1 •'r J * 5?Bi ■ '- ^H i 86 THE TENTH ISLAND and by luck, at the last moment, got a berth on a big sealer where a fever had broken out. In less than a month that sealer was back in port with one of the biggest cargoes ever landed — some 40,000 harp seals. The o)d man's share, under the peculiar circumstances, was about three hundred dollars. He returned to his native out- port, paid the planter; and the next day his dsad body was found swinging to one of the rafters of the latter's fish-house. He had com- mitted suicide, either because the ^ viped-off debt had turned his brain, or because he thought it best to avoid further unpleasantness. But, of course, this all illustrates only one side of the story. Codlin's statement of the case of the planter is capital's defence all the world over. Either the merchant or the middleman has to take the risks of the business as well as the fisherman, and there is little doubt that in bad seasons his loss is considerable. Somebody has got to keep the poor fisherman going — to tide him over — and the Banks and large merchants do not show much disposition to treat with this class. To mortgage the prospective cod harvest is not quite so safe as mortgaging a prospective wheat crop. It is all very well for a certain class in the colony to rail at the middleman and the credit system, but it is a little difficult to se(3 how either aro to be dispensed with. The system began when tie island was settled; it has gone THE TENTH ISLAND 87 on for so many generations that it is for the most part accepted by the fishermen themselves as a necessary institution; and if they dearly love to rail at the planter, it is only because of the natural modern attitude of the man who has no money towards the man who has. Life in the fishing villages is very near to the earth — or rather to the sea. It is hard to re- member you are not in a forecastle when you visit the cottages or meeting-places of the in- habitants. The populace is almost entirely com- posed of fishermen — the exceptions being the merchants or planters, a few tradesmen, the priest, the clergyman, and the doctor. The daily round of the masses, when not varied by agri- cultural pursuits, is unattractive and sordid to a degree. In the winter there is deor-shooting for the few, but the majority of the men do little besides mend their nets and fishing-tackle, smoke, drink, spin yarns, and wait for the March sealing season to commence. The women do most of the work. I have seen them chopping wood and digging with a spade, while their lords, pipe in mouth, looked approvingly on, slowly recovering from the more or less arduous labour of two months previously. But some of them go in for farming, and the number of these is greatly on the increase. If they were wise they would all alternate the two employments, certaiiily on a sufficiently large i* fmm wmmmm 88 THE TENTH ISLAND scale to guarantee them potatoes, a cow, and a pig. An annual agricultural fair is now held in 8t John's, and the display will certainly com- pare favourably with similar shows held in any place of equal size on the continent. It gives the fisherman-farmer a chance to exhibit his produce to advantage, and to promote a healthy emula- tion between all of his class. I do not say the fisherman's life is not pictur- esque. Life in the forecastle is undeniably I)icturesque. But there is a sense of being shut in — of the narrowness of life's possibilities and opportunities — that must weigh heavily on the young soul that was not born a sailor or a sealer. There are still two solid diversions for the Newfoundlander of the outports — getting drunk and attending meetings. He has such happy dispensations as weddings and funerals; but these are of minor import. Then there is that old west-country pastime known as " mummers." Mummers, I should conceive, was in existence long before the miracle play; for a mere rudimentary dramatic form is absolutely impossible. The first thing for the organiser to do is to choose a theme — say, "Jack of the Beanstalk" or "Joan of Arc" — allot to each person his or her "part," and leave the rest to chance. Chance forthwith ordains that whichever "mummer" comes on to the stage or circle attired in the most extra- i \ THE TENTH ISLAND 89 s vagant and outlandish garb is at once the prime favourite. If he can improve the occasic n with some impromptu jokes and sallies, so much the better. "Mummers" smacks of the nursery — of the nursery at that period when children ro:nped instead of dissecting Norwegian plays and read- ing more-or-less improving books as they, alas, do now ; but given the requisite number of spirited young swains and rosy-cheeked girls, and I am quite ready to )ack "mediaeval mummers" against even a modern musica] comedy. The physician in charge of the lunatic asylum told me that religious excitement was at the bottom of much of the lunacy of the colony. Another prominent cause was too close inter- marriage. It would do no harm if the tables of consanguinity were impressed upon the more remotely-situated communities by Government. As to the character of the meetings which are the fisherman's weakness, that, I opine, is largely a question of race. If he comes most of English or Scottish extraction, a good re- vival gathering of the Baptist or Salvation Army order will most touch the heart of him- self and his women-folk; if he be Milesian, there is a strain in his blood which is ever mounting towards a caucus. Occasionally he is gratified by a riot; but these are growing fewer and fewer nowadays. Denominational ^XZ^ " MM 90 THE TENTH ISLAND feeling runs less high than it used to, and it is now many years since the feuds of Orange- men and the Roman Catholics caused public bloodshed. The last great riots took place in connection with the new railway, of which I shall speak when I come to that part of my subject; but they illustrate clearly the great ignorance and fanaticism of the fishermen. If another illustration were wanted, I hardly think a better one could be found than in the supersti- tious antagonism to confederation with Canada. There are thousands of fishermen and the wives of fishermen on the southern and north-eastern coasts who believe to-day that Canada is a land of demons and monsters, just as the more ignorant Southerners of the States during the Civil War believed the Yankees had horns and tails. The most singular legends exist in the bosom of these humble families. They have heard that "new-born babes are rammed down Canadian cannon," that if confederation was brought about, the terrible Canadians would usurp their industries, leaving them to "bleach their bones on the desert sands of Canada." The fisher-folk have imaginations likely to be profoundly impressed by such harrowing tales, and the impression remains deep and vivid long after the arguments of common -sense have demonstrated its folly. Until further education and enlightenment is brought about, " THE TENTH ISLAND 91 one can see how difficult it must bo for the champions of confederation to persuade the fishermen that such a measure promises them greater happiness and prosperity. I would as soon prefer to popularise a Prussian in the Vosges. Newfoundland's curiously - isolated political condition — curiously isolated, in view of the confederation of all the other British North American colonies from the Atlantic to the Pacific — has perhaps puzzled people at a distance the most. Why does the Tenth Island hold aloof? I had several talks with intelligent colonists on this subject. One of them said to me: "The great obstacle is just this. Newfound- land stands on a different footing from the pro- vinces which now form part of the Dominion, and we should expect altogether different terms. When British Columbia went into the federal union, the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway to the coasl was part of her bargain with Canada. If we had gone into confedera- tion in 1869, a railroad across our island would have been one of our conditions." "But you did not go in." "No; the feeling of the people was that we did not want it. To-day it is true that con- federation is not a live political issue with us. You find confederates and anti - confederates vt^ 92 THE TENTH ISLAND in the Ministry and in the Opposition ; there is no dividing line on that issue, but nevertheless our people do at heart believe confederation to be their destiny — theic__jjPLfivitable dejitiny. Why? Well, there is the development of the colony, its geographical and political position; and indeed from whatever point of view the question is regarded, our manifest destiny is as part of the great Dominion of Canada. We alone stand outside now in all British North America. For our fishing population — and they, of course, form the bulk of our working-folk — it would be a great benefit. With the solitary exception of pork, which would still come from the United States, every article of diet for them would come in duty free from Canada. Oiu* avt/age import duties are now 30 per cent. You see what an advantage the abolition of those duties would be." " You put political association with the United States out of the question." " Yes, the United States does not come into the discussion at all. There was once a vague sort of talk of annexation and the rest of it, but Mr Cleveland's war Message killed what little there was of that — killed it absolutely. Directly the head of the American republic held up his fist to Old England, and talked war to her — that was enough for even the wildest annexationist we had, and he was really a mild specimen. We THE TENTH ISLAND 93 remembered our British stock, and you don't hear a whisper of annexation now. V e are British stock — English, Irish, or Scotch descent ; we are more proud of the fact than you in England would believe if I told you, and we mean to remain Britons to the end." "And work out your destiny as part of the Great British federation of N .rth America. On what terms ? " "Ah, that's the question. You had better ask Sir William Whiteway and his fellow- Ministers that, or rather perhaps. Sir Wilfrid Laurier and his colleagues, for it was at Ottawa that the negotiations fell through the other day. We should expect the Confederation to assume our debt — 17,000,000 dols. As Canada built the Canadian Pacific Railway for British Columbia she should take our island railway into the account ; it would have been charged to the Canadian general account had we gone into confederation in 1869. If that be taken out of our public debt it stands at between 9,000,000 and 10,000,000 dols., or about 50 dols. per head of our population, which is less than the proportion of the public debt of the Dominion. Let this allowance be made as the basis of the negotiations, and the rest should not be difficult. "And, mind you, our financial position looks much better to-day than it did at the time r. an H THE TENTH ISLAND of the last confederation negotiations. Our bonds are above par, and our revenue for the fiscal year ending June 30th 8ho>v3 an increase of 130,000 dols. on the corresponding period of the preceding year. After the Bank crash stocks got low, and have now had to be replenished, while the increase of 5 per cent, on the tariff also materially assisted the revenue." 1/ The fisherman is to the stranger the personifi- cation of hospitality. He is a great, warm- hearted fellow, whose bed and board and good offices are all at your disposal. I did not meet a single surly fisherman in Newfoundland, although I have met many such in other parts of the world where fishermen are con- gregated. In his hut, cabin, or cottage every- thing you see you may count upon as belonging to you for the time being ; but be careful not to express a wish for anything you see, or no deprecations will prevent your coming out with it in your pocket or over your shoulder. In this connection I heard of a Yankee comedian who came to Newfoundland during the shooting season, being much struck by the extraordinarily and picturesquely patched trousers his host wore. "I shall have a pair like that," he exclaimed jocosely, and jotted down a few notes as to their appea-rance. When he and his companion had finished their meal and THE TENTH ISLAND 95 were turning to go, their hostess, in her lord's absence, pressed a parcel upon them which they accepted, thinking it was fish. "Look here," said one of them when they had got well down the road, "I don't think we want this fish." "We couldn't very well decline it. It's the custom here, I believe. I vote we give it to the first man we meet." "Very well. I suppose," he added after a pause; "I suppose it i8 fish." The parcel, being immediately opened, was found to contain the eccentric trousers. The two strangers ran back and took the fisherman completely by surprise. He was mending his nets, in his wifes skirt. It was a chiUy day. He had been wearing those trousers for a period of seventeen years, and was naturally much hurt at the inability of his guest to accept the gift. i^ It is well not to express surprise if the interior of the hut or personal appearance of your host and his family is no indication, or at best but a sUght one, of his worldly possessions. A lead- ing banker of St John's said to me : "Numbers of these fishermen are far from being poor men. Their habit of receiving always in gold and of paying always in kind led me to make enquiries ; and my belief is that there is upwards of three million dollars at present hoarded along the south and east coasts. Many U II r i I 1; ■ 96 THE TENTH ISLAND families which soeni poor have tidy sums hidden in the chimney or cellar walls. To prove the practice, I may mention that many a fisherman, in paying off a mortgage, or setting up as a * planter' or shipowner, will suddenly produce George IV. or King William guineas or sovereigns almost mint new, or bearing few marks of wear." The fisherman, therefore, is an inheritor of the old peasant tradition that Bank? are not to be trusted — a conviction which was certainly not weakened when the colony's Bank crash came in 1894, and noteholders and investors became penniless. In many a cottage of the outports, there must have been grim laughter and not a little dram-drinking when the tidings of the crash came out, and many complacent peeps at the yellow guineas gleaming by candle-light in the cellar. Take him all round — his faults, his failings, his superstitions, and his personal uncleanliness and untidiness — and tho fisherman is something more than the equal of most of the Anglo- Celtic offshoots. He is the superior of most. He is splendid physical raw material — a great tall strapping fellow— a pure blend, if ever there was one, of the English, Irish, and Scotch races He is not intellectual, but there is good stuff in him — the very stuff England can ill afford to dispense with. 1! a^H CHAPTER IX It is one thing to catch your cod-fish : it is altogether another thing to sell him. As the Banks of Newfoundland (those marine plateaux which I have previously described) are outside the limits of the colony's territorial waters, other nationalities, chiefly French and Americans, are engaged in the fishery there. It is the great increase of their numbers in late years, and the enormously increased quantity of fish thus obtained, which must also be regarded as one of the causes of the diminished prices which are seriously affecting the colony. Tho panacea for this evil is more apparent than real. As the immediate neighbourhood of the coast of Newfoundland enables its people to cure even the fish caught on the Banks in such a manner as to better its quality and at a smaller cost than is possible for foreigners, the competition might assume equitable pro- portions, production in all probability declin- ing until it had reached that point where it became remunerative for all concerned. But the competition is not a fair one. The advan- tages granted to the foreign fishermen by their respective Governments are such as to more G 97 mm 98 THE TENTH ISLAND than compensate for the natural advantages possessed by the people of Newfoundland. In a word, the former have been able to maintain and continually increase their products, while the latter are less and less able to maintain a struggle manifestly unequal. America takes all the product of her fisher- men caught on the Grand Banks, and imposes a duty of two shillings and fourpence a quintal on the fruits of British industry — thereby practically denying it her markets. " The Americans," said a prominent Newfound- lander to me, " show a most selfish and con- temptible spirit in their endeavour to get a J share of our fisheries, whilst they keep us out of theirs, and exclude our fish production by prohibitive duties. Canada and Newfoundland — or, better still, Newfoundland and Canada — should follow Sir John MacS(onald's policy, and show a firm front and determination to protect our fishery rights until the Americans give us a reciprocity treaty and free entry to their markets for our fish and all our natural products." But the French Government not only pro- hibit absolutely the importation of British- caught fish into France, but by a system of export and other bounties, varying from eight to ten francs per quintal, actually support the French fishermen in their work of THE TENTH ISLAND 09 under-bidding the Ne^oundlander in foreign markets. Thus the American market is practically, and the French market actually, closed to British- caught fish, which, in addition, is being gradu- ally forced out from all other markets except such countries as Brazil, which demand a quality which the French fishermen are unable to achieve, owing to the lack of curing facilities enjoyed by the Newfoundlanders. By way of forcible illustration, French fish can be bought to-day all over the continent of Europe at 12s. 6d. a quintal — that is to say the French fishermen obtain for it 21s. a quin- tal — the bounty being thus equal to 72 per cent, of the value; while the British fisher- men, for their superior produce, can obtain only 140. a quintal, or 35 per cent. less. In former years French cod-fish was unknown in various European waters, as the catch of the French was barely sufficient for the require- ments of home consumption in France, but now the British Consuls in Italy and other parts of the Mediterranean, in Spain and Portugal, de- clare unanimously that the cheapness of the French fish is driving out the Newfoundland cure. As a proof of the utter impossibility of fair competition with French fish, it will suffice to nrention the fact that French shippers have actually offered and sold fish to Spanish mer- i MIMiP ipl wmB 100 THE TENTH ISLAND chants in Bordeaux for nothing, the French shippers being satisfied with the bounty re- ceived from their Government. Competition cannot go much farther than this. Is it proposed that the Newfoundland Govern- ment should retort by giving away a knife and fork with every cod-fish? It will be seen, therefore, that the French fishery in relation to the colonists has under- gone considerable change in recent years, to the h y colony's serious disadvantage. Formerly the bounty did not conflict with the island's interests, as the French "bankers" were equipped in France, and took most of their produce back to France to be consumed there, leaving only a small portion for exportation from St Pierre to the French West Indies. Consequently, Newfoundland seldom, if ever, found France a competitor in those markets to which she exported her fish. Suddenly, as one might say, St Pierre has become an extensive port of trade and of export for traders from other countries. There is a large fleet of French bankers and also a fleet sailing under the French flag, managed by French agents at St Pierre, and owned to some extent by English and American subjects, em- ployed in catching fish to compete with New- foundland in all European markets. This is the spectacle of John Bull attempting to play (:•' THE TENTH ISLAND 101 with the French at their own game. The increasing fleet of Bank fishers has an enormous advantage over the colonial fishermen, from the fact that, in addition to the bounty referred to, they obtain food and supplies of all kinds at St Pierre almost free of duty. But it so happens — and here is the peg upon which the Newfoundland Government proposes to hang up the Frenchman — that the quantity of fish caught on the Banks depends very lar^'ely on the supply of fresh bait-fishes. These bait- fishes, caplin, squid, and herring, are principally obtained from the territorial waters of New- foundland, being purchased by the foreigners from the fishermen of Fortune Bay and the neighbouring inlets. Salted and otherwise arti- ficially-prepared bait, although capable of at- tracting cod, is far from being so efficacious. A fisherman with only salted bait at his command would soon fall far behind the others in his catch, no matter how fecund the waters might be. Fresh bait, therefore, if th j supply from the neighl»ouring coast were closed to foreigners, could only be procured by them on the more distant portion of the Newfoundland coast where the French have fishing rights. If they went elsewhere it would be at great cost, and, owing to the ice, at a period of the year later by three or four weeks. Cut off the cheaper, readier, and steadier supply from the li il I ^^^Kstmmmmm 102 THE TENTH ISLAND -> I coast in the immediate neighbourhood of the Banks, and what would be the result? The result would be that, bounty or no bounty, the quantity obtained by foreigners would dwindle until it had fallen to that point when it would just suffice for their home markets. This being the case, it is evident that Newfoundland, by allowing foreigners to buy bait on her shores, has been all along furnishing the means of her own destruction to persons bent on ruining her by fair means or foul. Can it be doubted, then, that her only salvation lies in a measure which will regulate the sale of bait as it is regulated in England — which will prevent access to their coast of foreign fishermen whose fishing is not fair? Goaded by the general hostile attitude of the French in other matters relating to the island, such as the Treaty shore and the smuggling from St Pierre, the Newfoundland Government passed in 1887 what is known as the Bait Bill. France, well instructed by its indefatig- able agent, M. des Isles, spared no effort with the Imperial authc I ties to prevent the colony's passing the Bill. Without this defensive weapon the Tenth Island would soon be in the position of the sugar-exporting colonies of Barbados and Demarara, which are being rapidly ruined by the action of the foreign bounties. Downing Street listened to the threats (vainly • I THE TENTH ISLAND 103 disguised as protests) of the French Government, and withheld even its consideration of the colonial measure for several months. It then delivered itself in the following terms: — "Her Majesty's Government would not be justified in disregarding the strong protest of the French Government against the introduction at this late period of restrictions calculated to inflict great loss upon the French fishermen; and as, for this reason, they are unable to advise the Queen to allow the Bill to come into law in respect of the approaching fishing season, it will not at present be submitted for Her Majesty's confirmation." If we are driven to choose between offending the French and neglecting to care for the colonisty the colonist must go to the wall. Were the loss occasioned to foreigners at all commensurate with that which was to be suffered in Newfoundland by its continuance, the argument against such a measure, on the ground of international comity, would, of course, have much force. As a matter of fact, one is not to be compared with the other. The fishing industry in the neighbourhood in question is, by comparison with other resources, of infinitesimal importance to the other peoples concerned. To the people of Newfoundland it is as yet their all in all. To withdraw the before-mentioned privi- lege from France would cause a comparatively I 104 THE TENTH ISLAND trifling inconvenience. To continue it would mean our senior colony's ruin. Even the Governor, Sir William Des Voeux, had written in these tei'ms to the Colonial Office : "I would respectfully express, on behflf of this suffering colony, the earnest hope that the vital interests of 200,000 British subjects will not be disregarded out of deference to the susceptibilities of any foreign Power, and this especially when the privilege which the Power desires to retain cannot be pretended to be matter of right, but is a benefit which may be lawfully withdrawn, as in the nature of a tenancy at will, and may now be justly with- drawn as being used for the infliction of fatal injury on those who have hitherto permitted its enjoyment." When the colonists heard of the decision of the Colonial Office, their Legislature imme- diately framed and carried through another Bait Bill similar to the defunct measure, which they forwarded to the Mother Country with the hope that Her Majesty's Government would take due cognisance of the renewed effort. "When we learn," said they, "from your despatch that the main reason for the refusal of our Bill is that its present adoption would * inflict grave loss on the French fishermen,' we cannot forbear from the expression of our surprise at this apparent disregard of the 1. ■I Ci THE TENTH ISLAND 105 I 4 sufferings of our fishermen and of the British interests which are thus made subservient to the purposes of foreigners. The people of this colony have the right in our fisheries, and foreigners have not; and we cannot see those rights sur- rendered in defiance of our appeals mthout expressing our deep sense of the injustice to which our people are thus called on to submit." * A delegation was sent to England, and after a great deal of agitation on one side and red tape on the other, the Bait Bill received Im- perial sanction, and went into operation. But, as far as the absolute restriction of the sale of bait was concerned, the Act, as passed then, was not very efficacious through the lack of means taken to enforce it. It was a difficult job to persuade the poor fisherman that a bird in the hand was worth two in the bush. His patriotism and honour were appealed to. Here is one of the placards exhibited in a store-room at that time: The Fisherman who would SEL Bate to A Frenchman WOULD steel the PENNY'S off his dead Mothar's Eyes! * Address to the Secretary of State, February 21st, 1887. 106 THE TENTH ISLAND Another ran thus: Newfoundlanders, Be Men! Starve if you must: but Hang on to your Herring! P.S. — If you sell bait to the French now you are bound to starve in the long Bun. ii »> Yet even with an imperfect enforcement the results were not ungratifying. The exports from St Pierre the two years following the passage of the Bait Act were as follow: — In 1887 . . 754,770 quintals of 112 lbs. each. 1888 . . 594,529 1889 . . 299,273 I think, therefore, that I have shown the efficacy of the measure if it were properly carried out. But in 1890 came the lobster dispute on the French shore, and subsequently the Bait Act was repealed. M The Bait Act should again become law; but ^if it is to be carried out in such a half-hearted way as to give rise to the belief that it is a mere move in the political game, it had better never be passed. If the Bait Act is enforced in every outport in the colony, if every fisherman who transgresses its provisions is immediately made t t THE TENTH ISLAND 107 > to suffer a severe penalty, the situation is saved, and the evil of the French bounty system thwarted in the only effectual manner. And the rigid enforcement of the Bait Act Will have far-reaching consequences. By man y it is regarded as the solution of all the questions reTafcing to France and Newfoundland. The French set great store by their Bank fishery, which they declare, perhaps with their tongue in their cheek, is the nursery for their Navy, the most important source of recruiting of which is the Marine de Commerce. If, therefore, the main industry is crippled, France may be brought to that frame of mind which seeks for reasonable terms — for equitable compromise. It is only fair to add that, in a short chat I had with an islander of bluff common-sense. Captain Delaney, he said to me bluntly: "We can't afford to enforce the Bait Act. For one thing, Canada won't help us. Sup- pose we deny bait to the French, what is to prevent the Canadian selling it to him — coming over to our coasts, even, and buying it from our men, and then passing it on for a profit. Our law won't say our fishermen can't sell bait to Canadian fishermen : the only result will be that the profits of the bait business will pass from our hands into the hands of the Canadians." "You won't get Canada to help Newfound- land," said another man, " until we get a states- ^v 108 THE TENTH ISLAND man with more youth and backbone than old Bill Whiteway to ask her to help. As far as I can see at present, she will only help us beat the French if we become a part of the Dominion, and she won't let us join the Dominion until we have settled the French shore question ! Now, what in hell are we goini? to do?" ^ ^ Certainly the bait predicament is a curious one ; and I was hardly prepared then to answer the question. CHAPTER X A SEAL in Newfoundland is, in common parlance, a " swile." There are two days in March every year which are notable among the fisher-folk. One is 8t Patrick's Day — the other occurs five days earlier, when the sealing season begins. The sealing season is to the people of the Tenth Island what the shooting season is to the people of the " tight little island" — only more so. In order for the Twelfth of August to thoroughly resemble the Twelfth of March, it would be requisite that the stomachs and purses of Englishmen of town and country should be dependent on the results of the bagging of grouse and other game effected by the amateur Nimrods of Mayfair. "Cruel sports," remarks a famous writer, "do ^* not make a cruel people." Clearly cruel occupa- tions do not. Still, even admitting the Chicago pig-st!cker to be the "mildest-mannered man that ever cut a throat " ; the employe de V abattoir to be a person of sensibility and peace; even then, I cannot quite fathom the gentleness and humanity of the Newfoundland seal-hunter. He has every reason to be a cold-blooded monster, dead to every emotion of mercy and pity. When 109 mmmmmi mm 110 THE TENTH ISLAND I say that the annual seal hunt of Newfoundland is one great carnival of cruelty and bloodshed, I say that which not every vtdtness to, but every participant in, its horrors readily admits. Yet I never saw or heard of but one man who shrank from the slaughter. That man told me, in his own quaint fashion, that he woke up one night and discovered himself standing over the bed of his crying child with a sealing gaff in his hand. "S' help me, God," he said, "I didn't sleep an honest sleep for many nights after that. I never heard the kid cry without thinkin' first off o' the whimper o' them 'swiles'; an' how near I'd come to killin* my own flesh an' blood. I tried to laugh it off, but it was no use ; and so when the 'swiler' came to start I give my place to another man. I knew after that I was no good for *swilin" any more — faith, the gaff would ha' fallen out o' my hands." After the cod-fish, the sealing industry ranks next in importance in the Tenth Island. It must be understood that that seal, the capture of which is of such vaae to the Tenth Island, is not at all the seal known to the fur trade. It is the oil seal, whose hide is used for the manufacture of a coarse-grained leather, called technically by various misnomers. His fat furnishes an oil very much in demand for illuminating and lubricating purposes, and also I 4 THE TENTH ISLAND 111 for the manufacture of soap. "Seal soap" has a decidedly taking sound, but I fear, after the description I am about to give of the manner of the animal's capture, it will scarcely command a large sale among persons of feeble nerves and strong senf ibilities. The seal-hunt ie. a comparatively modem occupation for the inhabitants. For three hundred years, during which the cod-fishery was prosecuted, the Arctic seals were left to bring forth their young upon the distant ice- floes, and there was no organised attempt to invade them with the murderous weapons of the seal-hunter. But the seal was not for ever to enjoy such immunity. Ninety years ago the first hunters forced their way through the icy ramparts where he and his young were ensconced, and came upon what may be described as a huge Arctic seal nursory. There were thousands and thousands of small floes, and upon every floe reclined a small brood of infant seals. From that day the slaughter began; and a mighty new industry opened up for the Newfoundland fishermen. According to law, no sealing vessel can leave port until March 12th, but it is two days later before any seals can be killed — a regulation framed to protect the premature killing of seals. The majority of the populations of the out- 112 THE TENTH ISLAND ports come to see them off and to wish them luck. The steamers appear to be packed from stem tc stern with humanity — patched, weather- beaten, greasy humanity — all shouting and cheer- ing and wa\ing their caps and sou' westers. Many a man who has shipped aboard one of these seaUng steamers for the sake of the experience has lived to regret it. The huddling together in filth of 350 men in a small boat for five or six weeks, without room to lie down and rest — men standing elbow to elbow and swallow- ing their food like dogs — is a scandal already stirring the colony. But I will deal with that presently. It is the object of the skipper to reach the baby seals as quickly as possible and secure his cargo before the beginning of April. For by that date the seals are old enough to take to the water and make their escape. If the crew is in luck, and there is not too much ice afloat, on the third or fourth day a seal-patch is sighted and the whimpering of the count- less young seals is heard. This cry, which so tickles the crew that they can hardly restrain their delight, bears an awful resemblance to the sobbing of a human infant in pain. The vessel is laid-to, and the crew are out upon the ice in a jiffy, each man armed with his iron-shod gaff and sharp knife. On all sides, as far as the eye can see, are the : THE TENTH ISLAND 113 white - coated seals, often attended by the mother - seals, whose maternal instinct is very strong, the tenderness with which the mothers watch over their offspring being really touch- ing. It is stated that when the young are cradled on the ice the mothers go off each morning to fish, returning at intervals to give them suck. The destruction begins quite without prelude. One or two blows on the head fractures the skull of the young seal, if the gaff be in the hands of an old sealer. The others c2 the group are treated in like fashion, to the chorus of heart-rending cries and sobs. Almost at the same moment the knife is brought into play, and the skin and fat detached from the carcases, which, still quivering with life — often struggling, and occa- sionally still whimpering — are inotantly sur- rounded by the miserable mother. Her moans, as it gazes upon the sickening, moving red masses, all that is left of her children, are fearful to hear. It is now the rude details of the slaughter- house over again. Clots of gore cover the hands and limbs, and even the faces, of the men; the ice is stained and slippery with mingled blood and is,t; the air reeks with the smell of blood, and still that low human whi}mper goes up, and the slaughter goes on. It is the slaughter-house, but what pen or 114 THE TENTH ISLAND abattoir ever had such surroundings as these: the calm silent whiteness of the snow, the stately purity of the icebergs, whose thousand cathedral-like spires and pinnacles gUtter in the sun, are little in accord with the bloody nature of this industry. But if the scene of the actual slaughter is not calculated to please and agreeably stimu- late the feelings, what can one say of the state of things which quickly prevails on board the steamer itself? The men are now busily dragging in their "pelts," and throwiiijar them into heaps in the hold. When the hold is filled, as it is after a day or two, they throw them into th(3 forecastle and the cabins ; and when these in turn are full, they pile them on the decks. Then they sleep on them, if they care to, their garments saturated with blood and fat. The stench is horrible. The hunters are still scattered over the ice in all directions, and some have wandered miles from the ship. It is a business not with- out peril, but these men seem as oblivious to the dangers of drowning or being crushed to death by ice as one of the seals themselves. Not seldom the field-ice upon which they are engaged breaks up suddenly into fragments, and they are floated off to fill watery graves. Occasionally a violent storm arises, and the steamer, with its freight, is caught between ice- THE TENTxI ISLAND 115 I bergs. During the seal-hunt of 1872 one hundred men perished. But, after all, the most fearful thing in connection with sealing is the awful experience of living aboard a sealing steamer during the period — from four to six weeks — that she is out from port. Since the evils arise from overcrowding, why, one naturally asks, are so many men taken on board? I was told that one reason is that more than twice as many men as can be taken are eagerly pressing for berths at the shipping offices, and begging and praying to be permitted to go. Some of them, the young especially, like the excitement and adventure of the hunt with all its hardships, for if they return successful they are the heroes of the hour; but with the great bulk it is "their poverty, not their will," that forces them on board. There are empty cup- boards and hungry mouths at home, and the hope of returning with " a good bill " makes them submit to any conditions. But there is another reason. The owners of the steamers naturally want to bring in as many seals as possible. Should a steamer with a large number of men on board strike the "seal-patch," she will be quickly and certainly loaded ; and in any case, with a large crew the chances of success are multiplied; and so, between the poverty of the men and the greed of the owners, the disreput- able and injurious practice goes on. It is mar- mmmmmmmmmm ■H«i 116 THE TENTH ISLAND vellous how few accidents occur. The captains can pick their men, and take only the younger and the hardier. Disease on board is infrequent ; but this year five dead bodies were brought home by the fleet. Sickness and death on board a sealing steamer are enough to appeal to the stoutest heart. Should an epidemic break out on board one of these over-crowded vessels the results would be terrible. One of them was re- ported to have had diphtheria on board this year. If strong measures are not taken, some frightful disaster may occur ; for should a vessel strike a rock, the boats would not contain more than half the crew if she were to sink. And yet the chief opponents of any reduction of the crews would be the men themselves ! One of the ablest and most experienced sealing skippers, Captain Samuel Blandford, feels, I am very glad to say, very strongly on this matter. In nineteen years this captain has landed 332,278 seals, the highest record, so that his remarks carry weight. " Go on board one of the sealing steamers," said he, " and visit the forecastle and other parts of the ship. Only look where Christians have to live, huddled away together in filth, and without room even to lie down to take rest — men standing elbow to elbow and swallowing their food like dogs. Only imagine 375 men crowded together in one ship. The condition of THE TENTH ISLAND 117 • such a sealing crew is simply indescribable ; and no other Christian country in the world would tolerate such a condition of things in view of the dangers attending such a voyage. It was high time that something were done to protect the interests and lives of our fellow-countrymen. There was a law regulating the carrying of cattle on shipboard, and yet in a matter where the lives of hundreds of our fishermen were con- cerned it was regarded as not being of any im- portance whatever that they should be provided with the protection that would be given even to dumb animals." The lives and interests of the sealers should certainly be the first consideration with those who profess to be so interested in the wel- fare of the colony. The owners of steamers claim they cannot very well prevent the over- crowding, as there are 15,000 men in the country anxious to get to the seal-fishery, and it is hard under certain circumstances to refuse applicants for berths. Still, contends the captain, it is wrong to carry from 300 to 400 men just for the sake of giving an extra number something to eat for the time being. It was the last forty or fifty men taken that caused all the trouble and over-crowding and risk of life on board the steamers. In the over - crowded vessels there were always from forty to fifty men sick or disabled and this was the result of over-crowd- ..^»kJIWi«*J«J« wsmmammt 118 THE TENTH ISLAND ing. The ships were well fitted and well pro- visioned, but it was not much use to the men when they had not even elbow or standing room, and were forced to take their food under worse conditions than the dumb animals. Others who have been many years in the seal fishery and have witnessed the hardships and risks to life to which the men were exposed, express themselves as ready to do whatever was in their power to bring about a proper remedy and to protect the men. It is in their opinion a shame and a disgrace to civilisa- tion that human beings should be left with scarcely any protection and be less cared for than the animals on board cattle ships. Why should 1000 men be privileged by being allowed to go to the seal fishery to the disadvantage and inconvenience of 4000? It was a ruinous and dangerous practice, and the sooner the number of the crews were limited by law the better. "I have gone," continued Captain Blandford, "down into the fo'castle of the Neptune to see sick persons, and have been almost suJffocated during the few moments I have been there; it is a wonder to me how the crews existed at all under such circumstances." Altogether, I think the reader will agree that sealing and the conditions attending its pro'^e- cution are among the least attractive things to be said about the Tenth Island. i CHAPTER XI A The colony, in spite of its meagre popu- lation, has all the equipment of a good-sized nation. In the machinery of its Government is comprehended not only the Governor, the usual executive departments, and two legislative hodies, but a constabulary, a postal service, a force of rev3nue officers, lighthouse keepers, road-masters, etc. ; while among the assets of the colony are roads, railways, lighthouses, docks, and public buildings adequate to serve for a country of ten times its numerical importance. The colony derives almost the whole of its revenue from customs duties on imports. These duties are partly ad valorem and partly specific ; but, although the tariff is professedly for revenue only, there are a number of differential duties : and if the Government thought there were any further industries worthy of protection, I do not doubt they would find it in their hearts to protect them. The revenue averages about 1,700,000 dols. annually ; and out of this sum are defrayed the expenses of the colony and the payment of interest on its debt. Last year, I was informed by Mr Scott, the Receiver-General, there was, owing to the new policy of retrench- 110 iu>a r / 120 THE TENTH ISLAND ment in expenditure, a surplus of 200,000 dols. The members of the Opposition are not very sanguine about the continuance of that surplus. " It 's too good to last," said one man. " It was unintentional, and I '11 take a bet that next year there '11 be a deficit of 200,000 dols. to make it up. As to their retrenchment — why, already they 're putting back every item in the Budget they cut off." At present there are no direct taxes in the colony, except a municipal tax in St John's for water, light, sewerage, and street improvements. The public d«bt is represented chiefly by the lines of railway, and also by the St John'r^ dry dock and the new post-office. Representative government was granted to Newfoundland in 1832. Twenty-three years later England conceded to the colony that system of Responsible Government whereby she herself is governed, which consists in the victors at the polls being accorded the offices and appointments in the colony. The party in power selects the executive council. Of the two houses, the House of Assembly (thirty-six members) is elected by the people; the Legislative Council (fifteen members) is nominated by the Governor in Council and serve for life. The Governor is appointed by the Crown. The Governor's salary, which, in the opinion i >- ' THE TENTH ISLAND 121 of many persons, constitutes the most practical tie between the island of Newfoundland and the island of England, is paid by the colony. Up to the time of the recent financial diffi- culties this salary was 12,000 dols., but in 1894 a great fever of retrenchment swept over the colony. Officials were docked right and lef ^^ ; two portfolios were rolled into one, and every petty clerk and Government servant was made to share the pecuniary embarrassment of the State. It is needless to say that the viceregal "screw" did not escape the chisel of reform. Now, £2400 cannot be regarded as any- thing but a moderate income for such a post; but £1400 is manifestly inadequate. Good men cannot be got at such a figure. My belief is that Newfoundh id should be regarded as outside the circle of ordinary governorships. Its importance is greater than its population implies: and the need of a first-rate man larger than the induce- ments offered him to rule the colony. At one time it entered the head of the Colonial Office to allow the island to be governed by one of its own public men. Sir Ambrose Shea, a Newfoundlander by birth and descent, and a capable man in every way, and who had been administrator in the absence of the Governor, happened to be in London in 1887, in connection with the Colonial Conference. 122 THE TENTH ISLAND :\i He was oifered, and accepted, the Governor- ship. Elated by the honour, he cabled out to a relative in the colony the tidings of his appointment. The news spread like wild-fire. Instead of being received with enthusiasm, it was greeted with the utmost indignation. Even Sir Ambrose Shea's best friends turned against him. "Old Awmber Shea gettin' 12,000 dols. a year?" exclaimed one old fisherman. "Sure, there 'd be a riot from here to Labrador if it was tould that one of our own boys, raised right here amongst us, was drawin' 12,000 dols. a year!" Petitions were signed by the leading citizens, from the Supreme Court of Justice downwards, remonstrating against the appointment. The consequence was that the Imperial Secretary was obliged to bow before the storm. He had no other resource but to beseech Sir Ambrose to save the situa- tion by declining the appointment. It only remains to mention that, by way of solatium, Sir Ambrose was given the Governorship of the Bahamas, which he filled for two terms with signal success. To return to the Governor's salary, the Colonial Office has temporarily found a way out of the difficulty of getting a capable man at the reduced figure, by taking the present Governor out of the Customs, and increasing his pension to £1000 and thereby making up i 'i THE TENTH ISLAND 123 the deficiency. What course they will adopt with Sir Herbert Murray's successor, supposing there is not another sturdy old gentleman in the Customs who is possessed of an amiable inclination to emigrate, I shall be obliged to leave to conjecture. The Legislature meets once a year, usually in February. A shrewd, well-spoken fellow, with a taste for politics, can become a member of the House of Assembly — if he play his cards aright. Truckling to the fishermen is not a nice game — but there is an excitement about it not often obtained elsewhere. There are 18 electoral districts, sending 36 members to the House as follows: — Henibera Bay-de-Verds 2 Bonavista 3 Burgee and La Paile 1 Burin 2 Carbonear 1 Ferryland 2 Fogo 1 Fortune Bay 1 Harbour Grace 3 Harbour Main 2 Flacentia and St Mary's .... 3 Port de Grave 1 StBarbe 1 St George . 1 St John's East 3 St John's West 3 Trinity 3 Twillingate 3 Total .... 30 124 THE TENTH ISLAND Let us imagine a moderate-sized hall, whose mural bareness suggests a barn, packed with a motley humanity. On a platform at the farther end are seven men, six of whom are seated on chairs. The room is badly lighted by swing- ing kerosene lamps, rather leaky, one of which is placed immediately over the head of the seventh man, who looks a little out of place amid his surroundings, but who appears to be doing his best to achieve a consonance by dint of base rhetoric. "What have they done — these polysyllable patriots — these men who polysyllabically pro- fess to," etc. "Let me tell you, gen^ men, that treachery, duplicity, and mt jity will not save," etc. "That reminds me of a story once told by the great Daniel O'Connell," etc. "And do they dare with this odoriferous record of cowardice and deceit to come before the free and enlightened," etc. The odour of the place is reprehensible. Almost from the first, a dozen tiny streams of tobacco juice course tortuously between the seats, and by degrees reach the aisle; and a current visible to all, swollen from a hundred sources, courses silently to the door. Not- withstanding the prohibition "No Smoking," a dozen pipes are emitting smoke furtively in the corners. The speaker warms up to his work. But in THE TENTH ISLAND 125 the height of his ardour he never loses the restraint of polysyllables. He calls the Opposi- tion by every compound at his command, a practice which seems to bo relished by the poor fishermen. Of the seven men on the platform, only four wear white linen collars, which demon- strates that these four are men of standing in the community. At last the audience begin to exhibit im- patience, and the candidate having finished his speech, the chairman, who is none other than our old friend, Mr Thomas Codlin, calls upon Mr Patrick Bailey. Whr jat there is good humour and great cheering, and a fusilade of facetious remarks levelled at the new speaker. It is equally clear that Mr Patrick Bailey is a person of some distinction, and the possessor of a fund of common-sense and rough humour. In marked distinction to the somewhat refined appearance of the last speaker, he has a large, florid face, a careless attire, and a somewhat thick brogue. He is a lawyer in St John's, a member of the Government, and one of the most popular and best known men in the island. His loyalty to the Crown is unquestionable, his ability beyond dispute ; and if he were more crafty, less honest, and less popular, there is little doubt that this poor fisherman's son would some day become Premier. For Patrick Bailey's father may be seen any day in the streets of a certain out- 1 . L ■'• ¥^ 126 THE TENTH ISLAND I I harbour, ready to tell of the day when his lad, then a " sprat of a boy," threw down the fishing net and lines and said : "Father, it's a lawyer I'm afther becoming. His reverence says it 's more I '11 make out o' my book-learning than I '11 get out o' the fish. And so, beggin' your leave, I 'm done with it." A little later Patrick was employed in the office of a St John's lawyer in good practice, for the fishermen are litigious — picking up a good deal during the day, and being taken in hand by a certain benevolent priest during the evening. It was yeaij cf this sort of thing which gave Pat Bailey those narrow shoulders and that stoop which go so ill with his big frame and large, florid head. Yet he grew up to be a rough, hearty Irishman, tempered by industry and sobriety. He went into politics soon after he was called to the Bar ; and he knows the fisher- man and his tastes and desires as well, if not better, than any man in the island. He has fought some curious battles, and taken part in some curious adventures. He has gone down into the outports, and slept and smoked, eaten and drunk with the poorest and roughest fisher- men. He has told them funny stories, flirted with their wives and daughters, "argeyfied" with the priest, had hand-to-hand physical con- flicts with rowdies bent on brep.king up his meetings, played "mummers," caught fish, and THE TENTH ISLAND 127 in the end beaten his opponent where nobody besides Pat Bailey would have got twenty votes. He has now come down into Twillingate to help elect the son of a brother lawyer, who was educated in England, and v/ho cannot relate brutal stories and look burly and rubicund as to the manner born. For the great point about Pat Bailey is that the fishermen regard him as one of themselves. His stories bring shrieks of laughter, and "Pat's latest joke" is one of the standing topics in the island. In the Legislature the Honourable Patrick Bailey is an altogether different being. His manner is grave and earnest. He advocates all measures directed towards the good of the island, but he never enthuses over any specu- Ip.tive project. He appears to have little of the Irish imagination, and when anybody speaks of the future of Newfoundland, its gleam- ing agricultural possibilities, its mineral wealth, or its railway, he adopts a sceptical attitude or changes the subject. One of his favourite remarks is: "I don't want to hear about our undeveloped resources; I wanfc to know what you are doing with your developed resources.' The members of the Legislature are paid. Assembly men, if resident in St John's, receive 194 dois. a session ; if resident elsewhere, 291 dols.; a scale the principle of which is not so obvious. The legislative councillors receive 120 dols. a I'- i I 128 THE TENTH ISLAND session, the President 240 ciols. The salary of the Speaker of the House of Assembly is 1000 dols. a session. It is rare to find a Government in Newfound- land hang well together. There is always a great deal of inter-official jealousy, and not that sense of subordination to a master-mind which guarantees strength to Cabinets. Every man seems bent on playing his own hand, and getting as much credit for himself as possible. The factor that knits them closest together is the patronage and thinly-veiled contempt of the Governor. I am told that he is accus- tomed to summon an executive council of the Cabinet, listen to all their views on any impend- ing question, and then, without condescending to express his own, proceed, on the departure of his constitutional advisers, to act as if their advice had never been given. All this does not tend to increase his popularity, and, as the Government is careful to saddle him with the odium of all objectionable measures, the Gover- nors of Newfoundland have rarely ever been popular. The present Premier told me that he had to exert all his authority to prevent a hostile demonstration against one recent Governor. Popular outbursts against the executive are not uncommon in St John's, and Government House has more than once been attacked. It is certain that with so THE TENTH ISLAND 129 of stubborn and "touchy" a people as the St John's people the way to popularity is not easy. Yet it would seem that common pru- dence would have suggested to him that the executive action I am going to relate was unwise. It is the custom, on the adjournment or prorogation of the Legislature, for the Govern- ment to prepare a Queen's Speech, the draft of which is submitted to the Governor for his approval. At the last session the prepared speech contained several such passages as this: "You have well and faithfully performed your duties," etc. The Governor very calmly, and in the presence of his Cabinet, dips his pen in red ink, and deletes the itaUcised phrases. Whereupon he smiles a. pleasant smile, returns the address to his discomfited advisers, and pro" ceeds to open the pr -eel of the Times newspaper, which has just arrived from England, with every appearance of interest. 1 it le 3e 90 CHAPTER XII An essay on the county roads of Newfoundland would be almost as short as the memorable one on the snakes in Ireland. In the first place, there are no counties in Newfoundland, and roads but recent innovations. Seventy years ago there were nothing but pathways, and few of these, as all communi- cation was carried on by water. The inhabitants ^ have since been bestirring themselves, and now roads and road-making occupy a considerable portion of the time, thoughts, energies, and capital of the colony. There are three distinct lines of railway in Newfoundland, all constructed since 1882. The line which runs from St John's to Whitboume, of which Sir Francis Evans, M.P., was recently president, joins at the latter station the great Newfoundland railway. At present the islanders are naturally not great travellers; one train each way daily suffices for the traffic. On the great railway across the island there are as yet but three trains a week. The rolling-stock is of the American pattern. The cars strike one as a combination of the English and American systems. The long ISO THE TENTH ISLAND 131 carriage is divided into first and second classes, but no smoking is permitted first-class. This rule, however, began to lapse as we proceeded farther and farther into the interior. Habits of constraint also began to relax, and before that long journey of thirty hours was over many of us had entirely lost sight of the distinction we bore as first-class passengers, and comported ourselves in a very third-class fashion indeed. I know that the solitary car speeding through the wilderness began to fill up with sportsmen and labourers : and that I slept that night with my feet resting in the lap of one gentleman, whose feet were in the lap of my neighbour. After leaving St John's the train runs west- ward through rather a pretty interesting country, as far as Conception Bay, fifteen miles from the capital. Here is located Topsail, a pleasant village on the shores of this splendid bay, and at present a favourite summer and bathing resort for the St John's people. I was told by a physician here that the air, even in the hottest summer months, is always cool and brac- ing. Topsail, therefore, with its ethereal, topo- graphical, and marine appointments, would make its fortune either in Europe or America ; but as the mountain cannot go to Mahomet, the health and holiday seeking multitudes of the States who desire a real change would do well to con- sider Topsail. But one thing I should strongly m 132 THE TENTH ISLAND advise the Newfoundlanders to do. Nature has indeed been lavish to them in whet are termed "summer resorts"; but unless they can devise some way to speedily erect hotels and secure a series of landlords — both in the capital and elsewhere — tourists will shun their shores with great single- ness of purpose. Here is an excellent opportunity for the Gordon Hotels Company, or those enter- prising persons who erect such enormous hydro- pathic establishments as those at Crieff and Callander, to extend somewhat the field of their operations. The scenery from the carriage windows, as the train winds along the shores of the bay, is really very fine. I was rather curious concerning the profuse shrubbery of this district — and, indeed, I found it to characterise the entire island. Wherever the eye turns it encounters the wild whortle or blue-berry bush; and, indeed, wild berries of every description, including strawberries and rasp- berries. The great profusion of this fruit has suggested to some enterprising individual to gather and manufacture preserves from them. He made a good beginning by forwarding a large parcel of preserved wild Newfoundland berries to the Queen, who graciously acknow- ledged them. After Whitbourne, the country from the car windows grows brown and barren. Now and then one comes across a great patch, several THE TENTH ISLAND 133 miles square, of agricultural country — only waiting to be tilled. The forests are chiefly spruce, although balsam, poplar, and elder are frequent. Lakes, almost invariably called ponds, and rivers are too common to attract notice. Some of the scenery, as we turn a bend, is superb. It is all NorVi^ay over again, but there never were so many lakes or so much inland water ^^ before in the world. One-third of the whole area of the island is water. Soon one gets more into the country: and it becomes easier to take one's bearings. In its course from Red Indian Lake down- wards the Exploits River receives the waters of eight tributaries, the largest being Great Rattling Brook, Chute, Sandy and Badger Brooks, while four large streams discharge into the river itself. I will not attempt to enumerate the host of smaller streams. The main river valley from Red Indian Lake down- wards, is, nearly for the whole distance, a level or gently - undulating country, broken only by occasional abrupt hills or rocky eminences, and densely wooded for many miles back from either bank of the stream. I say densely wooded; but I do not mean stunted Norwegian firs or dwarfed Iceland pines. The forests of the Exploits Valley consist of pine, spruce, balsam, fir, tamarack, white birch, and poplar. I soon found that the old tradition . n jt:m$^^MJ^fiC.*sii9ff^J:t:js.Bf-M •A5«a»«w#'W-»»«*' .■^rcr:',x-^z-m 134 THE TENTH ISLAND which represents the island as incapable of producing trees except of small size and stunted growth is, like many others, false. In many parts of the island as well as here are great forests, where the average girth of the trees is not much, if anything, under nine feet. I saw a number of trees which I should take to be three or four feet in diameter; and these, besides, ran straight up for fifty feet without a branch or knot. At Norris's Arm, by the beautiful Exploits River, where we made a halt for refreshment, there is an hotel, and there we found quite a party of sportsmen. This is the head-quarters of the deer-slayer. The station-master is a little man, somewhat lame, with a great taste for music. I shall always carry with me a remembrance of his impromptu concert, in which he played the zither d, merveille. When I resumed my journey I fell into conversation with an American, who comes often to the colony for sport. We talked about everything — but chiefly the French shore question. "I guess they've been run pretty close to secession point," he said. " Do you think there is any annexation senti- ment? Will Newfoundland ever join the United States?" He eyed me narrowly. When he saw my query was downright earnest, he bit off a THE TENTH ISLAND 135 small piece of tobacco (a habit doubtless acquired in Newfoundland), and said: — "01 course, America 's a free and glorious country, but I guess there's about as much chance of Newfoundland joining the United States as of the Gulf of St Lawrence running c* y. They'll leave the country, and as a matter of fact, a lot of them do every year, but as soon as they can get money enough back they'll come. America would be ashamed to treat a dependency as England has treated Nevirfoundland. They've been sat on and pushed aside and neglected right and left. Is that the way France treats St Pierre?" " No," my American friend went on, " the fact is, Newfoundlanders are proud to consider them- selves Englishmen. Families whose bone and sinew have been made in the island these two hundred years talk of going home — to England. Take the police force of St John's. They speak of them there as Her Majesty's guardians of the peace. When the Queen's Birthday comes round every year, it 's a sight to bee all those fishermen and tradesmen and merchants waving their Union Jacks, and firing off their cannon, and ringing bells, especially when you know that they owe it to themselves that their island isn't a vast howling wilderness, or else handed over bodily to France." Here our conversation was interrupted by the U 136 THE TENTH ISLAND report that a herd of two hundred deer were crossing the track in front of the train. Whereat the train stopped, and, it is unnaces- sary to add, most of our sportsmen took leave of us. The caribon or reindeer are finer than the similar breed of Norway. Stags have been often shot weighing forty stone and more. I have seen antlers with fifty-two points. The antlers of these caribon are palmated, sweeping backward, and of superb proportions, the broad antlers meeting over the nose, as one writer says, " like a pair of hands clasped in the attitude of prayer." The migrations of these deer, who shed their horns in November, are as regular as the seasons. With the first October frosts they turn their heads southwards from the Boune Bay country, where they feed and bring forth their young, arriving in the southern districts up to November. The best shooting months are September and October; but the fishermen on the southern shore seem to get good shooting well into the winter, for they make incursions into the interior and bring back many hundreds of carcases. At times the St John's market is positively flooded in winter with venison hail- ing from this quarter. The flesh often brings as little as five cents a pound. Deer-shooting, since the new railway, is getting to be, for the average man, a moderately inexpensive sport; THE TENTH ISLAND 137 but in the days when Lord Dunraven went on his shooting tour, some fifteen years ago, it was an undertaking of no mean pretensions. It is still necessary to have somebody in the party with a pretty good knowledge of the habits of the deer, as well as a couple of Micmac Indian guides. Lord Dunraven summed up the sport- ing situation by saying that the caribou were plentiful, and the " Newfoundland stags are finer by far than any to be found in any portion of the North American continent." "Fur," he de- clared, " is pretty plentiful, wild fowl and grouse abundant, and the creeks and rivers are full of salmon and trout." On the whole, one can safely affirm that there is no country so near England which offers a similar prospect of good sport as Newfoundland. And under the new conditions, which promise to alter the face of the colony, such sport cannot go on but for a definite period. At the Stone Quarries we partook of a repast with the workmen. The experience was one to be remembered as long as stomach lasts! We sat down to a long plank table, eight on a side, and ?» ^ from tin plates and drank from the cups. I will not describe what we ate, although I shall carry a recollection of each item with me to my grave. It was the tea, and the tea alone, which transfixed me, first with horror, and then with an irresistible fascination. Tea in New- 138 THE TENTH ISLAND foundland is boiled. When it has boiled it is taken out and reboiled. At the seventh steep- ing the tea has taken on those qualities for whicjh tea is (in Newfoundland) esteemed. The Quarries' tea is often kept boiling seven months ! That is to say, what has been put into the cauldron in April is still sizzling merrily in October. Our train was soon approaching a wide and beautiful river — the Humber. It is extensively wooded on both sides, and is the richest and most fertile country I had yet seen in the island. To the north, as one approached Bay of Islands, a glimpse can be caught of an enormous tract of prairie grass, four or five feet high, and miles in extent. This grass for the most part cured on its stalk, and in winter would provide fodder for many thousand head of cattle. Not only are hundreds of sqT' ire miles uninhabited, but even unexplored, save by the countless herds of wild deer. ^ Bay of Islands, the temporary terminus of the railway, is one of the most beautiful places I have ever visited. The first thing that arrests the attention is the extreme blueness of the great sheet of water which bursts upon the view. It is as blue as the waters of the Mediterranean ; it is almost as blue as the Bay of Havana ; and that is the bluest expanse I know of. The next thing THE TENTH ISLAND 139 that strikes you is the altitude of the surrounding mountains — the Blomidon range — many of whose peaks reach 2000 feet. The bay is dotted with numerous islands. The sound of cascades drop- ping hundreds of feet down the sheer sides of the half-encircling sierras, the majesty of the sunrise and sunset, the refreshing verdure which every- where meets the eye, all proclaim a spot which is sanctified by Dame Nature, and deserves some- thing better of mankind than obscurity. I did not visit Boune Bay ; but I was told by Mr Fisher (to whose daughter I beg to present my best remembrances — her repast of venison and ptar- migan was delicious) that its scenery was the equal, if not superior, to that of Bay of Islands. A steamer or two plies along the coast ; and it was by steamer that I visited Bay St George and Port-aux-Basques, and at both places I had talks with the fishermen. Here I found them all hotly in favour of confederation, and at Channel they wanted me to make a speech. They were particularly exercised about the existing law concerning the magistracy of the coast, the duties of which are now undertaken by the British naval officer. The colonists want their own local judges to arbitrate in all the affairs of the district, or else the appointment of an Imperial judge. I cannot refrain from relating the fol- lowing incident as it was related to me: — A few weeks ago the captain of a French vessel 19BBDBBM siaammsmmem n 140 THE TENTH ISLAND came ashore, got drunk, and conimitted a very grave assault. A band of citizens, with the authority of the local magistrates, set off in pursuit, with the intention of arresting the offender and incarcerating him, pending the arrival of the British naval officer. But the criminal escaped, and the whole affair, being re- ported to the officer, he used these words: — "I am very glad that your purpose was frus- trated. Had you apprehended the captain for this crime, it might have caused unpleasant relationp between Great Britain and France." Port-aux-Basques is an extraordinary little place — a bare rock, where a single tree or green thing is never seen — yet where scores of happy laughing children scamper to and from school, with nothing apparently to grace their lives, confronted by nothing from dawn till dark but the rude details of fishing and what the priest teaches ihem ; and yet happy with the mere joy of living. All mankind, I suppose, is chat way until the grey surliness of life and landscape puts out its spiritual sunshine. The fresh complexions and naive manners of the lads and lasses were highly exhilarating, and I was glad that the new railway was to come this way and open the world to their romping eyes. For it ie into this ineffably dreary, bleak little winding place on the rocks that the railway is to come and build its terminus. Port-aux-Basques, THE TENTH ISLAND 141 which has been sleeping heaWly with its dried fish for centuries, is to become the town of Channel— perhaps the city of Channel And when the Channel Brass Band is playing before its Town Hall, and the tired citizens are parading its esplanade, I shall, if I live to see the day, think of the ilaxen-haired inaiden who had never seen a tree, a brick house, or a lamp-post, and who kissed her little brown fingers to me as the steamer sailed away. CHAPTER XIII Cinderella is rather embarrassed with land. She has more of it than she knows what to do with — for, apart from the peninsula of Avalon, there are perhaps six persons in the island who solely follow the vocation of farmer. In spite of the fact that a third of its surface is lakes and rivers, and a great deal of swamp and arid territory, there are no less than seven thousand square miles of agricultural land in the Tenth Island unsettled. In other words, there are more than twenty thousand free farms, and no takers. As a proof of what Newfoundland can do in the agricultural way, I may quote from Sir Stephen Hill, who was Governor in 1873, and who says that "the agricultural capabilities of the island are far greater than are usually assigned to it, and that large portions are capable of a high cultivation. The area of the fertile portions added together amount to many millions of acres. With respect to the products of the colony, potatoes, turnips, cab- bages, peas, beans, and indeed all vegetables which grow in England, arrive at the highest state of perfection in Newfoundland. Of cereals, 142 THE TENTH ISLAND 143 its barley and oats will not suffer by compari- son with the produce of Nova Scotia. . . . As regards fruit, currants, strawberries, goose- berries, and cherries, with other fruit, grow in the gardens, and countless species of berries are found in great profusion throughout the country." After this, an Englishman, one of those whose cardinal belief has been from childhood that Newfoundland is a fog-bound rock, may well rub his eyes in astonishment. I shall never forget my own amazement when I first came upon the coloured poster in St John's announcing the Annual Agricultural Show. I think I should have experienced the same emotion nad I been caught in a snow-storm in Barbados. It is certainly no little exploit that a society of fifty or sixty members should organise such an agricultural show as this, in which prizes of 500 dols., besides the usual array of silver trop ies, medals, and so forth, are offered. By these annual exhibits in every branch of tl ^ farmers' industry it has been clearly shown tL^ even on the peninsula of Avalon, " which is quoted by all authorities as being the least productive portion of the island," splendid live- stock, root crops, fruit, and even cereals worthy of a place in any Sussex or Devon- shire show can be produced. At the last i ii 1 1' ■HW 144 THE TENTH ISLAND exhibition there were over a thousand entries for produce and live stock. There were cab- bages weighing from 30 to 40 lbs. each; turnips, twenty to the barrel; and fine speci- mens of beet, carrots, and parsnips. The sepa- rate exhibition of dairy products was equal to anything in a town of similar size in Canada. Of course, when one speaks, as I do here, of the agricultural accomplishments of Newfoundland, it must be remembered that, as yet, only the poorest portions of the soil of the island have been brought under cultivation, and those least favoured by climate. The very worst land is that in the neighbourhood of St John's; so that, if this district can make such an excellent showing, it may be left to the imagination to depict what must happen when the four or five million acres of rich fertile soil in the interior of the island are opened up by the plough. Much has already been said of the causes which have retarded the agricul- tural progress of the colony up to the present moment — the early prohibition of settlement which rendered the country unknown, and the want of roads, which rendered it inaccessible. Then, till now the people have been almost exclusively employed in the fishing industries. The fisherman never saw farther than his own nose, and to him the plough that was known to old father Adam was an awkward and un- THE TENTH ITLAND 145 bhe )le. lost les. m in- faiuiliar implement. Small wonder, then, that the progress of agriculture has been slow. Yet, despite these drawbacks, it is wonderful to see how quickly the fisherman is turning his new lesson to account. As yet the cultivation of land is confined to the vicinity of the towns and settlements, with two exceptions in the Humber River region, where a man named NichoUs has a farm, and where two sons of a clergyman, one of them formerly secretary to the Governor, have gone out to clear the land and to try their fortunes. According to the latest census, there are 179,215 acres of land occupied, 64,494 acres of improved land, 20,524 acres in pasture, 21,813 acres in gardens, and 6,244 acres of improved land unused. I have seen it estimated that, at 50 dols. an acre (which land so close to towns is certainly worth), the territory at present cultivated is worth 3,224,700 dols. In 1884 the quantity of improved land was 46,498 acres; in 1900 I shall be astonished if it be less than 150,000 acres. To show what a profitable business farming in Newfoundland can be made to be is to show how inconceivably stupid are the inhabitants, and how inconceivably foolish and ignorant are those persons who push forward to pro- secute stock and crop -raising farther west, even to the heart of the continent. The prices K asssasB l46 THE TENTH ISLAND that ordinary produce fetches in St John's ought to have tempted experienced farmers to engage in this territory. The total value of the farm produce of the colony, I am informed, is 1,562,398 dols.; and every year a million dollars is spent on imported farm products. The colony, which could produce as good as Canada, spends an item of a quarter of a million dollars on butter and cheese alone. This would be all very well if it were a rich colony or unable to yield enough for its own consumption; but for a poor struggling community, which needs every dollar it can get and keep, and has besides such a belt of grazing country as I have never seen surpassed for richness, it is the purest extrav- agance. Of course, such things as making a stupid people sen^'ble or a poor country pros- perous are not to be done in the turning of a wrist; yet I cannot but think that a very few measures and a very few years would be re- quired to so alter the face of this island and the conditions of life which govern it, that poor rusty, moping Cinderella would not know her- self for the transformation. There are thousands upon thousands of acres of alfalfa grass, which might support thousands of cattle all the year round, for it cures itself on the stalk ; and yet there is net even an old broken-down donkey to feast upon it. While I was in the Humber River region I If ■1 1 THE TENTH ISLAND 147 had a most interesting talk with Mr Bayly, the elder of the two brothers I have mentioned. He told me they had begun business almost without a pound of capital, clearing the land with their own hands at the rate of twelve acres a year ; and that they were succeeding even beyond their expectations. They found a capital market for everything they could raise; and, as we chatted, the ruddy hue of my gentleman- farmer's cheek, and the sparkle of Lis eye, made me envy his enthusiasm. Next year they would double the amount of their clearing, and build a couple of new outhouses, and buy more poultry. They could have a thousand more acres for a song, if they wanted it. The alfalfa seed recently sown on his farm had proved thoroughly successful. It had with- stood the storms and frosts of winter, and he expected to sow a great deal next year. Alfalfa grass, for stock-raising purposes, promises to prove invaluable. A cosier farm already I could scarce wish to see: everything — to the farmhouse — the work of their own hands, and every penny of profit continually adding to the store. This is the sort of Swiss Family Robinson life which makes the heart-sick literary drudge want to start at once to be a farmer in a new country, unre- stricted by landlords, untaxed by tithes, and uncoddled by curates. I have scarce a single Jl 148 THE TENTH ISLAND pictorial souvenir which I treasure more than the two photographs which I carried away of the Bayly farm, with its plucky young pro- prietors, smiling and erect, in the middle distance. All along the river flats, in the valleys, and on the "barrens," when these are subjected to drainage, and the country becomes cleared, there will be room for thousands of farms. The hills will furnish pasture for countless herds of cattle and sheep; and I. hear there is already talk of starting ranches in this region. My own belief, based on observations in the ranching country of the North- West, is that such a busi- ness would pay handsomely. Cattle thus raised could be transported in five or six days to England, and would arrive in the pink of condi- tion, instead of jaded by weeks of overland and sea travel. Thus, again, the proximity to Eng- land of such ranches as these figures greatly. To show how productive the soil is in the vicinity of St George's Bay, one has only to mention a fact which I learned there, that whenever the trees are removed by fire, wind, or other causes, a spontaneous growth of grass springs up. I was told of a vast meadow which has been giving hay for nineteen years, the nineteenth crop better than the first. With the adoption of the cold storage system, there are no limits to the success which might attend the prosecution of THE TENTH ISLAND 149 nng rop the the I of the cattle and meat trade in Newfoundland. The freezing process could be very readily put into operation. From the Humber River district to Hall's Bay, an arm of Notre Dame Bay, on the north-eastern coast, a level plain extends across the island. I believe the greatest height of land between these two points does not exceed 200 feet, and the distance is approximately 100 miles. In this plain the land is in many places almost equally excellent, and the timber abundant and of large size. At one time it was intended to construct a common road along this plain, and a survey was made some years ago, but no road ever came of it. From the surveyor's report, it appears that from 5000 to 8000 people could settle here with every prospect of making comfortable homes for themselves as farmers, lumbermen, or miners. A chain of small lakes, with rivers flowing from them, extends from Hall's Bay to the shores of Grand Lake, with only a single portage a mile in width. From Grand Lake the route lies across a portage nine miles wide, and then the Humber River is reached. The scenery along this plain, especially at the Birchy Ponds, is very beautiful, and several places compare not unfavourably with the lake scenery of England and Scotland. Game of various kinds is profuse, and great herds of deer are common sights. Sportsmen may pardonably reckon this country i 150 THE TENTH ISLAND a paradise. It is said that nearly one thousand caribon were slaughtered about Gander Lake when swimming across in November 1893 — truly a wanto n and barbarous destruction. As to other game, the North American hare is found in prodigious numbers, and ptarmigan are plenti- ful. The beaver and other fur-bearing animals, bears, and wolves are met with. The island offers some of the finest grouse -shooting in America (the best localities being in the southern parts), and wild geese, ducks, snipe, and curlew are abundant. As to the fisherman, the Tenth Island offers him unrivalled a ^ 'actions. The lakes ari d rivers teem with trout and salmon. Indian Brook Valley contains 50 square miles of land suitable for farming, and the timber area is not less than 100 square miles. The timber is chiefly white pine, white and black spruce, white birch, and fir. The soil is of a rich, sandy loam, easily worked. As to what might be described as the centre of the island, I can bear even stronger personal testimony. Tlie fertility of the lower Exploits Valley is amply testified wherever cultivation has ever been, even in the slightest degree, attempted ; while as a grazing or stock-raising country it can hardly be surpassed. With a splendid river, plenteous timber, and a fertile soil, the region that is now awilde^^ness might, THE TENTH ISLAND 151 by energy and enterprise, be soon converted into a thriving settlement, maintaining a large population. As regards Avalon, most of that peninsula consists of poor, rocky, swampy, or absolutely barren soil. I should not be disposed to think much of the powsibilitieR of this part of the island, or rather of this which is almost an island by itself, if I had not seen equally poor land elsewhere converted by the virtues of the plough and manure into good oat, barley, and root crop lands. And what can be done in Scotland and New England can be done in Avalon. The gardens and cultivated areas in the neighbour- hood of nearly all the settlements there bear witness to its possibilities, and already its rather thin soil furnishes admirable grazing ground, and extensive areas are already in the vicinity of the railway being turned to highly profitable account. When you speak of farming, climate counts for a good deal. I was told that the Anglo- American Cable Company's shares were once called, in stock-exchange parlance, " dogs " ; and I hear there is a tendency to speak of the new Newfoundland bond issue, in the same quarter, as "fogs." The French sage has obs^erved that those evil qualities we most reprehend in others are those which most characterise ourselves; and it is probably by the same token that a 152 THE TENTH ISLAND r\ travelling Cockney will stand anything sooner than a fog. Permeated to the primal artery by his "pea -soup," gasping and choking for breath, unable, to see your hand before your face, he will smile calmly and tell you it is "nothing." But if you seek to blast the fair conception he has formed of any territory under the sun, tell him it is rather foggy, and you have settled its chance, so far as he is concerned, almost as much as if you had brought about its complete submersion by the sea. Those early merchant-adventurers, with their fund of fog yarns, well knew what they were about. Instead of the cold, foggy atmosphere which is generally supposed to hang over the island, the case is quite the reverse. The air is clear and warm, and the temperature during the year singularly equable, the mercury in winter seldom falling below zero or rising above 80 degrees in summer. If fogs visit the south-east and south- west corners of the island, as I am told they occasionally do, I never saw a shadow of one. At any rate, they never penetrate the interior, and I am ready to take it on the word of a clergyman who has spent many years here, that from June to October the climate is far superior to that of Great Britain, while the winters are many degrees milder than those of Nova Scotia or THE TENTH ISLAND 153 New Brunswick, to say nothing of Minnesota and Manitoba. On the whole, I think we may regard the fog bogey as played out. He has had his day-and a long day it has been. Let us be charitable : let us place him on the shelf. ' P I f- CHAPTER XIV It is not in the sea that the Tenth Island's biggest treasure lies. Nor is it on the land: it is under it. Newfoundland is, in a word, a treasure-house of minerals. Already she is the sixth copper- producing country of the world. Yet, of copper alone a tithe of the visible quantity has not been worked. The mines of Newfoundland, like almost everything else, are in their veriest infancy, and there is scarcely a pea,sant who cannot show you on his mantel- shelf a specimen of the copper, iron, nickel, and even gold ore of his neighbourhood. Various mines of asbestos, nickel, iron pyrites, lead, and iron in different parts of the island are already reckoned as actual pro- perty ; and give promise of becoming, when the time arrives to work them properly, develop- ments Ox g^eat \^alue. Geological science has, I believe, long pointed to Newfoundland as being rich in mineral forma- tions ; but I was, I confess, not a little astounded at the evidence of this which, not only in my journeying in the interior, but in the capital and and on the coast, continually confronted me. 154 I THE TENTH ISLAND 155 When in your rambles you discover the ground covered with shells or the soil strewn with leaves you may make up your mind that ocean and wood are not far off; and when you are in a locality where every railway hand, fisherman, or lumberman, has not only got ore at home on his mantel-shelf, but carries seven kinds of it about in his trousers pocket, you may safely assure yourself you are in a mineral country. And that is what happens here. There is nothing so engrossing as the scientific mingled with the mysterious: which probably accounts for the seductions of astrology. But the astrological to the rude minds of those of whom I speak pales before the potency of a piece of rock or quartz which may or may not be worth millions. When I arrived in the colony the Cape Broyle gold fever ha i just reached its climax. Everybody who could rake and scrape enough together to reach that more or less fj^voured spot had staked off his or her little claim, never dreaming in their innocence of the pains of prospecting, of the weary labour of ledging, of the costs of mining plants, even of the humble stamping mill, to say nothing of capital-hunting, company-floating, and of that hope deferred, so common with miners, which maketh the heart sick. On the contrary, each individual seemed to regard the best part of the busi- 156 THE TENTH ISLAND ness done, now that he had staked his claim. " What do you think of that, sir?" asked one man of me at the City Club, passing over to me for my inspection a fragment of clay-coloured ore iibout the size of a hen's egg. There was a look of triumph about his face, as who should saj, I am not asking you for your praise but for your congratulation. I took the piece of ore, admiring the thin yellow vein which ran through its surface. " What is the assayer's opinion ? " I asked. " I haven't shown to any assayer," he replied ; " but there ain't any doubt about its being gold. You see I took it down here to a jeweller in Water Street, and he touched it up with acid. It 's genuine gold right enough." "What are you going to do with it?" I en- quired. " Sell it — if I can get my figure." "Do you think there is much ore of this character on your claim?" His look answered my question. " And what do you regard as a reas'^nable price for the property?" •' Pifty thousand dollars," he replied promptly. " But you won't get anybody to buy it at that figure until you've got expert opinion, sunk a shaft, and got the ore properly assayed." " Very well ; then I won't sell it. The gold 's there all right ; it can't walk away, and THE TENTH ISLAND 157 when I get ready, I'll do all these things myself." When I came to make further inquiries about the Cape Broyle discoveries, I found that the gold seam, although fairly rich, was of paltry extent. By the time, therefore, that it reached this man's claim, it had probably nearly petered out altogether. As a proof of this, I was afterwards told that, although the territory had been dug up in all directions, a few pounds of ore worth 7 dols., was all that re- warded the mine - owner in prospective, who would not part with his claim under 50,000 dols. Since then, many of the Cape Broyle claims have been abandoned. But that there is gold elsewhere cannot be doubted. The abnormal development of the serpentine rocks in the island, is regarded by geologists as sustaining their assertion that Newfound- land is a remarkable mineral country. The shores of Notre Dame Bay, where copper was first unearthed, are of serpentine formation, as well as its many clusters of islands. At Bay of Islands and Boune Bay, on the west coast, there are large developments of the serpentine; and I am told there are reasons for believing that the serpentine formation traverses the island between these two points. The existence of the new railway will greatly 1 1 fmrnmnrm ■«■■ HH HE 158 THE TENTH ISLAND ^Ri facilitate the exploration of this region, and then a true knowledge of the extent of its mineral deposits will ulti uately be revealed ^ As to the actual copper wealth of the island, the first mine was discovered in 1867 at a small fishing hamlet known as Tilt Cove. The discovery was soon turned into an enterprise, and the enterprise into a profit. In the course of fifteen years the Tilt Cove mine yielded somewhere about 50,000 tons of copper ore, worth 1,572,154 dols. ; as well as 32,740 dols. worth of nickel ore. It is still worked at the present day, giving employment to several hundred miners. Eighteen years after the discovery of Tilt Cove, another copper mine was opened at Bett's Cove, a dozen miles to the south ; and in 1878 an even richer copper deposit was unearthed at Little Bay. Up to 1879, the total value of the ores exported from these mines was close upon a million pounds sterling. The present mineral exports approximated a million dollars annually. But I believe there has been of late years a very serious slump in copper — owing to the enormous output in the Lake Superior mines, and the determination of those controlling those properties to under-sell all possible rivals. Nevertheless, the demand grows yearly greater as the result of modern electrical contrivances, and prices are slowly advancing. When they reach that point, a few dollars more THE TENTH ISLAND 159 a ton, which they are confidently expected soon to reach, there is no doubt about capital's inten- tions in the matter. It is the opinion of American experts that no finer copper than that in Newfoundland can be found. That in the Tilt Cove mine is a beautiful yellow sul- phuret, free from arsenic or any undesirable ijigredient, with a little iron, and containing froni oight to twelve per cent, of pure copper. Ai'iMirdin^f to an American expert, Professor Stewail/, Mie "character of the rocks in which copper occurs gives an absolute assurance of perpetuity in the working. The rocks are metamorphosed and laminated ; and the extent of mineral indications over large areas renders exhaustion in the working a practical impossi- bility." After this, Newfounulaiid wliould feeJ easy about her copper supply. Passing from copper in other ores, Mr Howl' y, the head of the Geological Huryey, inffrrmH lae that iron, lead, coal, asbestos, ma/jganese, miUm monUe, molybdenite, and silver, as well 8M goi4, occui' in various places, and frequently in prom- ising quantities. Lead ore was first discovered at La Manche, iiear the north-eastern extremity of Placentia Bay, where workings were carried on for several years. The quality o^ the lead was of the best, with a slight per^t^nt/ige of silver. At Port-au-Port, on the wester ^j i$luji/r& ii « k. H ^l«p 160 THE TENTH ^LAND of the island, a rich deposit of lead ore was discovered soniv> years ago, and for a short time was worked with most favourable results. On the protest of the French, however, who alleged that the working of a mine here was an in- fringement of their treaty rights, the Imperial authorities ordered a cessation of the enterprise. This was not the first, nor has it been the last, occasion on which a similar episode has occurred.* In St George's Bay and Codroy the develop- ments of gypsum are enormous, but, after copper and iron, it is in coal and asbestos that the island is richest. The deposit of the latter mineral has attracted the most attention on account of its great scarcity in America, and the not distant prospect of the Canadian supply giving out. Prospectors were sent to the island in great numbers; for asbestos is an article not to be found in every acre. It is a little singular that a mineral substance which can be utilised for the manufacture of clothing, and even of lace curtains, is the only substance which will effectually close the breach of a 110-pound gun so as to prevent the escape of gas when the charge is fired, for covering war- balloons, and for protecting the sides of iron- * In the Appendix is set forth the case of Captain Cunningham, whose mining operations were terminated at the instance of the French, THE TENTH ISLAND 161 lam, I the clads. The quality of the asbestos found is highly satisfactory. The way it came to be found at all is curious. On the eastern coast of Port-au-Port, rising out of the sea to a nearly vertical height of 1800 feet, is a moun- tain known as Bluff Head. This mountain was long known to the fishermen of the locality as " Cotton Rock," on account of the fibrous character of the stone thereabouts. The " cot- ton" was long collected in small quantities, and shown among the men, their wives and children, as a curiosity. The tale and the "cotton" passed from fisherman to fisher- man, until a morsel of both g./^ '<8^ '»' ^^