New Brunswick is the latest born of the American settlements. For many years after the conquest her fertile soil lay almost uncultivated, and her population was nothing more than a few hundred fishermen. It was at the close of the American War of Independence that the era of progress in New Brunswick began. Across the frontier, in the New England States, were many persons who had fought in the British ranks, to perpetuate a system of government which their neighbours had agreed to reject as tyrannical and injurious. These men were now regarded with aversion, as traitors to the great cause. Finding life intolerable amid surroundings so uncongenial, they shook from their feet the dust of the revolted provinces, and moved northwards with their families in quest of lands which were still ruled by monarchy. Five thousand came in one year. They came so hastily, and with so little provision for their own wants, that they must have perished, but for the timely aid of the Government. 1785 A.D. But their presence added largely to the importance of New Brunswick, which was now dissociated from Nova Scotia, and erected into a separate province. At this time, when she attained the dignity of an administration specially her own, her population was only six thousand, scattered over an area nearly equal to that of Scotland. But her soil was fertile; she abounded in coal and in timber; her fisheries were inexhaustibly productive. Her progress was not unworthy of the advantages with which Nature had endowed her. In twenty years her inhabitants had doubled. In half a century the struggling six thousand had increased to one hundred and fifty thousand. To-day the population of New Brunswick exceeds three hundred thousand. This rate of increase, although the numbers dealt with are not large, is greatly higher than that of the United States themselves. In the treaty by which England recognized the independence of her thirteen colonies, the boundary of New Brunswick and of Maine was fixed carelessly and unskilfully. It was defined to be, on the extreme east, a certain river St. Croix. Westward from the source of that river it was a line drawn thence to the highlands, dividing the waters which flow to the Atlantic from those which flow to the St. Lawrence. The records even of diplomacy would be searched in vain for an agreement more fertile in misunderstanding. The negotiators were absolutely ignorant of the country whose limits they were appointed to fix. Especially were they unaware that the devout Frenchmen who first settled there were accustomed to set up numerous crosses along the coast, and that the name La Croix was in consequence given to many rivers. In a few years it was found that the contracting powers differed as to the identity of the river St. Croix. The Americans applied the name to one stream, the British to another. That portion of the controversy was settled in favour of Britain. But a more serious difficulty now rose to view. The powers differed as to the locality of the “highlands” designated by the treaty, and a “disputed territory” of twelve thousand square miles lay between the competing boundary-lines. For sixty years angry debate raged over this territory, and the strife at one period came to the perilous verge of actual war. The people of New Brunswick exercised the privilege of felling timber on the disputed territory. 1839 A.D. The Governor of Maine sent an armed force to expel the intruders, and called out ten thousand militiamen to assert the rights of America. The Governor of New Brunswick replied by sending two regiments, with a competent artillery. Nova Scotia voted money and troops. But the time had passed when it was possible for England and America to fight in so light a quarrel as this. Lord Ashburton was sent out by England; Daniel Webster, on the part of America, was appointed to meet him. 1842 A.D. The dispute was easily settled by assigning seven thousand square miles to America and five thousand to New Brunswick.
Newfoundland was the earliest of the British settlements on the northern shores of America, and it was also, down to a late period, the most imperfectly known. Even from the time of its discovery by Cabot the value of its fisheries was perceived. English fishing-vessels followed their calling on the Newfoundland coast during the reign of Henry VIII., and the trade then begun was never interrupted. England had always asserted proprietary rights over the island; but she did not at first attempt to enforce exclusive possession of its shores, and the ships of all European nations were at liberty to fish without obstruction. But the vast importance of those fisheries became more and more apparent. It was not merely or chiefly the liberal gain which the traffic yielded. Of yet greater account was the circumstance that the fisheries were a nursery in which was trained a race of hardy and enterprising sailors, capable of upholding the honour of the English flag. A century after Cabot’s voyage, the sovereignty of Newfoundland and the exclusive right to fish on its shores were claimed for England; and the claim was enforced by the confiscation of certain foreign ships, which were peacefully returning home, laden with the gains of a successful season.
About the middle of the seventeenth century there were upon the island three hundred and fifty families, scattered in fifteen or sixteen petty settlements. By this time the persons who resorted to the fisheries had become sensitively alive to the preservation of the trade, and looked with disfavour upon the increase of a permanent population. They were able to obtain from the reckless Government of Charles II. an order that the settlers should depart from the island; and the barbarous edict was enforced by burning down the houses and wasting the fields of the inhabitants.
It was not England alone to which the fisheries of Newfoundland were of value. France was equally in earnest in her desire to gain control of the coveted territory. 1696 A.D. She had one or two small settlements, and she had been able by one happy stroke to gain possession of the whole island. The triumph, however, was not enduring, for England speedily reclaimed all that she had lost. 1713 A.D. By the treaty of Utrecht, when Louis XIV. was reduced by the victorious arms of Marlborough to the last extremity of exhaustion, France ceded to England all her claims upon Newfoundland; preserving still, however, her right to participate in the fisheries.
Down almost to the close of last century Newfoundland was without any proper government or administration of justice. England would not recognize the island as a colony, but persisted in regarding it as a mere fishery. The substitute for government was probably the rudest device which has ever been adopted by any civilized country. 1690 A.D. The master of the fishing-vessel which arrived first on the coast was the “Admiral” for the season, charged with the duty of maintaining order among the crews of the other ships, governing the island from the deck of his vessel. The great industry of Newfoundland—her fisheries—was always prosperous, and yielded large gains to the mother-country. But her infant settlements struggled up to strength and importance in the face of many discouragements, which were negligently or wilfully inflicted.
The area of Newfoundland is equal to two-thirds that of England and Wales, and her population is one hundred and fifty thousand. For three hundred and fifty years after Cabot’s discovery the interior of the island had never been explored by Europeans, and was wholly unknown, excepting to a few Indian hunters. Only so recently as 1822 an adventurous traveller accomplished for the first time a journey across the island. The enterprise was attended with much difficulty and some danger. The country was found to be rugged and broken. Innumerable lakes and marshes opposed the traveller’s progress, and imposed tedious deviations from his course. The journey occupied two months, during which the traveller and his Indian companions were obliged to subsist by the chase. No traces of cultivation were discovered, and no inhabitants. The natives of Newfoundland were the only race of American savages who persistently refused to enter into relations with the white men. They maintained to the end a hostile attitude, and were shot down and finally exterminated as opportunity offered.
Newfoundland has on her western coast, and along the valleys through which her rivers flow, some tracts of rich land on which grain might be grown. She has, too, much good pasturage; and although her winters are long and severe, her brief summer has heat enough to ripen many varieties of fruit and vegetables. She has coal, iron, and limestone. Her savage inhabitants fed on the flesh of deer, which wandered in vast herds in the woods; and they clothed themselves in the rich furs of bears, wolves, beavers, and other wild creatures. The first settlers found the noble Newfoundland dog living in a very debased condition—hunting in packs, and manifesting tendencies not superior to those of the wolf. But his higher nature made him amenable to civilizing influences, and he quickly rose to be the trusted companion and friend of man.