The death of Sir Humphrey was fatal to his plan ; Raleigh being allured from prosecuting it by the more tempting prospects of Virginia and the El Dorado. A third attempt was made in 1610, by a company in which Lord Bacon had a share. The settlers visited Coneep Lion Bay ; but few of them remained there : and the first permanent colony, worthy of the name, was planted by Sir George Calvert, afterwards Lord Baltimore, in 1623. It consisted. of Puritans, like the colonies of New England ; and fixed itself at Ferry Low, from which it spread by degrees over all the bays in the south-eastern peninsula. Lord Baltimore gave the name Avalon to this tract ; and so interested was he in the fate of his colonists, that he sent his son for six years to reside among them. They flourished uncler his superinten dance ; and their assistance soon produced a sensible impi overnent- in the English share of the fishery.
Towards the conclusion of that ccntury, their pros perity, and still more their quiet, was interrupted by the neighbourhood of a rival. The French had settled themselves at Placentia (Plaisance) where they had erected a fort; and the jealousy of the two nations, sharpened as it was here by the competition and the contiguity of their pursuits,broke out in continual broils, even when the mother-countries were at peace. Dur ing a time of war, in Europe, the settlements never fail ed to take advantage of a state so conformable to their own habitual feelings; and each harassed the other by continual invasions, captures, and every species of vex ation. The treaty of Utrecht (1713) put a stop to such proceedings. The bad posture of his affairs compelled
Louis XIV., on that occasion, to admit the prior and preferable claims of England to the whole island : the French evacuated Newfoundland finally, retaining only the permission to fish on a certain small portion of its shores, and liberty to occupy the islets of St. Pierre and 'Miquelon, with a garrison, or rather police of fifty men, where the fish might bc dried. The final conquest of all their American colonies, in the seven years' war, made the French glad to receive back this privilege at the peace of Paris (1763 ;) they advanced no farther pretensions; and this humble one, again admitted at the conclusion of the late hostilities, now forms their sole connexion with the island. A similar right was also guaranteed to the United States.
Since the expulsion of the French, the history of New foundland offers nothing particularly worthy of remem brance. Thc colonists were favoured with a resident governor in 1728 ; civil and justiciary courts were insti tuted among them soon after ; and a supreme court was added in 1792: since the middle of last century, when England became undisputed ruler of the ocean, they have rarely been annoyed by the presence of a hostile fleet ; their limited class of resources has continued to extend in quantity, if not in variety ; and at present the fisheries and trade of the island are supposed to pro duce an income of not less than two millions annually.
See the Rev. Lewis Amadeus Anspach's History of .71-evfoundland, 1819 ; and Alorse's American Gazetteer.