settlers to the number of one thousand. A struggle was imminent, if
only they had known it, when the presence of a few thousand resolute
settlers in Newfoundland would be of high moment to the interests of
England.

The life of such as were allowed to remain must have been wild and
strange, alternating between the populous alacrity of the fishing
season and the hand to mouth struggle of the long winter months.
Perhaps the amenities of life were not missed because they can hardly
have been known; but the restrictions on building and the absence of
local authority must early have given rise to bitterness and
discontent. Certainly we must admire the constancy of men who were
content to live, a solitary cluster, on the coast, with an unexplored
interior and savage inhabitants behind them, and with no more secure
prospect of material progress than a process of undetected squatting
on the forbidden ground.

* * * * *

With regard to the plantations that have just been mentioned,
reference may be conveniently made here by way of parenthesis to the
survival in Newfoundland of certain terminology and customs, which
form an interesting connecting-link between the early enterprises and
modern usage and practice. In the words of a writer[29] fully
conversant with the present conditions of the island: "Because of its
early 'plantations,' the word 'planter' is still current in the
insular vocabulary, and the 'supplying system' still prevails, the
solitary links which connect with these bygone days. A 'planter' in
Newfoundland parlance is a fish trader on a moderate scale, the
middleman between the merchant, who ships the cod to market and the