T

HIS is not merely a story of decline and fall; it is one of noble courage and self-sacrifice, of an invincible faith that glowed bright and brighter in the blast of persecution.

It is a memory of the bad old times, yet it invigorates us like the ozonic ocean breeze that 'sweeps the gray fogs from off the Grand Banks.

From the troubled Old World, tormented by the demons of political and sectarian strife, the unholy spirit of intolerance once spread his black wings across the sea and planted his cloven hoofs firmly on the soil of Newfoundland, and here for many miserable years he maintained his chief citadel in North America. He was powerful, sinister, merciless, and at times the glow of his fiery breath might be seen far across the sea.

He was a long time coming, but a longer time staying. It was in the summer of 1494 that the aborigines for the first time in many centuries—perhaps since the passing of the vessels of St. Brendan, Lief and Madoc-beheld an European ship. It was that of John Cabot, a Venetian, but a citizen of Bristol, sent out by King Henry VII, of England. Cabot landed on the feast of St. John the Baptist, June 24, 1494, on an island (in the Gulf of St. Lawrence) which he called St. John's in honor of the festival. Partly exploring along the coast, he found the sea fishful, the natives gentle, though clad in bearskins

and armed with bows and arrows, wooden clubs, pikes, darts and slings. He sailed back through the fogs and the icebergs and reported his discovery to the King, who granted patent March 5, 1495, to him and his three sons, Sebastian, Ludovic and Sancto, authorizing them to sail with five ships, allowing them the full property of the countries they should discover, on condition they returned to Bristol and paid him. one-fifth of their profits, they to have exclusive rights of all countries discovered belonging to the heathen and which were previously unknown to all Christians, and no other English subjects to trade there without their license.

Cabot senior died before the start of the expedition. His son Sebastian sailed in May, 1497, steered along the continent to Florida, then back to Newfoundland. The first land that was spied thereabouts he called Terra Nova-the location of which is uncertain. The run of codfish struck him as being so abundant that he named the place in general Baccalaos, a Basque name for cod-still preserved in that of the bird-covered isle of Baccalieu. Then Captain Sebastian sailed back home, and the miserly first Tudor King thought so much of the discovery of the first of the future British colonies that he made the sailor who had espied the land the munificent present of $50. Later, some English vessels made what seemed unprofitable visits to Newfoundland, they bringing home only hawks, wildcats and popinjays.

In 1534 emerged from the fogs of the coast the azure flag and golden lilies of France, as Jacques Cartier, who later met his coadjutor Roberval in the roadstead of St. John's, rounded the island on his way to the discovery of Canada. In April, 1536, sailed from England one of the first of those disastrous expeditions that caused navigators and would-be colonists to regard desolate Newfoundland with horror and dread. A London merchant named Hore fitted out an expedition, taking with him one hundred and twenty men, including "thirty persons of character." In two months they arrived at Cape Breton. They sailed round Newfoundland to Penguin Island and landed on the western coast, where, on the bleak inhospitable shore, their distress and sufferings became terrible. Frantic with starvation and despair they had recourse to cannibalism, killing some of their number in the woods, roasting and eating the flesh. At length came a French ship, which the famished survivors of the unfortunate expedition seized and utilized to carry them to England, where they landed at St. Ives in Cornwall, "so much altered that their nearest relatives did not know them." The French owners of the vessel came after it and entered complaint, and Henry VIII satisfied their demands and exonerated the refugees.

Captain Martin Frobisher, advocate and attempter of the northwest passage, visited Labrador in pursuit of his design. Two years later, so famous had the fishery grown, there were no fewer than four hundred fishing vessels, mainly French, Spanish and Portuguese, bobbing on the banks. These vessels sailed home with rich takes of fish when the season was over and wintered in the ports of their respective countries.

Sir Humphrey Gilbert had, like Frobisher, a strong idea that there existed.

a northwest passage to the East Indies. Queen Elizabeth granted him a patent to colonize such parts of America as were not already colonized by her allies, also sent him a token of "an anchor guided by a lady," and he obtained the cooperation of his half-brother, Sir Walter Raleigh, scholar, courtier and buccaneer. Misfortune hovered over the expedition from its origin. Raleigh was unable to come on account of a contagious disorder breaking out on his ship. Gilbert reached the land of doom August, 1583, with four vessels, bringing a ing a disorderly rabble of sailors, masons, carpenters and musicians, and erected a pillar of wood bearing the arms of England. Then he sailed south. in search of other lands, but only to meet trouble by discontent, mutiny and disease, and finally death by drowning.

His cupidity aroused by accounts of the wealth obtainable on the bankswhich Francis Bacon declared contained a richer treasure than the mines of Mexico and Peru-Sir Francis Drake came over on a plundering expedition, seized several of the foreign fishing vessels laden with fish and oil, and took them away as prizes. But no further attempt on the part of England was made to colonize the place or develop its industries till about half a century later, when the illustrious Sir George Calvert of Yorkshire, champion and promoter of religious liberty in the Western Continent, obtained for himself and his heirs from James I, in 1623, a charter of the Province of Avalon, with a grant of all islands lying within ten leagues of the eastern shores, "together with the fishing of all kinds of fish, saving to the English the free liberty of fishing, salting and drying of fish."

Disgusted at the bigotry and intolerance that prevailed at the time in England and promised to long continue, Calvert had the idea of establishing in

America a colony where his co-religionists would be allowed to practice their religion unmolested. He sent out a large number of persons under his agent, Captain Edward Wynne, who was appointed Governor of the settlement and who built a fine house at Ferryland, on the eastern coast, about forty miles north of Cape Race. VisViscount Falkland, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, probably to make room for the English and Scotch settlers who were now pouring into that country and settling on the confiscated Irish clanlands, sent out a number of emigrants from that country. At Ferryland a fort was built for the protection of the new colony. Sir George Calvert, now Lord Baltimore (so titled, not from Baltimore, in the south of Ireland, but from some place, not now identifiable, in the County Longford, central in the green isle), came out with his family and settled here, spent £25,000 in improvements, defeated three French men of war that were harassing the fishermen, and infused activity, vitality and confidence. into the community. Abundance of stores and implements was provided, the soil was broken and agriculture started with good results. Everything looked of good augury for what was the largest and most flourishing Catholic colony and abode of religious liberty in North America.

Suddenly there came an important an important change, one that presaged no good. The colony lost its spirited, broad-minded, efficient head. Some said that Lord Baltimore had grown weary of the annoyance given by the French, others that his family yearned for a cheerier climate than the fogs and damps of Newfoundland. Anyhow, he returned to England, and, King James being dead, he obtained from King Charles, in 1632, a grant of the territory now comprising the States of Maryland and Delaware, whither he transferred his

family and means, brought out some more shiploads of Catholics from England and first implanted Christian Liberty in what is now the United States. And in that same year he died.

Sad and dark was it for the Catholic settlers of Newfoundland when Baltimore transferred his personality and sphere of influence elsewhere. Of bad omen was it for the colony generally. Backed in their policy by the English Government, the English merchants who owned the fishing boats, the fishing stages, flakes, etc., and who had control of the "fishing admirals," aimed only at the protection and extension of the fishery, not of the colony. Therefore colonization was discouraged; owners of fishing boats were prohibited from carrying in their vessels any other persons than those actually employed in the fishery and the officers of His Majesty's Customs-the presence of the latter indicating a laying of Government duty on the produce of the sea. fisherman was allowed to remain behind in Newfoundland after the season was over-and, indeed, there was little to induce him to remain on that icebound shore during the dreary winterand masters of fishing boats were ordered to give bond to mayors of westof-England seaports that they would bring back all persons they took out with them.

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Nevertheless, despite these iron-bound regulations, large numbers of Irish Catholics, anxious to escape the grinding oppression of the penal laws, not only managed to make their way to Newfoundland but to stay there. In their native land the rigors of persecution were relaxed by a warned and intimidated Government in 1745, when the bayonets of the Irish Brigade in the service of France avenged the wrongs and sufferings of the Irish at home by the glorious victory of Fontenoy. "Cursed be the laws that deprive me of such subjects!" exclaimed King George; and

the courtly Earl of Chesterfield was sent over to govern the green isle on partly liberal ideas, to call off the sordid priesthunters and conciliate the Catholics by allowing them to go to Mass. But in wretched Newfoundland the poor Irish refugee now found the print of the ugly. hoof of sectarian bigotry more distinct than Robinson Crusoe did that of the South Sea savage.

In neighboring Nova Scotia the same. miserable condition prevailed. In 1759 the general assembly of that British colony passed an act establishing the Church of England, giving free liberty of conscience to Protestant Dissenters, but banishing "Popish priests" under penalty of imprisonment, etc., and providing that any person harboring or concealing any such priest should be fined £50, be set in the pillory and compelled to find security for "good behavior."

In Newfoundland, as a main plank in the platform of persecution, Catholics were absolutely debarred from public office, and Government officials were required to take the following oath: "We, the undernamed justices of the peace, judges, and sheriff, do declare, that we do believe that there is not any transubstantiation in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, at or after the consecration thereof by any person whatsoever."

Governor Richard Dorrell made a strenuous order for the exclusion of Roman Catholics, Governor Webb laid an unjust and arbitrary tax upon them, which tax Governor Graves, in 1762, thus ordered the justices to enforce: "You are likewise to continue in due force the tax laid against Roman Catholics per late Governor Webb, and to make a return to me of what money has been collected on that account."

So did sullen, gloomy, hollow-eyed bigotry display itself, even as an unwholesome emanation of the soaking soil, under the cheerless leaden skies of that island Siberia.

Soon the spies and priest-hunters were sent forth. In 1755 Dorrell wrote thus to the magistrates of Harbor Grace:

"Whereas I am informed that a Roman Catholic priest is at Harbor Grace, and that he publicly read Mass, which is contrary to law, and against the peace of our sovereign lord the King, you are hereby required and directed on the receipt of this, to cause the said priest to be taken into custody and sent round to this place. In this you are not to fail."

Apparently the magistrate addressed. did not like the dirty work allotted to him by the truculent Governor, to whom his plausible letter of evasion reads:

"As concerning the Roman priest of whom you were informed that he read public Mass at Harbor Grace, it was misrepresented; it was at a place called Caplin Cove, somewhat below the Harbor; for if he read it in the Harbor I should have known it and would have secured him. After he was informed that I had intelligence of him, immediately (he) left the place, and yesterday I was informed he was gone to Harbor Main."

Thus did the justice astutely pass on the responsibility of capturing the priest to some of his more zealous brethren. It does not appear that the hunted clergyman in question was captured, after all. But he was tracked by the tools of the infamous law in his celebration of the Holy Sacrifice, and those Catholics who were found to have assisted thereat were punished with a vindictive sentence of ruin and exile. Thus was it that Thomas Burnett, deputy to the ruthless Dorrell, issued for execution to a magistrate the following warrant, probably unparalleled of its atrocious kind in that year and period:

"At a court held before me at Harbor Main the 20th of September, 1755, at which you, Charles Garland, was present, at which time Michael Katem did appear before us, and by his own confession did admit a Roman priest to celebrate public Mass according to the Church of Rome, in one of his fish-rooms or storehouses, and he, being present himself, which is contrary to law,

"At the same day appeared before us Michael Landrican, who was guilty of said crimes, for which we think proper to fine him the sum of twenty pounds, to burn his house and stage down to the ground, and he to quit the said harbor by the 25th of November ensuing.

"At the same time appeared before us Darby Costley, Robert Finn, Michael Mooring and Renold McDonald, which by their own confession are Roman Catholics and inhabitants of this place, which is contrary to law that they should hold any property in this island. We therefore think proper to fine the said Darby Costley ten pounds, Robert Finn ten pounds, Michael Mooring the sum of eight pounds, and Renold McDonald the sum of two pounds ten shillings, all the said fines in sterling money of Great Britain, and all the said persons to quit the said island by the 25th of November ensuing. "T. BURNETT."

In Harbor Main there were sixteen

other Catholics, charged with having taken part in the practices of their religion, visited with similar penalties. There were also large numbers of victims hunted down and persecuted at Carbonier and Harbor Grace and several other fishing villages. The torch of bigotry was sent forth in the hands of ruffians protected by the law, and the little. villages flamed with the burning homes and stores of poor fishermen, thus inhumanly punished for their devotion to the faith of their fathers. Every place where the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass was said to have been celebrated was ruthlessly given to the flames and burnt to the ground by the command of some bigot in authority. Literally, never was. there a greater hotbed of religious persecution than Newfoundland seen on the Continent of America.

The Catholics do not appear to have taken persecution tamely or to have exhibited much intimidation, judging from the fearless and defiant attitude of stout George Tobin, master of the St. Patrick brig, lying at Harbor Grace. In the midst of the intolerant annoyance and threats to which his kind were subjected, Captain Tobin proudly wore Irish colors, hoisted them to his ensign-staff, with the English ensign hung as in contemptuous inferiority at his jack-staff, and shouted Irish defiance and taunts to the sneers of the English and Jersey sailors in the neighboring boats. For this the aforesaid Burnett fined him ten pounds; but whether George paid it is another matter.

The martinet Governors, Sir Hugh Palliser, Byron and Shuldham exerted themselves in succession to oppress and expel the detested "Papists," who were now strongly suspected of being in sympathy with the insurrectionary American colonists. The first-named ordered the pulling down of the huts and houses of Catholics, who were furthermore prevented from putting up fishing posts and stages in order to follow the chief local industry. It was also ordered: "That not more than two Papist men shall dwell in one house during the winter, except such as have Protestant masters;" "that all children of Roman Catholics born in this country be baptized according to law" (i. e., by a Protestant minister) and "that the masters of Irish servants do pay for their passage home."

These galling severities and insults practiced in the name of religion had at length a result desired by the persecutors. They drove some of the oppressed people into resistance and riot, which occurred at Harbor Grace in 1762. Some of the participants were arrested and vindictively punished, their sentence providing:

"That Dennis Neal shall receive three dozen lashes on his bare back with a cat-ofnine-tails, at the admiral's stage at St. John's,