EcclesiasticalhistoryofNewfoundland ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY OF NEW-1 FOUNDLAND. By the Very Reverend M. F. Howlev, D.D.. Prefect Apostolic of | St. George's, West Newfoundland. 8vo, pp. 4»6. Boston : Doyle & Whittle. It must be confessed that Americans, those I of us at least who lire to the southward of (he | Canadian line, know but little of the great tri angular island that lies off the Gulf of St. Law- I rence. To its own inhabitants, indeed, it is in some decree an unknown land, for its interior | can hardly be said as yet to have been thorough ly explored, and there are solitudes among I the lakes and rivers of its remote wilderness that have probably never yet been seen by the eye of civilized man. Its nigged and pictur esque coast is touched only at widely separated points by passcngrr steamers, and but one short railway line has as yet penetrated the forests or disturbed the silence of the rocky fastnesses with its noisy evidence of civilization. Vet these in hospitable shores were early visited by mission aries from the Mother Church, and the opening | of the sixteenth century saw the symbol of the Christian religion reared at several points along the coast. Dr. Howley has been engaged in collecting material for the present history during the greater part of his life, having at an early age developed a taste for accumulating notes bearing upon the history of Newfoundland. The actual work of preparation, however, has occupied rather moie than a year. The learned author has had only one predecessor in the field, the kt Rev. I»r Mullock, whose history was never published, though it formed the basis of a Ice- I lure on the subject that has found its way into print. To this unfinished manuscript Dr. Haw- ley acknowledges his indebtedness as well as to I other less extended sources of information. He has brought to the work all the enthusiasm and teal of a life devoted to labors among the scenes | of which hU history treats, and the result is without question the standard work on the sub ject that has thus far been produced. While strictly ecclesiastical, in the technical tense, the work pfiiwi a local interest that render, it also in effect a general history of the colony in the early days of its development, and down to the year 1850, closing with the episcopate of the Kt. Kev. Dr. Fleming. ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY NEWFOUNDLAND i ^ THE VERY REVEREND M. F. HOWLEY, D.D. rrrject Apoitolit of Si. Ctorgt's, ll'ftt Xrti-fi'mtJIaiiJ BURNS&0ATES.L5 L( NDON.W. BOSTON 1" •' v. !:' : i : : . ••• i:i >\\\ i<^ i 888 t. U> '•* c DEDICATION o^o SVMMO PASTOR1 OMNIVM EOCLESIARVM PR.EPOSITO PONTTFICI LEONI XIII. LlTERARVM CVJVSCVNQVE GENERIS FaVTORI MVNIFICENTISSIMO Jvbil.evm Sacerdotale ORBE plavdente Cattholico Hoc Anno MDCCCLXXXVII Agenti Inter tot, Discipline, Scientle, Religionis Splendidissima pignora Ab Omnibvs Mvndi Plagis Oblata Exigvvm HVNC LIBE. LVM AVCTOR Avsvs est iivmillime offerre Operis defectus Qvos plane agnoverat. Cordis Affectv ; Animujve Oiiseijvio occvrrere dlscvpiens. INVOCAZIONE A LEONE XIII., P.M. RISTORATORE I.VDEFESSO DELL A FILOSOFIA E TEOLOGIA CRISTIANA. Tu! CHE SUL TRONO ASSISO SEI, DI PlERO. NOBIL, RAMPOLLO DEL DE'PECCI STEMMA DEGNO D'ORNAR II- TR1PLO DIADEMA : — Di cm l'avita strai.e a raggio Altiero Blin.LA OGNOR NEL SUO AZZl'R SENTIERO. — ClIE SCINTILLANDO, QUAL LUCENTE GEMMA INDORA 'L CEDRO AUGUSTO,1 — ATTO EMBLl'.MA ])I LUI CHE AL TETRO ERROR SARi GUERRIERO ! =>v*;o "LrME ne'ciel'," dal Santo Irlandese* Ne' tempi or thascorsi, phonunziato In st: TIA PENNA, PARSI svolazzare L'ANGHXICO DoTTOR, CON L'AAE ESTE8E. — La VOCE PARSI CDIR DEL AQUINATO 1)1 NUOVO IL MONDO INTIERO CATTIVARE ! M. F. H. 1 Lo SUTOma del Pi-ccl. - 8. Maluchla. INVOCATION TO LEO XIII., P.M. INDEFATIGABLE RESTORER OF CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY AND THEOLOGY. Hail thou! on Petek's chair enthroned Pope, Thou Noble Scion of the PECCI stem! Worthy to Grace the Triple Diadem. — Thou whose Ancestral Star, with ray of hope, Gleams bright within its azure horoscope: Sparkling with splendor of pellucid gem, Tints the tall Cedar with a golden hem,1 Emblem of him who with dark Sin must cope. Thou art the very " Light from Heaven " of yore. By Erin's Sainted Malachy foretold, For o'er thy haloed brow with wings unfurled The " Angel of the Schools " is seen to soar Tipping thy pen with ray of molten gold, — Once more AQUINAS' voice inthralls the World! M. F. 1 The Arms of the Pecei family. PREFACE. ALTHOUGH it is but little over a year since the first " stroke of the pen " was put to the composition of this work, still I may say, with some truth, that it has been in course of compilation for over a quarter of a century. Ever since the happy days of school-boy life I have been always on the alert to gather material. It may be called a " hobby " ; it may be called a " craze " or a " crank " ; it was certainly an absorbing passion to grasp with avidity everything in any way bearing upon the past history of our country ; every aneedote of the olden time ; every scrap of manuscript ; every inscription or epitaph having the slightest pretension to antiquity ; every vestige of the former occupation of Newfoundland, whether civil, military, or ecclesiastical, — in a word, everything with the shadow of a claim to archa?ological distinction was immediately transferred to the note-book or sketch book, with a view to being at some future day pre sented to the public. Hence, it may be imagined that, when at last the momentous step was actually resolved upon to " make a beginning," I was confronted with that serious difficulty so elegantly defined by our French writers as "An embarrassment of wealth." Though knowing that I was deficient in a great deal of documentary lore which I would wish to obtain, yet I was conscious of possessing a con siderable amount of information, highly interesting, but of so heterogeneous a nature as to defy any effort at putting it 7 8 PREFACE. together in a connected form. I was thus bewildered as to what I should reproduce, what reject. I at first attempted to bring in a great deal of this, what I may call extrinsic information, by way of appendix or notes ; but I soon found that the notes would exceed the body of the work. This I knew would be a defiance of all just rules of proportion, so I was obliged to invent some means of incorporating it into the book. That I have not always succeeded in making smooth work I am fully con scious, and can only throw myself on the mercy of the indulgent reader. Another very great difficulty which confronted me was, that my material naturally divided itself into two classes, of so totally different a character that I at first thought it would be better to make two distinct books. The first class of items contained those concerning the general early history of America, "quorum magna pars fuit" Newfoundland, and on which I felt sure I had some facts, theories, docu ments, maps, etc., never yet published, which would be interesting to the general reader, not only in Newfound land, but in America and Europe. The second class consisted of purely local, almost house hold, facts, aneedotes, incidents, descriptions, etc., which could be interesting only to Newfoundlanders, and even to only a section of them, viz., the Roman Catholics. To separate the work into two books would, I saw, mutilate each, and render them imperfect ; to unite them I feared would render the book tedious and unacceptable to many. In this dilemma I was advised by a valued and experienced friend to put them together, and let them sink or swim on their merits. Thus, on this score, again I feel it necessary to crave the reader's forbearance. PREFACE. 9 When about to commence the work I fortunately came into possession of an unfinished manuscript Ecclesiastical History of Newfoundland, by the Rt. Rev. Dr. Mullock. This history was never published, though the well-known "Lect ures on Newfoundland," delivered in St. Bonaventure's College, and published in pamphlet, were compiled from it. I at first intended to use this manuscript as a basis on which to build my superstructure, taking it paragraph by paragraph, and introducing, as I went along, my own notes between brackets. But so much historical information has come to light since Dr. Mullock wrote (now nearly thirty years ago, 1856), that I found it quite impracticable, as it would pro duce a disjointed and disconnected narrative, and occasion many useless repetitions. I, therefore, determined to draw upon the above manuscript whenever necessary, as a rule making acknowledgment of it. For the history of Ferryland I am greatly indebted to the work of Henry Kirke, Esq., High Sheriff of Demerara, on the "Conquest of Canada." I regret, therefore, on some occasions being obliged to refute rather warmly some of that gentleman's assertions. Henry Kirke is a descendant of Sir David Kirke, who occupied Ferryland after Lord Baltimore, and died there. Also to Mr. Richardson, of Portland, Me., U.S., for a most interesting article on Ferryland, in the "Magazine of American History." For the description of Placentia, by Abbe Baudouin, I owe my thanks to J. P. Howley, Esq., F.G.S., Superintend ent of the Geological Survey of Newfoundland, and to Mr. Jack, of St. John, N.B., who copied the original French document from the archives of Ottawa.