Captain Smith Prefers To Take The North Side Of
Belle Isle.
There is a lighthouse on the Island, not, I thought, in a
very good situation for passing on the north side.
But I found that
there was no cable communication between Belle Isle and Anticosti.
Thus, in case of disaster, the only warning to Quebec would be the non-
arrival of the ship, and the delay might make help too late. I ventured
to call the attention of a leading member of the Canadian Government to
this want of means of sending intelligence of passing ships and ships
in distress. In winter this strait is closed by ice, and the
lighthouses are closed too. Inside the fine inlet of "Amour Bay," a
natural dock, safe and extensive, we saw the masts of a French man-of-
war. The French always protect their fishermen; we at home usually let
them take care of themselves. This French ship had been in these
English waters some time; and on a recent passage there was gun-firing,
and the movement of men, to celebrate, as the captain learned, the
taking of the Bastille. On the opposite coast is a little cove, in
which a British ship got ashore, and was stripped by the local pirates
of everything. Captain Smith took off the crew and reported the piracy;
but nothing seems to have been done. A British war-ship is never seen
in these distant and desolate northern regions. It may well be that the
sparse population think all the coasts still belong to France, in
addition to the Isles of St. Pierre and Miquelon.
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