192 NEWFOUNDLAND.

depart for Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, and Cape Breton, to procure a livelihood in those places among the farmers during Winter. Many of them never return again to the fisheries, but remain in those colonies; or often, if they have relations in the United States, and sometimes when they have not, find their way thither.

Society in St John’s, particularly when we consi- der its great want of permanency, is in a much more respectable condition than might be expected; and the morals and social habits of the inhabitants are very different from the description of Lieutenant Chappell, (whom I very strongly suspect of arroga- ting more respect for himself than the best class of society would willingly acknowledge,) when he repre- sents the principal inhabitants as having risen from the lowest fishermen, and the rest composed of tur- bulent Irishmen, both alike destitute of literature. The fishermen, who are principally Irishmen, are by no means altogether destitute of education : there are few of them but can read or write; and they are, in general, neither turbulent nor immoral. That they soon become in Newfoundland, as well as in all the other colonies, very different people to what they were before they left Ireland, is very certain. The cause is obvious—they are more comfortable, and they work cheerfully. When, after a fishing season of almost incredible fatigue and hardship, they return to St J ohn’s, and meet their friends and acquaint- ances, they indulge, it is true, in drinking and idle—

ness for a short time; and, when the life they follow 2