18 PAST AND PRESENT OF with the fall of , French power, in what are now the Maritime Provinces of Canada , was broken. The Island of St. John's, as already pointed out, was taken possession of on behalf of Great Britain by Lord Rollo in 1758. In 1763 the Treaty of Paris confirmed what her victory had given her, and, with the rest of 's posses¬ sions in , save some small islands and some fishing rights, the Island became, as^ she is today, part of the British empire. The long struggle for supremacy was at an end. A halo of romance invests the wondrous story of French, performance in Canada . The record of her achievements in the field, on the flood, in the forest, the tale of her pioneers, the deeds of her soldiers, the wanderings of her voyageurs, the self- sacrifice and indomitable resolution of her explorers, of her priests and of her people, the whole legend of 's dominion in the New World, is one that has in it much of sadness, much of toil, much of heart-burn¬ ing, much of sorrow; but a thousand times more has it that in which all these arc lost. It has in it the memory of noble purposes, of high resolves, of great and gifted men, of mighty struggles, in a word, a story worthy of the great people whose sons are its theme, and whose Canadian sons were worthy of the wonderful mother country from whose loins they sprang. We rejoice and are glad that we live under the folds of the three-cross flag. We must also feel a great and a generous pride in the men of French blood, who first made Canada , whose deeds and whose glories are now the common heritage of the two races, those ancient foes, who are today pressing forward as one, in the building up and con¬ solidating of this Domin¬ ion, whose united efforts will result in a na¬ tion as great as the world has seen. Yes, they are a common heritage, because they be¬ long to our common Canada , our common country. The lot of the settler on St. John's Island could not have been an easy one. Ever dis¬ turbed by war or the threatenings of war; called upon to supply the needs of the great fortress, and of his country's ■ soldiers and sailors, and that almost within sight of .his English foes, his must have been a trying life. Mr. Stewart says that some of : their settlements were fine, but the refugees . who sought a resting place there in the later • years could have had little chance to found \ new homes. Le Loutre 's desire to supply them with some flour, in itself shows what straits they were in. Mr. McMillan , in his; work already referred to, tells us of their- awful destitution, that some of them had not: even sufficient clothing to work out in win¬ ter, or to cover their nakedness in public: The greater the number of refugees, the; more appalling must their condition have be¬ come. During, or more likely prior to, the ac¬ tual settlement of the Island by the French, a destructive fire swept a large part of its; surface, causing enormous damage. Before this calamity occurred, the Island must have: been stocked with deer. Even to this day their antlers are sometimes found, proving: their former existence here. In his childhood 1 the writer has heard the old people tell that,, in some great, by-gone fire, all the deer had 1 been destroyed, and, although they did note know when it happened, the tradition could 1 only have referred to this fire, during or be-- fore the early days of French settlement. Mr. Stewart refers to it briefly. It is likely that when it occurred fishermen were fre¬ quenting these shores, but if so, their settle--