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possession of certain spots and by taking care to be the first to put out their nets. But in the year 1804, about the beginning of the salmon fishing, a large party of men from the city interfered with them; they were "threatened, assaulted, beat and wounded," their nets carried off by force and other nets set in their places. For the next two seasons the St. John men held absolute control of the salmon fishery from the falls to Portland Point. Nor did they rest satisfied with this. In the spring of 1805 a party of more than one hundred came into the weirs that had been built by Hazen, Simonds and White or their tenants and carried away the greatest part of the fish. This action they repeated the next year and it seemed as if "the freemen and inhabitants of the city" had carried all before them.

During the prevalence of the animosity created by the quarrel over the fishery, the people most to be pitied were those unfortunate settlers who had been led to take up their abode in Portland on account of the convenience of the situation for prosecuting the fishery as a means of livelihood. Some of these people were pre-loyalist settlers, others Loyalists who had purchased or rented lands from the old proprietors; a few were disbanded soldiers of the King's New Brunswick Regiment. These settlers, about the year 1807, united in petitioning the legislature for the passing of an act giving the right of fishery in all waters to the adjoining soil. The petitioners stated that in the full expectation of enjoying the right of fishing in front of their dwellings they had built houses and from time to time erected wharves, stores, weirs, cooper shops, etc., and also provided boats, nets, seines, and many other necessary implements for carrying on the fishery. The old soldiers of the King's New Brunswick Regiment are