Brian Burton:  

Return to Chambers Island Although the small offshore island shown here is a much smaller than Chambers Island it does illustrate how early “planters” from the UK, as they were often called, fabricated the essentials of survival 200 years ago on the rugged coasts of Nfld. - a wharf, fishing “room” & space to sun dry codfish. – This watercolour image also shows the rocky shores virtually devoid of mature trees. Looking back it's apparent that various members of the Burton clan have managed to spent a good deal of time on Chambers Island over the years, at one time referred to as Burgeo, which it still is by the local residents of nearby Davis Cove or in the nearby much larger community of Harbor Buffet in Placentia Bay; Nfld. (Hence the reference to “Return” to Chambers Island.) Although Newfoundland; (Nfld.) was not entirely uninhabited in the 18th century many British settlers, including the Burton “clan”, particularly in Placentia Bay, the largest Bay in Nfld, jam-packed with codfish, they found mostly unoccupied, vacant land except for the “French shore” in the various bays & islands within the huge bay – unlike the mostly occupied space near St. John's & Trepassey areas, which had been receiving settlers from Ireland, France & the UK for decades most of the land was unoccupied. Even before the Vikings landed in the territory in 1600, we should not forget Nfld. was already occupied although sparsely, by indigenous Beothuk & Nunatsiavut or Inuit people; These remarkably well adapted natives, of which archaeologists report there were something like 3000 in total were entirely self-suffici...Expand for more