The sign in the above photo says:
In 1610 the London and Bristol Company was formed to colonize Newfoundland, one of the very first attempts to establish an English colony in the New World. The first Governor, John Guy, had made a previous voyage to Newfoundland and it was he who chose "Cuper's Cove" (now Cupids) when the 39 colonists arrived in August of 1610.
One of the colonists' first tasks was to dig "a saw-pitt hard by the sea side, and put a timber house over it." They then set to work cutting timber, both to build their "plantation" and to load their vessel for the return voyage to England. With this shipment of lumber Guy despatched a letter to the Company, noting that the colonists had felled one "pine" that was "above tenne feete about at the butt" while another "thirtie feet longe is eight feete about."
The following spring Guy wrote to the Company's secretary that their cattle, swine, goats and poultry had survived the first winter -- a winter during which the colonists had been quite industrious. "From the first of October until the sixteenth of May our company had bin imployed in making of a store-house to hold our prouisions, and a dwelling house for our habitation, which was finished about the first of December with a square inclosure of one hundred and twenty feet long and ninetie foot broad, compassing these two houses, and a work house to work dry in; to make boats and any other work out of the raine; and three pieces of ordinance are planted there to command the harboroughs, upon a platform made of great posts, railes and great poles sixteene foot long set upright round about, with two plankers to scoure the quarters. A boat, about twelve tons big, with a deck, is almost finished to saile and row about the headlands: six fishing boates and pinnesses: a second saw-pit at the fresh water lake two miles in length and the sixth part of a mile broad standing with twelve score of our habitation, to saw the timber to be had out of the fresh lake, in keeping two pairs of sawyers to saw planks for the said buildings, in ridding of some ground to sow corn and garden seeds: in cutting of wood for the collier, in coling of it: in working at the smith's forge iron workes for all needful uses; in coasting both by land and sea to many places within the Bay of Conception: in making the frame of timber of a far greater and fairer house, than that which as yet we dwell in which is almost finished, and diuors other things."
The first census of Newfoundland, in 1836, showed Cupids as having a population of 840 people. By 1869 there were 1208, including many settlers at places which have since been abandoned, including Rip Raps and a number of coves along the South Side: Deep Gulch, Noder Cove and Greenland.
Fishing and subsistence farming were the mainstays of the local economy. Although the earliest settlers relied on fishing in inshore waters from the early 1800s many schooners sailed out of Cupids each summer to fish along the coast of Labrador. This traditional fishery continued for a century and a half and involved virtually every household in the community at one time or another.
During the nineteenth century Cupids also played a prominent role in the seal fishery. Before the advent of steam-powered sealing vessels saw this industry concentrated in the larger ports such as St. John's and Harbour Grace, the same vessels were used for sealing and the Labrador fishery. In 1838 there were 16 vessels and 365 men sealing out of Cupids, while there were 9 vessels and 497 men Shipbuilding -- and related trades such as lumbering, blacksmithing and barrel-making -- grew in support of sealing and the fishery.
The Fate of the Colonists
Guy sailed to England in the fall of 1611 and returned to Cupids in the spring of 1612. With him he brought out additional settlers (including skilled artisians and 16 women). 62 people wintered at the colony that year. The wife of colonist Nicholas Guie (Guy) gave birth to a son on 27 March 1613 -- the first recorded birth of an English child in Newfoundland and possibly the first in Canada.
During the summer of 1612 the colony had been plagued by pirates, particularly by Peter Easton, who operated out of nearby Harbour Grace. In the fall of 1612 Guy led an expedition (using two of the small vessels which had been built at Cupids) into Trinity Bay, where the colonists met and traded with the Beothuk.
John Guy returned to Bristol in 1613. Captain John Mason was appointed Governor in 1616. From 1616 until 1618 the Pawtuxet Indian Squanto (or Tisquantum) lived in Cupids. Squanto had been captured in Massachusetts and was brought to England for a time. He was later of great assistance to the Mayflower colonists, when they arrived at Plymouth in 1620. It seems that the formal colony at Cupids declined after Mason's departure in 1621. Some of the Cupids colonists relocated to "Mosquito," near Harbour Grace (now Bristol's Hope), others to other parts of the new World. A "scheme of the fishery" of 1675 indicates that Cupids was still occupied year-round, but on a much-diminished scale. However, Cupids has enjoyed continuous settlement since 1610.
The Toll of the Sea
Tragedy has always gone hand-in-hand with the seafaring way of life. One shipwreck which affected the entire community was the loss of the sealing schooner Azariah which sailed from Cupids in March of 1831 with 22 on board. All but four were lost when the vessel went aground on Baccalieu Island. The rescue vessel Joseph was also from Cupids.
On 29 November 1875 the Waterwitch left St. John's for Cupids, but was caught in a storm off Pouch Cove. The ship was totally wrecked at Horrid Gulch, with the loss of 12 of the 25 persons on board. Almost all were from Cupids.
The Tercentennial
1910 marked the Tercentennial Celebration of the founding of the first colony in Newfoundland. At Cupids the four-day event drew large crowds. A monument to John Guy was erected by the Newfoundland Historical Society, with help from a local committee and the people of Bristol. Former residents of Cupids living in Toronto donated a giant Union Jack, and a large flagstaff was erected in Cupids in order to fly it. A replacement flag and staff were raised by the Cupids Historical Society in 1983.
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