Placentia

Placentia stands beside a sheltered harbour on Newfoundland's southern coast. Its wide stony beach offered a convenient place to salt and dry fish, and Basque crews used the harbour as a seasonal fishing base by the early sixteenth century. The Beothuk also used the bay, though expanding European settlement restricted their access to its fish and seals.

The French made Plaisance their capital in Newfoundland and built a succession of forts to protect the harbour and neighbouring fisheries. During the wars of Louis XIV, its small garrison and privateers resisted English attacks. The Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 transferred the settlement to Britain, and the French inhabitants departed for Île Royale the following year. Under British rule Placentia remained a substantial fishing town; in 1786 the visiting Prince William estimated its population at between 1,500 and 2,000.