Newfoundland misses its chance to right the blunder of responsible government when a referendum on Confederation with Canada is held in 1869.
One of the strongest supporters of the confederate cause is David Smallwood, prominent citizen of Greenspond, Bonavista Bay, population sixty-three.
Smallwood flies the confederate banner from his house. A crowd gathers.
Smallwood states the case for Confederation. The crowd listens, mesmerized by his eloquence and the axe that he keeps swinging back and forth.
Confederation is defeated, largely because of a demented merchant named Charles Fox Bennett, who circumnavigates the island, in every port repeating:
Our face towards Britain, our back to the gulf,
Come near at your peril, Canadian wolf.
Many believe it is divine retribution when Bennett is struck down seventeen years later at the age of ninety.