122 GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW OF THE FISHERIES. 



flsb to the Dutch at New Amsterdam. Fish were exported from Boston as early as 1633. Iii 1639, 

 for the encouragement of the fisheries, the general court passed an act which exempted fishing 

 vessels and their apparatus from taxes and duties for some years, and relieved fishermen during 

 the fishing season, and ship-builders from military duly. This act was the origin of the system of 

 protection. Says Sabine (Report on American Fisheries, 1853): "Such a law, in the infancy of the 

 colony, when contributions from every State, and the personal service in arms of every citizen, 

 were imperatively demanded by the exigencies of the times, shows the deep importance which was 

 attached to this branch of business by the fathers of the Commonwealth." 



The following extracts from Sabine will show the condition of the fisheries of this State at 

 various periods: 



"Of the year 1641, Lechford, iu his 'Plain Dealing; or, News from New England' (printed in 

 London, iu 1642), says that the people were 'setting oil the manufacture of linen and cotton cloth, 

 and the fishing trade'; that they were 'building of ships, and had a good store of bail;s, lighters, 

 shallops, and other vessels'; and that 'they Lad Inildid and planted to admiration for the time. 

 We learn from Johnson's 'Wonder Working Providence', that the Rev. Richard Blindmau had 

 gathered a church at Cape Ann, 'a place of fishing, being peopled with fishermen'; and that 'their 

 fishing trade would be very beneOcial had they men of estates to manage it.' \Ve read in Wiu- 

 throp's Journal, that 'this year the men followed fishing so well that there was about 300,000 dry 

 fish sent to the market'; and in Ilubbard, that the colonists received letters from England by the 

 English fishing ships that came to the Piscataqna. In 1642, we find in Winthrop that the same 

 class of ships brought news of the civil wars between the King and the Parliament, 'whereupon 

 the churches kept divers days of humiliation'; and that 'there arrived another ship with salt, 

 which was put off for pipe staves,' so that 'by an unexpected providence' there was 'a supply of 

 salt to go on with fishing'; and iu Holmes, that 'the settlement at Cape Ann was established to 

 be a plantation, and called Gloucester.' Again, Winthrop records, in 1643, the return of the Trial, 

 'Mr. Thomas Graves, an able and a godly man, master,' from a voyage to Bilboa and Malaga. 

 This was the first vessel built at Boston. Her outward cargo consisted of fish, ' which she sold at 

 a good rate'; and she brought home ' wine, fruit, oil, iron, and wool, which was a great advantage 

 to the country, and gave encouragement to trade.' 



"In 1644, we have an incident pertinent to our purpose, which is related with some particu 

 larity in the chronicles of the time. It appears that a London ship of twenty-four guns, Captain 

 Stagg, arrived at Boston with a cargo of wine from Teneriffe; that a Bristol ship, laden with fish, 

 lay in the harbor at the same time ; that Stagg, authorized by a commission from the Cromwell 

 party in England to capture vessels belonging to Bristol, made prize of this ship; and that a 

 Bristol merchant and others interested iu the vessel and cargo seized by Stagg collected a mob 

 and raised a tumult. It appears further that some of the citizens of Boston, apprehensive of 

 serious consequences, made prisoners of the merchant and other strangers and carried them before 

 Wiuthrop, who confined them under guard in a public house, and that the people of the town 

 concerned in the affair were committed to prison. Stagg was next called to an account, but it 

 was found that he had not transcended his authority. A great excitement was produced by the 

 occurrence, and some of the ministers, participating in the common feeling, spoke harshly of 

 Stagg in their sermons, and exhorted the magistrates to maintain the people's liberties, which 

 they considered had been violated by his act. A part of the magistrates were of the opinion 

 that the Bristol ship should be restored; but the majority expressed a different view of the case, 

 and Stagg was allowed to retain his prize. But the merchants of Boston, who, it would seem, 

 were owners of the cargo of fish, petitioned to be allowed to test the right of the captor to their 



