GROWTH AND EXPANSION 77 



backbone of colonial life and trade. Their fishing vessels 

 ventured from the confines of Cape Cod and Cape Ann to 

 the coast of Maine, from there to Sable Island and the 

 adjacent coast of Nova Scotia, and finally swarmed by hun- 

 dreds upon the banks of Newfoundland. Every year they 

 sent out from New England harbors more than ten mil- 

 lion pounds of cured fish. They outdid the mother coun- 

 try in the quantity and quality of the catch. Bilboa and 

 Calais bought their best fish from the holds of American 

 vessels; Lisbon and Oporto bartered the products of their 

 land on board the craft of New England masters; the 

 Madeiras, Jamaica, and the Barbadoes willingly exchanged 

 their wines, sugar and molasses for the third-grade product 

 of the northern seas. 



Their prosperity, due to the expansion of the fishing 

 industry, had led the northeastern fishery into contact with 

 England and France. Towards the former they had al- 

 ready demonstrated that an English admiral was quite 

 helpless in attempting to enforce unpopular decrees upon a 

 seafaring people. Furthermore, in disregard of the navi- 

 gation act of England, they maintained a large contraband 

 commerce with Europe. France, on more than one occa- 

 sion, had learned to dread her New England rivals, who 

 already had furnished men and vessels for the conquest 

 of Nova Scotia. Embittered against the French for their 

 policy of exclusion from all fishing grounds, and indignant 

 at the home government for the disgraceful consequences 

 of the treaty of Ryswick, the fishermen of New England 

 at the close of the seventeenth century were waiting 

 impatiently an opportunity to use their men and supplies 

 in helping the mother country drive the common foe from 

 the fishing grounds of North America. 



