BACKGROUND OF EARLY COLONIZATION 37 



pared from fish that had been cured on the New England 

 shore; and during the long winter months they had been 

 fired with the zeal for this distant enterprise as the fisher- 

 men of London and Plymouth recounted their adventures 

 or told of the wonders of the far-away land. Gradually 

 the popular mind was prepared for emigration across the 

 sea. The commercial and enterprising spirit of merchants 

 was aroused to venture more capital, to risk life and for- 

 tune in the New World. When the days of religious perse- 

 cution fell upon them, the people of England who left 

 their native land for the distant New England shores had 

 complete confidence that a comfortable living could be ob- 

 tained in their new home. 



NOTE. Sabine's Report on the Principal Fisheries of the American 

 Seas, 1853, has about ten pages devoted to the French and English 

 fisheries in America previous to 1620, and is the only work of any 

 importance on the subject. 



