127 



latter place for the Canaries with cargoes of fish and pipe-staves, we 

 come, in 1645, to the first vo^^age undertaken on the distant fishing 

 grounds of Newfoundland. The projectors of the enterprise were 

 merchants of Boston and Charlestown, who, according to Winthrop, 

 "sent forth a ship and other vessels" to the Bay of Bulls. The effects 

 of the civil war between Charles and his people, felt, as we have just 

 seen, in the capture of the Bristol ship in Boston, were disastrous even 

 in those remote seas; for when these vessels had nearly completed 

 tlieir fares, the ship and most of their fish were seized by a cruiser 

 belonging to the King's party, and retained, to the great loss of the 

 merchants. 



By an act of Massachusetts, in 1647, every householder was allowed 

 "free fishing and fowHng" in any of the great ponds, bays, coves, and 

 rivers, as far "as the sea ebbs and flows," in their respective towns, 

 unless "the freemen" or the general court "had otlierwise appropriated 

 them." By a law of the following year, fishermen and others were 

 forbidden to continue the practice of cutting fuel and timber, without 

 license, on lands owned by individuals or towns ; though during the fish- 

 ing season, persons who belonged to the colony might still dry their fish, 

 and use Avood and timber necessary for their business, on all such lands, 

 by making satisfaction to the proprietors. These laws were followed, 

 in 1652, by another, which provided for the appointment of sworn "fish 

 viewers," at "every fishing place" within the jurisdiction, w^ho were 

 required to reject as unmerchantable, all "sun-burnt, salt-burnt, and 

 dry fish, that hath been first pickled," and whose fees on merchantable 

 fish were fixed at one penny the quintal, "to be paid, one half by the 

 deliverer, and the other half by the receiver."* 



Meantime, a schism had occurred between certain persons and the 

 ruling powers of Massachusetts ; and the former, embodying their sup- 

 posed grievances in petitions to the Lords Commissioners of Trade and 

 Plantations, had circulated these papers for signature. "They had 

 sent their agents up and down the country," relates Hubbard, "but of 

 the many thousands they spake of, the}^ could find only twenty -five 

 hands to the chief petition ; and those were, for the most part, either 

 young men who came over servants, and never had overmuch shew of 

 rehgion in them, or fishermen of Marblehead, feared to be profane per- 

 sons, divers of whom were brought from Newfoundland for the fishing 

 season, and so to return again." 



To relieve our narrative, we may now select some amusing pas- 

 sages from Josselyn. This veracious chronicler — who saw "frogs that, 

 when they sit upon their breech, are a foot high," and ascertained that 



* In "An Abstract of the Laws of New England," printed in London in 1655, and by Wil- 

 liam Aspinwall, the publisher, ascribed to Mr. Cotton, which Hutchinson, who preseiTes it in 

 his " Collection of Papers," says " ought rather be entitled An Abstract of a Code or Sys- 

 tem of Laws prepared tor the Commonwealth of ilassachusetts Bay," we find in chapter Sd, 

 imder the head " Of the Protection and Provision of the Country," the following : " Because 

 fish is the chiefe staple commodity of the country, therefore all due incouragement to be 

 given unto such hands as shall sett forward the trade of fishing, and for that end a law to be 

 made that whosoever shall apply themselves to sett forward the trade of fishing, as fishermen, 

 mariners, and shipwrights, shall be allowed, man for man, some or other of the labourers of 

 the countiy to plant and reape for them in the season of the yeare at the publique charges of 

 the Commonwealth, for the space of these seaven yeares next ensuing, and such labourers to 

 be appointed and paid by the treasurer of the Coumionwealth." 



