HISTORICAL SKETCH. 13 



j-(l, wliik' English ti si ling vessels nuiiibei-ed only 50. The great 

 wealth which Fiance Avas deriving from these seas led her to form 

 new and extensive designs of colonizing North America. On the 

 Accession of Henry IV., the tirst Bourbon, the cod-fishery was 

 placed under the protection of the government, and was regarded 

 .as being of great national im})ortance, and such it has been ever 

 since. Her great explorers pushed on their discoveries. Cartier 

 .disc(i\-ei'ed ("anada and secured it for France, who helil it for 225 

 yeai's till (^hiebec fell before the conquering arms of Wolfe, 

 '("hamplain, l)e Monts, Manpiette, La Salle followed till the 

 iterritories claimed by Fi'ance exten<led to the mouth of the 

 Mississijijii. 



KXGLISH FISHKKMKX. 



The siiuie attiaction, however, which brought the French to 

 these \\esterH seas ere long became potent with Englishmen. 

 Tliough later in commencing this fishery they so(m gained rapid- 

 ly on their rivals the French. During the ten years which fol- 

 lowed the death of (lilbert, ending in 1593, the progress of the 

 English fishery in Newfoundland waters was so great that Sir 

 "Walter Raleigh declared in the House of Commons " it was the 

 ■st^iy and support of the west counties of England." In the year 

 1600, 200 English sliips went to Newfoundland and they em- 

 ployed 10,000 men and boys as catchers on board and curers on 

 land. Sir Humpln-ey Gilbert's attem])t to form a settlement was 

 tlierefore not fruitless, when Sir William Monson, an English- 

 man who wrote in 1610, declared that since the island was taken 

 possession of, the fisheries had been worth £100,000 annually to 

 British subjects — an immense siini in those days. He further 

 said that these fisheries had greatly increased the niimber of 

 England's ships and mariners. Beyond all doulit this was the 

 beginning of England's maritime greatness. 



NEWFOrXULAND'S FISHKRIKS THF BEGIJTXIXG OF 

 ENGLAXD'S MAKITI^FE SUPREMACY. 



France and England had now l)etween them the entire posses- 

 sion of these fisheries, liotli nations dj'ew enormous wealth from 



