lo The Fishery Question. 



charges. They admitted the existence of 

 piracy and offered to assist the merchants in 

 suppressing it, but these overtures were re- 

 jected. The company then asked the govern- 

 ment to make Newfoundland a naval station. 

 The request was accompanied by a list of 

 persons regarded as pirates, an estimate of 

 damages amounting to ^48,000 sterling, and 

 a statement that one thousand and eighty 

 fishermen had been kidnapped. 



In spite of this state of society, the Fishery 

 was profitable and on that account attractive. 

 At the beginning of the seventeenth century 

 the English opinion, often expressed, was 

 decidedly that the best fishing ground existed 

 off the New England coasts.^'^ 



Bartholomew Gosnold, sailing in a small 

 vessel with a few fishermen, reached Massa- 

 chusetts Bay in 1602 and proceeded thence to 

 a great headland, which he named Cape Cod 

 on account of " the fish that pestered the 

 ships." Pring, Waymouth Joselyn,and the 

 celebrated Captain John Smith, by reiterating 

 this description arrested the attention of the 

 public. 



The capital necessary for ventures was 

 supplied, in great measure, by merchants of 



