JAMES I. : DISPUTES WITH THE DUTCH 193 



Carleton, however, thought the States would not immediately 

 agree to this, their cumbersome system of government would 

 alone cause great delay, and he counselled the king " to begin 

 with the fishers themselves," by publishing a proclamation fix- 

 ing the distance at which they would be permitted to fish. 1 

 But the States were disposed to go so far to meet the wishes of 

 the king. They objected, indeed, that fourteen miles was a 

 greater distance than that at which a person could see the coast 

 from the sea, and thus exceeded a " land-kenning " or the range 

 of vision, but they promised to issue orders to their fishermen 

 to keep so far from the land as to be out of sight of people on 

 the shore, and to strongly prohibit them from going nearer. 2 



The business of the herring fishery having thus been shelved, 

 the negotiators took up the other matters in dispute. The East 

 Indian question was settled by a treaty, 3 but the differences as 

 to the whale fishery were not so easily adjusted. The English 

 case was founded on the contention that Spitzbergen belonged 

 to King James, on their prior fishing in those seas, and on the 

 depredations committed by the Dutch in 1618 on English 

 vessels. The Dutch claimed a right to the fishery from their 

 discovery of the island, and they proposed three alternatives : 

 (1) that both nations should fish at Spitzbergen with an equal 

 number of ships, the bays to be divided by drawing lots ; 4 (2) 

 that fishing should be carried on by both parties everywhere 

 with an equal number of ships of equal size, disputes to be 

 settled by regulations ; (3) that the island should be divided by 

 an imaginary line into two equal parts, the Dutch to have one 

 part and the English the other. The English declined all these 

 proposals, and James informed the ambassadors that even if the 

 island had been discovered by their nation the English had the 

 right to the fishery because they were the first to practise it, 

 an argument which, it may be remarked, if applied to the her- 

 ring fishery, would have been unfortunate for the king's claim 

 to it. But while maintaining his abstract right to the sea at 



1 Carleton to the king, 6th February 1619. 



2 Muller, op. cit., 156. "So verre van 't Lant souden blijven als men met 

 oogen konde afsien." 



3 2nd June 1619. Dumout, Corps Diplomatique, V. ii. 333. 



4 The English, who were the first to carry on the whale-fishing at Spitsbergen, 

 had taken possession of the best fishing-places : whales then abounded in the bays 

 close to the shore, where the " cookeries " were erected. 



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