1 66 HISTORY OF 



to purchafe from the company his naval ftores, and 

 the filh for his fleets. Thus the fcheme of eftab- 

 lifhing a fifhery in the Hebrides began to affume a 

 favourable afpect ; but all the hopes of the adven- 

 turers were fruftrated by the breaking out of the 

 civil wars, and the very tragical death of their ge- 

 nerous benefactor. The company had built two 

 ftore-houfes or magazines j one on the fmall ifland 

 ofHermetra, on the north fide of North Uift; and 

 the other upon a fmall ifland in Loch Madie, a ce- 

 lebrated bay of the above mentioned North Uift. 

 Martin, who vifited the Hebrides in the reign of 

 Queen Anne, faw the foundations of thofe houfes, 

 <md was informed by the natives, that Charles I. had 

 a fhare in the fifhery upon their coafts, 



De Witt, in his book called The Inter eft of Holland, 

 fays, < c That when England had feton foot a herring 

 fifliery, in the reign of King Charles I, and had taken 

 their herrings at one and the fame time and place 

 with the Hollanders, and fent them to Dantzick, 

 in the years 1637 and 1638, the Dutch herrings, 

 were there approved as good ; but the Englifh her- 

 rings, to the very laft barrel, were efteemed naught. " 

 It appeared, upon a fubfequent enquiry, that the 

 company had fuflained fundry lofTes and wrongs by 

 their fervants, throughout the whole bufinefs, 



In 1 1 654, a number of perfons of diftinftion in. 

 London, feemed earneftly to fet about the herring 

 fifhery ; and for their encouragement, the Englifh 

 commonwealth granted them an exemption from the 

 duties on fa.lt, and on naval ftores, to be ufed in their 

 laid fifhery, Collections were likewife made at Lon- 

 don, and other parts, toward the erecting of wharfs, 

 docks, and ftore-houfes ; and for the purchafmg of 

 groimd for the making and tanning of their nets. 

 The attempt being fruftrated through Cromwell's 

 ufurpation, nothing was done except the deftroying 

 the old fortification at Stronaway, by Cromwell, and 

 his building another to bridle the inhabitants, whq 



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