HERDING FISHERIES. 1*5 



are appointed constantly to keep that very route to 

 come to our fhores and propagate their kinds. For 

 fincc the French, in queen Anne's reign, burnt 5 or 

 600 Dutch bufles in one day, we had not fo many 

 herrings in our firths and bays on the call coaft of 

 Scotland, as we had this year. " 



Mr. Grofett, a gentleman of Dutch defcent, hath 

 the following remarks, in a pamphlet on th^ 

 growth of the Dutch States, and the caufes thereof* 



" If we pay the leait attention to the original 

 (late of the Dutch filheries, or by what means they 

 railed themfelves to their prefent ftate of opulence, 

 we fhall find that they were abiblutely nothing more 

 than mere filhermen, who had collected themfelves 

 into a fmall body, from different quarters, and lived 

 in luits> erected upon a fpot then called Damfluys, 

 which (till retains its name* but to the aftoniih- 

 ment of travellers, when enquired for, will be found 

 in the centre of the famous city of Amsterdam ; 

 which though originally nothing more than a poor 

 fifhing hamlet, now pretends to difpute confe- 

 quence with the firft trading city of the known 

 world London. 



" Early in the twelfth century, their progrefs was 

 fo great, that the Harlemers and Wa.terlanders be- 

 came jealous of them, embraced a frivolous op- 

 portunity of joining John VI. Count Florent, at- 

 tacked the poor fifhermen, and totally deltroyed 

 their habitations to the very foundations. In i.ioo, 

 they found themfelves re-aflembled in a confider- 

 able body, on the old fpot > and in 134: they ob- 

 tained a renewal of their privileges from the then 

 reigning Count Florent, William IV. In 1346, 

 the lordfhip of that domain devolved to the J 

 of Holland by marriage, fmce which they have in- 

 created by degrees to their prefent pitch of un- 

 doubted opulence. 



" The great inrreafe of people, in proccft of time, 

 obliged them to feck new fields of employment. 



Of 



