its HISTORY OF THE 



Of courfe, none could be more eligible than the 

 fifhery which they difcovered on the coafts of Ire- 

 land, and weftern iflands of Scotland. This branch* 

 they ftuck clofely to, till the Englifli difcovered 

 the Whale Fifhery, in Queen Elizabeth's time. 

 From 1598 the Englifh carried on that branch 

 unrivalled till 1612, when the Hollanders fent 

 their firft fhip to Spitfbergen, or Greenland, in 

 hopes of reaping a part of the benefit of that moft 

 beneficial difcovery. The Englifh claimed the pro- 

 perty as the firft difcoverers, and would not allow 

 the Dutch to fifh thereabout, or have any fhare in 

 fo profitable a trade. The conteft ran high, and 

 fundry bickerings enfued between the {hips of both 

 nations. At length the ftates general, unwilling 

 to give offence to king James, lent a deputation 

 to England, to treat upon the fubject of the free- 

 dom of the fifhery ; the king avoided giving any 

 abfolute decifion in point of right; yet at the fame 

 time his majefty not encouraging the Englifh mer- 

 chants to difttirb the Dutch, it remained a matter 

 undetermined, and both parties went on fifhing as 

 before. Soon after, the Danes, Hamburghers, and 

 French, began, and have ever fmce continued to filh 

 in thofe feas. 



<c The Dutch have found fo efTential an intereft 

 in the continuance of fifheries, that they do give 



* Mr. Groffett is under a miftake in making the weft fide of 

 Britain the feat of the Dutch herring fifheries. A few families 

 were permitted to fettle, as before obferved, on the Lewis Ifland, 

 and were afterwards driven away. The great Dutch fifhery was 

 formerly, as it is at prefent, carried on upon the eaft fide of the 

 Shetland Iflands, from whence the buiTes fometimes follow the 

 herrings down the channel, till want of ftores. or other circunv 

 ilances, obliges them to return to the grand rendezvous, off Brafla 

 Sound, in Shetland. 



If the north-weft coafts of Scotland be unfavourable for a Dutch 

 fifhery, that of Ireland is much more fo. Voyages from Holland 

 by the Pentland Firth to the coaft of Donnegal would require, upon 

 an average, three or four weeks, befides unavoidable dangers ; 

 while thofe to the Shetland Ifles may be performed, aiznoft with 

 any wind, in ten or twelve days at fartheft, 



every 



