574 MISCELLANEOUS 



The fishermen also would, by this measure, be driven into the im- 

 mediate service of rebellion. They would man privateers, and would 

 accelerate the levies of troops the colonies were making; and, being 

 hardy and robust men, would prove the best recruits that could be 

 found.* All this unfortunately happened. 



From the evidence brought in support of their petition by the 

 London merchants, it appears, that the four New England provinces 

 employed, in the fisheries of Newfoundland and the banks alone, 

 about 48,000 tons of shipping, and from 6000 to TOGO seamen; and 

 that ten years before, since which time the fisheries had greatly in- 

 creased, the produce of the fisheries in foreign markets amounted to 

 L. 35,000. What rendered them particularly valuable was, that all 

 the materials used in them (the salt for curing, and the timber for 

 building the vessels, excepted) were purchased in Britain; and that 

 the net proceeds were remitted in payment. 



But the merchants of Poole, and other places engaged in the New- 

 foundland fishery, presented a second petition, in direct opposition 

 to that of London. It represented, that the bill against the New 

 England fishermen would not prove detrimental to the trade of 

 Britain, which was fully able, with proper exertions, to supply the 

 demands of foreign markets ; that the British Newfoundland fishery 

 bred a great number of hardy seamen, peculiarly fit for the service 

 of the navy ; whereas the New England seamen were, by act of Par- 

 liament, exempt from being pressed; that the fishing from Britain 

 to Newfoundland employed about 400 ships, amounting to 360,000 

 tons, and 2000 shallops of 20,000 tons, navigated by 20,000 seamen; 

 and that 60,000 quintals of fish were taken every season, the returns 

 of which were annually worth, on a moderate computation, L. 500,000. 



The New England colonies, in return, resorted to all means in 

 their power to distress Britain in her American concerns; and for 

 this purpose strictly prohibited the supplying of the British fishery 

 on the banks of Newfoundland with any provisions whatsoever. 



This was a proceeding wholly unexpected in England. The ships 

 fitted out for that fishery, on arriving at Newfoundland, found their 

 operations arrested for want of provisions; and not only the crews 

 of the ships, but those who were settled in the harbours, were in immi- 

 nent danger of perishing by famine. Instead of prosecuting the 

 fishing business they came on, the ships were constrained to make the 

 best of their way to England, and other places for provisions. 



In addition to this obstruction to the fisheries, natural causes co- 

 operated. During the fishing season, a storm, more terrible than was 

 ever known in these latitudes, arose, attended with circumstances 

 unusually dreadful and destructive. The sea, according to various 

 accounts, rose from twenty to thirty feet above its ordinary level, 

 and so suddenly, that no time was given to prepare against its effects. 

 Some ships foundered with their whole crews; and more than seven 

 hundred fishing crafts perished, with a great majority of the people 

 in them. The sea broke in upon the lands where fish-houses, flakes, 

 &c., were erected, and occasioned vast loss and destruction. 



By the third article of the treaty of peace signed at Paris in 1783, 

 it was agreed that the people of the United States should enjoy, un- 

 molested, the right to take fish on the banks of Newfoundland, and in 



Andrews' B History of the American War, vol. 1, p. 339. 



