]0 THE SEA. 



easy prey. In some places they set fire to the grass, and the wretched travellers, unable 

 to fly before it, were burned to death. Those who reached the Orinoco, not merely found 

 no gold, but little of that abundance so glowingly described by Raleigh. Vera himself 

 soon died in Trindad, and Berrio did not long survive him. Of the original two thousand 

 who left Spain, it is doubtful whether a tithe survived the first year. Had Raleigh been 

 a favourite with the people, or had his character been above suspicion, it is more than 

 likety that some similar disaster might have had to be recorded on the pages of English 

 history. 



Sir Walter Raleigh has enlightened us,* as regards the condition of commerce and of 

 the English mercantile marine shortly before the union of the crown of England and Scotland, 

 in a remarkable paper, " which contains," says a competent authority, " many remarkable 

 commercial principles far in advance of the age in which the author lived." He states 

 that the ships of England were not to be compared with those of the Dutch, and that while 

 an English ship of one hundred tons required a crew of thirty men, the Dutch would sail such 

 a vessel with one-third that number. Holland became the depot of numerous articles, " not 

 one hundredth part of which were consumed by the Dutch/' while she gave <e free custom 

 inwards and outwards for the better maintenance of navigation and encouragement of the 

 people to that business." Sir Walter tells us that France offered to the vessels of all nations 

 free customs twice and sometimes three times each year when she laid in her annual stock 

 of provisions, and also in such raw materials as were not possessed by herself in equal 

 abundance. Denmark granted free customs the year through, excepting only one month. 

 The Dutch were the great carriers by sea, in consequence of the facilities granted them at 

 home, " and yet the situation of England lieth far better for a storehouse to serve the south- 

 east and the north-east kingdoms than theirs do ; and we have far the better means to do it if 

 we apply ourselves to do it." He complained that although the greatest fishery in the world 

 is on the coasts of England, Scotland, and Ireland, Holland despatched to the Baltic and up 

 the Rhine more than a million pounds sterling worth of herrings, where we did not export 

 one. He states that Holland trafficked in " every city and port of Britain with five or six 

 hundred ships yearly, and we chiefly to three towns in their country and with forty ships ; 

 the Dutch trade to every port and town in France, and we only to five or six/' and that the 

 Dutch were even ruining our Russian trade. In spite of probable exaggerations in Raleigh's 

 statements as laid before the King, it is evident that with the laws as they stood, the Dutch 

 must have had, as regards their commercial marine, very much the best of it. 



While there was much depression among the shipowners, they did not overlook the 

 advantages to be derived from intercourse with the newly-discovered world of North America. 

 Though the expeditions promoted by Raleigh and his associates had been unfortunate, 

 profitable ventures were soon after made, beads, trinkets, and articles of little value being 

 exchanged for skins and furs obtained by the Indians; and Captain Gosnold made in 1602 

 the first direct voyage across the Atlantic to America all other English sailors at least 

 having sailed by way of the Canaries and West Indies. " Steering in a small bark, directly 

 across the Atlantic, in seven weeks he reached Cape Elizabeth on the coast of Maine. 



* " Select observations of the incomparable Sir Walter Raleigh relating to trade," as presented to King James. 



