38 



man, or that it is the service of God otherwise than as other pohtic laws 

 are and be, then such persons shall be punished as spreaders of false 

 news ought to be." Such were the means adopted to increase "ship- 

 ping" in the infancy of English navigation. 



These laws were speedily followed by others. In 1571, fishermen of 

 the realm were permitted to export sea-fish free of the customs ; while 

 the same year, and by another act, foreign fishermen anchoring on the 

 English coast, or interfering in waters where nets were used, wore 

 liable to seizure and confiscation. 



Meantime the Newfoundland fishery was prosecuted with great vigor. 

 The number of vessels employed in it, of various flags, is estimated at 

 three hundred and fifty or four hundred. The ships of France and 

 Spain, in 1577, were much more numerous than those of England, for 

 the reason, as is stated, that the Enghsh merchants still sent a part of 

 their vessels to Iceland. It appears, however, that the Enghsh ships 

 were the best ; that they gave protection to those of other nations, and 

 exacted tribute or payment for the service. The whole commercial 

 marine consisted of only 1,232 vessels in 1582, of which 217 were 

 upwards of 80 tons. To assume that the fifty then visiting Newfound- 

 land were of the latter class, is to state that nearly one quarter part of 

 the navigation of England, suitable for distant voyages, was employed 

 in fishing. 



In 1583 Sir Humphrey Gilbert, under the first charter that passed 

 the great seal of England for colonization in America, arrived at New- 

 foundland. He found thirty-six vessels in the harbor of St. John of 

 different nations, and was refused entrance ; but on hearing that he 

 had a commission from Queen Elizabeth, they submitted. 



He took possession of the island with gi-eat pomp and ceremony, 

 and granted lands and privileges to fishermen in fee, on condition of 

 the payment of quit-rent. It is important to remark that the right of 

 England to Newfoundland and its fishing-grounds rests on the dis- 

 covery of Cabot, in 1497, and on the possession of Gilbert at this time. 

 Sir Humphrey was accompanied by smiths, shipwrights, masons, 

 carpenters, "mineral men," and refiners, and, to win the savages, toys, 

 such as morris-dancers and hobby-horses, were provided in ample 

 quantities. The crews of his vessels, and, indeed, some of the arti- 

 sans, were desperate men. The seamen on board of his own ship, 

 the Swallow, were, it is said, chiefly pirates. Poorly clad, and fafling 

 in with a French vessel returning from the fishing-ground, they de- 

 termined to rob her to supply their wants. They not only executed 

 their purpose, by stripping their victims of their clothing and of articles 

 of food, but, by winding cords round their heads, produced such ex- 

 quisite torture as to extort the surrender of their most hidden stores. 



After a short tairy at Newfoundland, Sir Humphrey sailed for Eng- 

 land. On the passage his vessel encountered a fearful gale, and he 

 and all on board perished. He deserves honorable mention in our 

 annals. He was the first great projector of an American colony, and 

 a virtuous and enlightened man, and impoverished himself and injured 

 his friends, and finally lost his life, in his endeavors to plant the Anglo 

 Saxon race in the western hemisphere. 



Assuming full title to the island and the fisheries, the English seem, 



