43 



Tessel and the outfit was increased in the same proportion. I may add 

 that it is of interest to learn troni this r(Mnark of Sinith, and from others 

 tliat occur in his pamphlets, that the practice of fittiiii^ out vessels " on 

 shares " — to use a term well known among practical men, still so 

 common — was introduced more than two centuries ago. 



Abuses fir greater than those which had required the correcting 

 hand of Whitbourne at Newfoundland soon demanded attention. Sir 

 Ferdlnando Gorges and the quaint Hubbard both declare that the 

 fishermen and others taught the Indians " drunkenness, wickedness, 

 and lewdness;" that they "abused the Indian women openly," and 

 were guilty of "other beastly demeanors," to the "overthrow of our 

 trade and the dishonor of the government." To put an end to th(>se 

 disorders, and to acc'omplish other purposes, Sir Ferdinando Gorges's 

 son Robert was commissioned, in 1623, to come to New England as 

 lieutenant general over all the country known by that name. Francis 

 West, bearing the commission of admiral of the seas, with power to 

 restrain such ships as came either to fish or trade on the coast without 

 license, arrived the same year. Neither were officers of the crown, 

 but the agents of a private corporation. 



King James had granted, three years previously, to forty noblemen, 

 knights, and gentlemen, the vast domain embraced between the 40th 

 and 4Sth degrees of north latitude, and extending from ocean to 

 ocean. This company, known in popular language as the "Council of 

 Plymouth," claimed not only the territory within their patent, but the 

 seas. Assuming that the fishinfj-orounds from Acadia to the Delaware 

 were no longer free to British subjects, they asserted exclusive property 

 in and control over them, and were sustained in their pretensions by 

 tlie King. 



Tiie controversy which followed the attempt of the council to main- 

 tain this monstrous claim was fierce and iuigry in the extreme. The 

 limits of this report will allow but a brief account of it. It commenced 

 in 1621, two years before the voyage of West, and was continued for 

 several years. 



Sir Ferdinando Gorges's narrative of the troubles of the council from 

 this source and others is preserved in the Collections of the Massachu- 

 setts Historical iSociety, and contains many interesting statements. He 

 had l)een an officer in Queen Elizabeth's navy, and intimately connected 

 with Mason, who became the grantee of New Hampshire, and, with Sir 

 Walter Raleigh, the father of American colonization, and was as deter- 

 mined as either of them to leave his name in our aiuials. He was ;m 

 active, indeed the j)rincip;d, member of the council, and after its disso- 

 lution, acquired Maine in his own individual right. 



Tiie council demanded that every fishing vessel shoukl pay into their 

 treasury a sum equal to about eighty-three cents the ton, which, the 

 small size of the vessels of the period consirlered, amount(Ml to a tribute 

 j)robal)lv of more than a huiuhcd dollars from each EnglisJi shij) that 

 should eoine uj)ou our coast. They had made no settlements upon the 

 lajid, and tin; tonnage money to be exacted of the fishermen constituted 

 Uie only present source of revenue from their possessions. 



The spirit of the English pc^ople was roused. The Dutch herring- 

 ftshery was regarded as the " right arm of Holland," and the imagiuu- 



