48 



shores, still continued their employment in the interdicted waters. The 

 English required an acknowledgment of their title, and a tribute. Ne- 

 gotiations to adjust the difficulties between the two nations failed. 

 Meantime, Charles, by his exactions of " ship-money," annually in- 

 creased his navy.* At last he was able to fit out a fleet of sixty 

 sail, and the greatest ever equipped in England. This formidable ar- 

 mament, created for the special purpose of driving the Dutch herring 

 fishers from the four "narrow seas," as they were called, was sent im- 

 mediately to perform that service ; and in the success of the enterprise, 

 the Dutch consented to pay a sum equal to about one hundred and fifty 

 thousand dollars. 



Such, I think, are the conclusions to be derived fairly from the state- 

 ments of Hume, and other writers of English history. Dr. Johnson, 

 refusing to allow any influence to the religious antipathies that were 

 awakened in the course of the controversy between the monarch and 

 his people, sums up the case far more forcibly, and evidently considers 

 that Charles owed his ruin to his zeal in maintaining the monopoly of 

 the seas. In his "Introduction to the Political State of Great Britain," 

 written in 1756, he says : " The Dutch, grown wealthy and strong, 

 claimed the right of fishing in the British seas ; this claim the King, 

 who saw the increasing power of the States of Holland, resolved to 

 contest. But, for this end it was necessary to build a fleet, and a fleet 

 could not be built without expense : he was advised to levy ship-money, 

 which gave occasion to the civil war, of which the events are too well 

 known." Thus it appears that the exercise of the prerogative to ex- 

 clude his subjects from the fishing gi'ounds of his dominions in one hem- 

 isphere was among \h.e first ; and that the imposition of taxes, without 

 authority of Parliament, to forcibly exclude a foreign people from those 

 in the other, was among the last of the oflfences that sealed the fate of 

 the unhappy Charles. 



We return to the English fishery at Newfoundland. The first inci- 

 dent that invites our attention is the attempt of Sir George Calvert to 

 found a colony. Whitbourne says that he undertook "to plant a large 

 circuit," and that in 1621 he had already sent "a great number of men 

 and women, with all necessary provisions for them," who were build- 

 ing houses, clearing land, and preparing "to make salt for the preserv- 

 ing of fish another yeare." His gi-ant was for a considerable tract, 

 embracing the coast from Cape St. Mary to the Bay of Bulls. He 

 called his plantation " Avalon." His expenditures were very large for 

 the time, amounting to nearly one hundred and twenty-five thousand 

 dollars. Sir George resided in person at "Avalon" for some time, it 

 is said, and endeavored to succeed where others had failed. But the 

 difficulties he encountered were numerous. His rights became im- 

 paired by the determined course of the Commons in asserting the free- 

 dom of the fisheries; and the soil and climate did not meet his ex- 

 pectations. 



More than all, the French menaced the destruction of his property, 



* It was said by the merchants of England in 1627, that "within three years they had lost 

 all their shipping ; that the Jisherwcn icerc taken almost in their very harbors, and that they 

 would not attempt the building of new ships, because, as soon as they were ready, the King 

 [Charles the Fii'st] seized them for his own use, against the will of the owners," »&c. 



