PART I. 

 FRANCE, SPAIN, PORTUGAL 



COD-FISHERY OF FRANCE. 



The French were the first Europenn cod-fishers in the American 

 seas. There is a tradition among the fishermen of Biscay that their 

 countrymen visited Newloundland before the time of Columl^us. It is 

 said, indeed, that the great discoverer was informed of the fact by a 

 pilot who had been engaged in the enterprises. The story, improbable 

 as it is, seems to have been treated with respect by some writers of the 

 sixteenth century, but may be dismissed now as one which rests upon 

 no clear and authentic testimony. 



But that the Newf()undland fisheries were known to the Biscayans 

 and Normans as early as the year 1504, is quite certain. When 

 Cabot discovered our continent, Europe, including England, was Cath- 

 olic; and during the fasts of the church, the pickled herring of Holland 

 was the principal food. The consumption of fish was immense;* and 

 the Dutch, having enjoyed the monopoly of the supply, had become 

 immensely rich. The knowledge communicated Iw Cabot and the 

 voyagers who followed him, that the waters of America contained, not 

 only an abundance, but many varieties of fish, gave rise to an excite- 

 ment on the subject of fishing hardly less intense than is witnessed at 

 the present lime relative to mining. Persons of the lligh(^^t rank, and 

 not engaged in commercial pursuits, became shareholders in adventures 

 to the new fishing-grounds. And though the Dutch refused to abandon 

 the particular fishery by which they had obtained both wealth and ce- 

 lebrity, vessels wearing the flags of France, England, Spain, and 

 Portugal came annually in search of the cod — as we shall see — for 

 nearly a "century before a single European colony was founded in 

 America north of the ancient limits of the United States. 



Of the incidents of the French fishing voyage of 1504 I have not 



* Documents which show the immense consumption of fish are to be met with by thp 

 students (if history everywhere. The following incidents, selected from ii number, will suffi- 

 ciently illustrate the statement in the text: 



"The bill of fiire of the feast given on the inarri;ip;e of Henry IV to liis Qneen Joan, of 

 Navarrc!, at Winchester, in 140;?, 'is yet in exist<Mice, writt^'u on parehnient,' remarks 'a 

 chronicler of curious thin<;sof ' the olden tim<^;' uniltlutbauquet cousist(;d of six courses — three 

 of flesh and fowl, arid thnr of J] s It. In the. ' first course of Fi/slif,' wv.ro ' Sultij ft/slif,' and 

 ' llrrmr, samoun rosfyl.' 'CX'the eonirorts of the pour,' HItli century, says an i''iii,dish journal, 

 'we iriay fi.riii a tolerulily correct notion from the hiiurics rejiislered in the iKUiseliold Imok 

 of the j;reat I'^arl of Northumberland.' I'roni this document it appears that, in one of the 

 most uoble and splendid estiililislinients of the kini^dom, the retaiui'rs and servants hail but 

 spare and unwholsomc diet — salt heef mutton, arul Jis/i ihrrr-fiiiirt/is (d" the year, with liftl(> or 

 no ve<.'<'tabl(!s ; so that, as ITuiim; says, ' tiiere camiot, be anythiiii; more erroneous than tli<< 

 nia;'nificent ideas formed of the roust licrf of old Kiifrlaml.' Nf)r does it seem that 'my lord 

 and lady' themsflves fared mueh better than their ' retainers,' since for ilieir breakfast they 

 had ' a <|uart id' beer, as rnucli wine, lira pirrr.s of uti/l fish, sif rril hcrr'niirx, four irliitr. ours, mid 

 a dish of sprats.' In !'",iii,diiMd, iu the same ciMilury, 'the (irsr dish br()ui,'hi to table on Ivister 

 day waM ii rid herring riding' away on horseback;' that is, it was tlit; cook's duty to set this 

 fish ' in curn sallad,' and make it look like a man riding on a horse." 



