123 



which they found candied, by the standing of the sea-water and the 

 heat of the sun, upttn a rock Ijy the sea-shor(^; and in divers salt 

 marshes that some have gone through, they have tbund some snU in 

 some places crushing under their feet and cleaving to their shoes." 



Winthrop* followed with his colony, as has been observed, in 1630, 

 and records in his journal that on the passage, "we put our ship in 

 stays, and took, in less than two hours, with a few hooks, sixty-seven 

 codHsh, most of them very great fish, some a yard and a half long and 

 a yard in compass." And again he says, "we heaved out our hooks, 

 and took twenty-six cods: so we all feasted with lish this day." And 

 still further, a few days afterwards, "we took many mackerels, and 

 met a shallop, which stood from Cape Ann towards the Isles of Shoals, 

 which belonged to some English fishermen." 



These passages are selected from the many relating to our subject, 

 which are to be found in the journals, letters, and other documents of 

 the time, not only for the purpose of showing the impressions of the 

 early settlers, but their accounts of the manner of fishing, and the 

 nature of the intelligence which thcv transmitted to England to induce 

 additional emigrations. A single illustration of the sufferings of the 

 colonists, and of their dependence upon the seas for support, and even 

 to ]->reservc them from utter starvation, as at Plymouth, may properly 

 follow. 



Johnson, who came over in 1630, (and probably in Winthrop's fleet,) 

 who was a member of the House of Representatives upwards of twenty- 

 five j'ears, and speaker of that body in 1655, in his curious but very 

 valuable w^ork — "Wonder Working Providence of Sion's Saviour in 

 jN'ew England," published in London in 1654t — speaks of persons 

 who, "in the absence of bread, feasted themselves with fish; the 

 women, once a da}^ as the tide gave way, resorting to muscles and 

 clarn-l)anks, where they daily gathered their families' f"ood with much 

 hea^■cnly discourse of" the provisions Christ had formerly made for 

 many thousands of his followers in the wilderness:" of mothers, meek 

 and resigned in their destitution, who smiled over their children, fancy- 

 ing that they were as "fat and lusty with feeding upon muscles, clams, 

 and otlicr fisli, as they were in Eni^land with theii- fill of bread, wliich 

 made them cheerful in the Lord's providing lor then):" of others, wiio, 

 mid "the great straits this wilderness people were in," were relieved 

 because "Christ caused aliundance of veiy good fish to come to their 

 nets and hooks:" and f)f still others, who, "unprovided with these 

 mf\'ms, caught them with their hands; and so with fish, wild onions, 

 and other herbs, were sweetly satisfied till otlier provisions came in:" 

 and, finally, that "this year of sad distress was ended with a terrible 

 cold winter, with weekly snows, and fierce frosts between, while con- 

 gealing Charles river, as well from the town to seaward as above, in- 



" John Winthnip, first rcsidrM govoraor of Massachusetts, was bom in Grotoii, Kiicliiiul, 

 in l."s7, and wiis bred to the liiw. IIo \va« a man of oonsiib'rnbln fortuno. He arrived nt 

 Salrii). Jiiiii', KkJO. llis joiiriiul of occurrences in the colnny, down to the year KiH, as 

 edited by tlie Hon. James .Savage, of Hostoii, 18 one of tiie most valiialde works extant ro {\m 

 lovers of Americau histoiy. He died ui 1G4'.), aged (il, "worn out liy toils aii<l depressed by 

 artlictioiis." 



* iiopublished in parts, in several volumes of Coll. Mass. His. Soc, necond sericd. 



