127 



latter place for the Canaries with cargoes of fish and pipe-staves, we 

 come, in lG4o, to the first voyage undertaken on the distant fishing 

 grounds of Newfoundland. The projectors of the enterprise were 

 merchants of Boston and Charlestown, who, according to Winthrop, 

 "sent forth a ship and other vessels" to the Bay of Bulls. The effects 

 of the civil war between Charles and his people, felt, as we have just 

 seen, in the capture of the Bristol ship in Boston, were disastrous even 

 in those remote seas; for when these vessels had nearly completed 

 their fares, the ship and most of their fish were seized by a cruiser 

 belonging to the Kind's party, and retained, to the great loss of the 

 merchants. 



By an act of Massachusetts, in 1G47, every householder was allowed 

 "free fisliing and fowling" in any of the great ponds, bays, coves, and 

 rivers, as far "as the sea ebbs and flows," in their respective towns, 

 unless "the freemen" or the general court "had otherwise appj'opriated 

 them." By a law of the following year, fishermen and others were 

 forbidden to continue the practice of cutting fuel and timber, without 

 license, on lands owned b}" individuals or towns; though during the fish- 

 ing season, persons who belonged to the colonj* might still dry ihc'ir fish, 

 and use wood and timber necessary for their business, on all such lands, 

 by making satisfaction to the proprietors. These laws were followed, 

 in 1652, by another, which provided for the appointment of sworn "fish 

 viewers," at "every fishing place" within the jurisdiction, who were 

 required to reject as unmerchantable, all "sun-burnt, salt-burnt, and 

 dry fish, that hath been first pickled," and whose fees on merchantable 

 fish were fixed at one penny the quintal, "to be paid, one half by the 

 deliverer, and the other half by the receiver."* 



Meantime, a schism had occurred between certain persons and the 

 ruling powers of Massachusetts; and the former, embotlying tlicir sup- 

 posed grievances in petitions to the Lords Commissioners of I'rade and 

 Plantations, had circulated these papers for signature. "They had 

 sent their agents up and down the country," relates Hubbard, "but of 

 the man}^ thousands they spake of, they could find only twenty-five 

 hands to the chief petition; and those were, for the most part, either 

 3''oung men who came over servants, and never had overmuch shew of 

 rehgion in them, or fishermen of Marblehead, feared to be profime per- 

 sons, divers of whom were brought from Newfoundland for the fishing 

 season, and so to return again." 



To relieve our narrative, we may now select some amusing pas- 

 sages from Josselyn. This veracious chronicler — who saw " fiogs that, 

 when they sit u])oii their breech, are a f<)Ot high," and ascerlained that 



* In "An Abstract of the Liiws of New Enf,'l;in(l," jirintcd in London in Ki'iG, and by Wil- 

 liam As]iin\vidl, tbi' ])nblish<'r, ascribed to Mr. C'otron, wbicli lliirciiinson, wbo preserves it in 

 his " Collection of I'iipers," 8113-8 "onirlit ratlicr be entitled An Al)str«et of a Code or Sys- 

 tem of J-iU\VH prepared for the C'onuiionwealtb of Massaclnisetts Jiay," we find in cliai)ter :Jd, 

 under the lieml "Of the Protection mid l'rovi>ion (d' ibe Country," tlie followiiif,' : "JSecanse 

 fish is the chiefo stapb; conimodity of tJie eomitry, therefore ail due iiicoiirjt<;enient to be 

 given unto siicli bands as shall sett forward the trade of lisliinj;, and for that end a law to bo 

 made that whosoever shall apiily lliemselves to sen forward the trade of lisliiim, as (isheruien, 

 mariners, and sliijiwritbts, shall be allowed, man for man, some or olher of the labourers of 

 tlie coimtiy to jilaiil and re;ipc for them in ihe sea-ioii of the yean- at the piibli(iiie ch.irs^es of 

 the Commoiuvealth, for the sjiace id' these seaveu \e;iies next ensuing, and such labourers to 

 be appoiutt'd and paid by the treasurer of the Commonwealth." 



