18 



poetic rapture ; for he asks "what sport doth yield a - more pleasing 

 content, and less hurt or charge, than angling with a hook, and 

 crossing the sweet air, from isle to isle, over the silent streams of a 

 calm sea." From the date of Capt. Smith's voyage English ships 

 continued to resort to the coast of Maine for fish for several } r ears, 

 but their visits appear to have ceased soon after the settlement of 

 the country. He teUs us that thirty-five came in 1622, the year be- 

 fore the voyage of the one that came first as far to the west as Cape 

 Ann. These fishing voyages to the coast of Maine led to the estab- 

 lishment of several fishing plantations in that part of the country, 

 and before 1640 it seems that at Pemaquid, Casco Bay, Cape Por- 

 poise, Piscataqua, the Isles of Shoals, and perhaps at some other 

 places, settlements had already been made, from one of which, in 

 the six years from 1639 to 1645, three thousand quintals of fish 

 were exported. The Pilgrims at Plymouth do not appear to have 

 engaged in fishing as a regular employment ; but, in the first settle- 

 ment of the Massachusetts Colony, at Salem, we find preparations 

 for fishing ; for, in 1629, materials for the business were sent over, 

 and mention is made of fishermen among the settlers ; and, as early 

 &s 1634, a merchant of the country was fishing with eight boats at 

 Marblehead. 



The last date brings us to notice a new settlement on our own 

 shores, which was made in 1633 ; but no facts authorize us to say 

 that the settlers were fishermen, or, indeed, what their employments 

 were. The lapse of six years, however, again connects our territory 

 with fishing occupations, and brings us to a proper starting point 

 for a brief historical sketch of the fisheries of Gloucester. 



By an act of the General Court, passed May 22, 1639, it was or- 

 dered that a fishing plantation should be begun at Cape Ann, with 

 certain privileges and exemptions, for the encouragement of Mr. 

 Maurice Thomson, merchant of London, and others, to promote the 

 fishing trade. To what extent Mr. Thomson availed himself of the 

 encouragement here offered, no one now can tell, and if it were not 

 that the Gloucester Records contain one single reference to the 

 " parcell of land where Mr. Tomson's frame stood," there would ex- 

 ist nothing to show that he ever even commenced the enterprise. 

 This " frame" stood, it is supposed, on what was afterwards called 

 Duncan's Point, so named from Peter Duncan, a merchant, who 

 owned the place and carried on a small trade there about 1662. It 

 is worthy of note that a steamer now leaves this very spot daily, 

 laden with the products of the Gloucester fisheries to be distributed 



