THE NORTHEAST COAST FISHERIES 461 



a hold that took the English a century and a half to 

 loosen. * The principal, if not the sole object of acquiring 

 territory in northeastern America at this early period, was 

 to obtain a control of the fisheries which were regarded by 

 both English and French as far the most valuable possession 

 of the New World. It was not until 1583, however, that 

 England fully awakened to the necessity of protecting her 

 interests in America. In that year Sir Humphrey Gilbert, 

 with a royal patent from Queen Elizabeth, landed at St. 

 Johns, Newfoundland, for the purpose of establishing a 

 colony. To a motley group of fishermen of various na- 

 tionalities, who happened to be gathered in the harbor, 

 he read a proclamation, setting forth the intention of his 

 sovereign to assume control of the waters about Newfound- 

 land to the distance of 200 leagues. This order was enforced, 

 notably in one instance, when that redoubtable old sea rover, 

 Sir Francis Drake, cruising thereabouts some years later, 

 seized several Portuguese fishing vessels as prizes ; and 

 although his captures were made many miles from land, he 

 appropriated to his own use their cargoes of fish and oil. 

 This tardy effort at colonization, followed by an attack on 

 the right of free fishery, was not an unqualified success, 

 though there is little doubt that it gave a great impetus to 

 English fishing interests in North America. Sir Humphrey's 

 settlement languished, and in 1610 another attempt to colo- 

 nize the forbidding shores of Newfoundland was made by 

 John Guy of Bristol. Sir Francis Bacon was a patron of 

 this scheme, and his prophetic utterance that the fisheries 

 of Newfoundland would prove more valuable than all the 

 mines of Peru, has been amply verified by time. 



John Guy's colony reaped a harvest of sorrows, but it gave 

 another lease of life to English fishery interests. Five years 

 later (1615) 250 English vessels, employing over 10,000 men, 

 were engaged in fishing along the coast, and profits arising 

 therefrom grew apace. In 1623 another colonizing scheme in 

 Newfoundland was carried out by Sir George Calvert, after- 

 ward Lord Baltimore, the founder of the colony of Mary- 

 land. He was granted by King James a large tract of land 



