18 THE DUTCH GRAND FISHERY 



they did not spare even the places of worship ; in the kirks 

 they broke down the seats and committed every kind of 

 profanity. A less serious offence was that " numbers of 

 these fishers being on shoar take horse rydes so many thereon 

 as may sitt, to the great hurt of ye owners thereof." A 

 final accusation was that whenever they approached any 

 uninhabited island which they found to be the breeding 

 place of seafowl, they took eggs and young fowls out of the 

 nests, to the serious loss of the owners " who were accus- 

 tomed to make profite thereby." 



Having thus voiced the grievances of the people of Orkney 

 and Shetland concerning the conduct of the Hollanders 

 during this short annual holiday, the writer enters upon an 

 account of the injuries suffered at the hands of the foreigners 

 when these came to engage in fishing. His statement of 

 these wrongs is a good example of those complaints which 

 were with such regularity placed before James VI., and 

 which finally induced that monarch to enter upon the con- 

 troversy " De Dominio Maris," in his endeavour to relieve 

 the situation. 



The writer declares that the coming of the Hollander 

 had ruined the native fishing industry : " The Inhabitants 

 of these Isles, and others his Maties subjects, fishars, were 

 Inriched by that trade of fishing before these Hollanders 

 and others their associate approached his maties coasts. 

 But now all are Impoverished, ... his maties tennents in 

 those Isles are not able to pay his maties rent. And the 

 fishars dwelling upon the coast of Scotland are sore decayed 

 by ye oppression of these Holanders and their associats. Be 

 reasone all are violently debarred frae those pairts where 

 they were accustomed to fish." 



The Dutchmen did not hesitate to use violent methods 

 towards the fishermen. If they ventured near the Hollanders, 

 they were shot at, and their small nets and lines were en- 

 tangled within the huge nets belonging to the foreigners and 



