CHAPTER IV. 



CHARLES I. : THE ASSOCIATION FOR THE FISHING ; 

 ITS WORK IN THE LEWIS. 



CHARLES had by 1632 finally achieved his purpose of estab- 

 lishing an Association for the Fishing. It now remained to 

 equip this Association with vessels and all necessary materials 

 for fishing, and to appoint a governing body to manage its 

 affairs. It was agreed that England should provide 200 

 " busses," or large fishing vessels, while Scotland was to 

 furnish about forty similar vessels, paid for at English rates 

 and " provided with salt, victuals, and casks," the total 

 cost of building and in every respect outfitting a bush of 

 forty lasts being at this time 835. : The fleet of the Asso- 

 ciation, however, does not seem at any time to have ap- 

 proached within measurable distance of the numbers thus 

 agreed upon. The first operations of the society were con- 

 ducted with a few vessels, and amidst circumstances of some 

 difficulty ; those entrusted with the management of affairs 

 wisely resolved to defer the augmentation of their fleet 

 until more favourable conditions should present themselves, 

 and these conditions never came. 



On July 19th, 1632, a commission was addressed to the 

 Lord Treasurer Weston, the Earl of Arundel and Surrey, 

 and many others, constituting them the Society of Great 

 Britain and Ireland, of which Charles himself was to be 

 " perpetual protector." A council of management was 



1 Col. S.P. Dom. Car. /., vol. 206, No. 47 ; Ibid. vol. 229, No. 97. 



