84 THE COMMONWEALTH 



Association to settle its affairs as best they could, and to con- 

 tinue with the enterprise if they were so minded. The times, 

 however, were no longer favourable to the success of such 

 an undertaking ; the Civil War soon engrossed the attention 

 of all ; and, as was to be expected, the Society, now deprived 

 of the king's encouragement and assistance, gradually ceased 

 to have any interest for the great majority of its members 

 and soon became almost a thing of the past. 



The next suggestion with regard to the fishing industry 

 came from Scotland, where, in 1645, a certain Frenchman, 

 named Hugo L'Amey of Mouhon, laid the details of a curious 

 scheme before the Estates. He intended, he said, to benefit 

 Scotland by introducing and superintending the cultivation 

 of Indian corn, on condition that he received a grant of 

 all the Scotch fisheries. His scheme lacked nothing in 

 definiteness, including as it did a Scotch fleet of thirty- 

 six ships of four hundred tons burden each, the establish- 

 ment of a trade with the Indies, and the planting of a Scotch 

 colony there. Nor had the sanguine Frenchman any doubt 

 that the " Indian wheat " would thrive in Scotland, if his 

 directions for its cultivation were followed ; he was con- 

 fident, indeed, that it would yield a fourfold greater increase 

 than ordinary corn, and would, at the same time, be found 

 less liable to injury from winds, rain, or frost ; the ground 

 whereon it grew became more fertile, the flour from it made 

 very good white " bisket breed," while the " dightinges or 

 refuise " was very good for feeding swine. Moreover, its 

 cultivation would give employment to a great many people, 

 since the Indian corn had to be worked " only by strenth 

 of hand," no horses or oxen being required. The result 

 would be that " poor people that have many children and 

 are unable to menteane them shall be of there charge dis- 

 burthened be setting of there children a working whom 

 before they wer wont to sett a begging." 1 



1 Act. Parl. Scotland, vol. vi. 1, pp. 372-3. 



