68 HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF NEWFOUNDLAND 



New fish- 

 ing rules ^ 

 issued in 

 1634, ^'^'^ 

 called the 

 Western 

 Charter. 



Alexander was a poet, like Vaughan and Hayman ; and, like 

 his poetry, his colony in Newfoundland existed only in his 

 flimsy imagination. It belonged to the class of colonies 

 which were never colonized. The seventh sister was a fable 

 and a dream. 



It seemed as though all the six settlements were on their 

 way to rejoin the seventh settlement in the moon of Ariosto, 

 where unfulfilled desires meet ' what is lost through fault or 

 chance or time ', when the Star Chamber re-edited the Order 

 /of 162 1,* and issued in 1634 new rules, some of which 

 forbad any one to commit what I have called the seven sins 

 of the fishermen and the three sins of the settlers.*- These ten 

 sins were re-grouped under eight heads, and were expanded 

 somewhat: thus, rinding and burning trees were classed 

 under one head, and seine-, salt-, boat-, and bait-stealing were 

 put into one category, along with seine-breaking. And there 

 were novel rules : thus a ninth rule ^ prohibited taverns for 

 wine and tobacco, a clear proof that a brisk trade was being 

 carried on with South Europeans and Virginians ; and a tenth 

 rule ^ enjoined Divine Service to be read on Sunday, so that 

 there were now ten commandments. The Order concluded 

 with two executive provisions which prescribed the mode in 

 which these ten commandments were to be enforced. One 

 provision ^ sanctioned the customary law under which the first, 

 second, and third fishing-captains who arrived in a harbour 

 became admiral, vice-admiral, and rear-admiral thereof, and 

 ordered these potentates to assist judicially in their enforce- 

 ment ; and the other provision vested criminal justice in the 

 mayors of the south-western ports of England. Both of 

 these executive provisions remained dead-letters; the first, 

 because it was absurd, having regard to the nature of the 

 fishing-admirals, and the second because it was unconstitu- 



1 Ante, p. 57. 



2 I alter the numbering. 



^ State Papers, Colonial Series, vol. viii, No. i, dated Jan. 24, 1634, 



