EARLY DAYS OF THE COD-FISHERY. 61 



the discovery of the island; which, in 1496, was redis- 

 covered by John and Sebastian Cabot, and named Prima 

 Vista. Early in the sixteenth century they employed in 

 this new branch of commerce upwards of two hundred 

 vessels ; but the sturdy English soon put in their claim 

 for a share, and they too, in turn, were followed by 

 French and Dutch, Norwegians and Danes, and Spaniards. 

 Hoare, an English merchant, made an attempt to colon- 

 ize Newfoundland in 1536, but failed disastrously; Sir 

 Humphrey Gilbert, however, was more successful in 1583. 

 About this time the English vessels employed in the 

 fishery numbered fifty; the Spanish, one hundred; the 

 Biscayan, twenty or thirty; the Portuguese, fifty; and 

 the French, one hundred and fifty. Among all these, it 

 is said,* the English were distinguished by the better 

 equipment of their vessels ; while they seem to have 

 claimed, without objection or denial on the part of the 

 foreign fishermen, a sovereignty over the surrounding 

 seas founded, it may be, on the discoveries of Cabot and 

 Davis. Towards the close of Elizabeth's reign, the English 

 fleet resorting to the Newfoundland banks mustered two 

 hundred sail, and employed upwards of eight thousand 

 seamen. 



In 1623 Sir George Calvert, afterwards Lord Balti- 

 more, succeeded in planting a colony in the south-eastern 

 part of the island, which he named Avalon, and of which 

 he appointed his son governor. Two years later the 

 English fishery had assumed such large proportions that 

 the ports of Devonshire alone employed one hundred 

 and fifty ships, which disposed of their fish to Spain, 

 Portugal, and Italy. In the reign of Charles II. a tax 



* Harris, " Collection of Travels," ed. 1753, vol. ii 



