188 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SEA 



the Laird of Lundy, and others into whose hands such docu- 

 ments might have come, " from their ancestors, Chancellors, 

 secretaries, clerks of register, ambassadors, or councillors of 

 state," should try to find any which bore upon the matter, and 

 to have them forwarded to him without delay. The terms of 

 the king's letter show plainly enough the confusion and imper- 

 fection of the Scottish state records at that time ; and the Lords 

 of the Council sought high and low to discover copies of the 

 treaties or any other official papers relating to the subject, but 

 for a long time without any success. Copies of some of the 

 treaties were afterwards found, but nothing to establish the 

 king's right to exclude the Hollanders from the fishery. In 

 these circumstances the Council advised the commissioners " to 

 proceed warily," and to make the Dutch ambassadors produce 

 what they had to show for their claim to the fishing, and then 

 to answer that. 1 



But as things turned out, it was of no immediate importance 

 whether or not the Scottish commissioners were armed with 

 documentary proofs of the king's claims to the fishery. The 

 Dutch ambassadors, as has been said, came without any powers 

 to treat on that subject. In their private instructions, indeed, 

 they were enjoined to avoid carefully any discussion about the 

 herring fishery. If it was forced upon them, they were to point 

 out that the States had already issued a proclamation to prevent 

 wrongs being done to Scottish fishermen, which would be strictly 

 enforced. If this was not sufficient, they were to fall back on 

 general arguments as to the natural freedom of the sea, their 



1 Earl of Dunfermline to Lord Binning, 27th November 1618. MSS. Ibid. "Con- 

 cerning the Hollanders fishing in our seas," he said, "for all the search and tryall 

 I have made, whilk has been my uttermost, I can wryte or send to you little more 

 nor before, in effect nothing. " The Constable of Dundee searched all his records, 

 the records of the Admiralty were explored, and all those in Edinburgh Castle and 

 in the city archives, as well as many in the keeping of private persons, and every 

 one likely to know anything about the matter was communicated with ; but 

 " nothing to the purpose " was found, " nor no recorde of any wryte made for the 

 Hollanders' use in 1594 or any other time." The "wryte" of 1594, it is to be 

 remembered, was a long treaty made by James himself. Copies were ultimately 

 discovered of the treaties of 1531 and 1541, but nothing to the point. Copies of 

 the treaty and of other documents referring to it were obtained, apparently from 

 Holland, in 1619, and were ordered to be preserved in his Majesty's Register 

 in Edinburgh Castle (Reg. Privy Counc. Scot., xii. 22); but in 1630 and 1631," 

 when they were again wanted, they could not be found. State Papers, Dom., 

 Chas. I., ccvi. 46. 



