194 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SEA 



Spitzbergen, James gave way on the immediately practical 

 point, consenting' that the Dutch should continue their fishery 

 at the island for three years longer. 1 



We have mentioned that late in 1618 James caused the Scot- 

 tish Council to send a vessel (the Restore) to the Shetlands to 

 demand the assize-herrings from the Dutchmen, and that it 

 arrived on the scene too late. Next year he resolved to be in 

 time, and while the Dutch ambassadors were still in London he 

 wrote to the Council saying it was necessary " for divers impera- 

 tive reasons " that the duties should still be craved, and request- 

 ing them to send a ship that summer with some discreet person 

 on board, " who in fair terms may require our duties of the said 

 Hollanders and report their answer " ; and the Council were 

 desired to take special care that the business should not fail 

 through negligence. 2 At a meeting of the Council at Holyrood 

 House on 29th June, arrangements were made to carry out the 

 king's wishes. Mr John Fenton was appointed "his Majesty's 

 commissioner" for "craving his Majesty's rent of assize and 

 teind from the Hollanders and other strangers fishing in his 

 Majesty's seas," and a Mr James Brown was instructed to 

 accompany him as notary. 3 Fenton's commission, under the 



1 Muller, op. cit., 160. State Papers^ Dom., cv. 9. The Muscovy Company, now- 

 supported by the East India Company, fitted out nine ships and two pinnaces- 

 for the Spitzbergen fishery in 1619, but the voyage was unfortunate. After 

 carrying on the fishing for a few years longer the company abandoned it, though 

 it was carried on on a small scale by other English vessels, mostly from Hull. 

 The Dutch, on the other hand, prosecuted the fishing with great vigour and 

 success under the protection of men-of-war, and they rapidly made it one of the 

 most profitable industries of the Low Countries. A full account is given by 

 Zorgdrager, an old whaling captain, who wrote in the early part of the eighteenth 

 century (Bloeijende opkomst der aloude en hedendaagsche Groenlandschc Visscherij). 

 The Dutch factory on Amsterdam island grew to a village called Smeerenburg or 

 Qil-town, which was fortified in 1636. In those early years the whales were taken, 

 by the ships' boats, which lay moored in the bays ; later, as the whales got scarce, 

 they were flensed at sea and the blubber carried home. This was the case before 

 F. Martens visited the island in 1671. 



2 The king to the Privy Council of Scotland, 16th June 1619. Reg. Privy 

 Coune. Scot., xi. 607. 



3 Since : the records of the Scottish 'Council are silent as to the steps taken to 

 collect the assize-herrings in 1616 and 1617 and the capture of John Brown in the 

 latter year, while the Dutch and English records are equally mute as to the 

 proceedings in 1618 and 1619, it at first appeared that a mistake might have been 

 made in the dates of the former,' a view that seemed to be supported by the ' 

 remark in the first letter of the king 'to the Council, "to the intent that the 



