MISCELLANEOUS. 1181 



appreciated by such of our countrymen as have never devoted particu- 

 lar attention to its history, I may venture to repeat that all commenda- 

 tion rightfully belongs to you. 



Nor would I forget that my thanks are also due to William A. Well- 

 man, esq., your principal deputy collector, who, at our second Inter- 

 view, generously relinquished his own favorite plan of writing a report 

 upon our cod and mackerel fisheries, and expressed a decided wish 

 that the duty should be transferred to me, as well as his readiness to 

 afford me all possible aid. His knowledge and experience have been 

 of material assistance. I am indebted to him for important facts which 

 were to be obtained of no other person, for information which has cor- 

 rected my views and opinions in several particulars, and for statis- 

 tical matter of great value. 



I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant, 



LORENZO SABINB. 



PHILIP GREELY, Jr., Esq., 



Collector of the Customs port of Loston and Charlestown 



PART I. FRANCE, SPAIN, PORTUGAL. 



COD-FISHERY OF FRANCE. 



The French were the first European cod-fishers in the American 

 seas. There is a tradition among the fishermen of Biscay that their 

 countrymen visited Newfoundland before the time of Columbus. It is 

 said, indeed, that the great discoverer was informed of the fact by a 

 pilot who had been engaged in the enterprises. The story, improbable 

 as it is, seems to have been treated with respect by some writers of the 

 sixteenth century, but may be dismissed now as one which rests upon 

 no clear and authentic testimony. 



But that the Newfoundland fisheries were known to the Biscayans 

 and Normans as early as the year 1504, is quite certain. When 

 Cabot discovered our continent, Europe, including England, was Cath- 

 olic; and during the fasts of the church, the pickled herring of Holland 

 was the principal food. The consumption of fish was immense;* and 

 the Dutch, having enjoyed the monopoly of the supply, had become 

 immensely rich. The knowledge communicated by Cabot and the 

 voyagers who followed him, that the waters of America contained, not 

 only an abundance, but many varieties of fish, gave rise to an excite- 

 ment on the subject of fishing hardly less intense than is witnessed at 

 the present time relative to mining. Persons of the highest rank, and 



* Documents which show the immense consumption of fish are to be met with by the 

 students of history everywhere. The following incidents, selected from a number, 

 will sufficiently illustrate the statement in the text: 



"The bill of fare of the feast given on the marriage of Henry IV to his Queen Joan, of 

 Navarre, at Winchester, in 1403, 'is yet in existence, written on parchment,' remarks a 

 chronicler of curious things of 'the olden tune;' and the banquet consisted of six 

 courses three of flesh and fowl, and three offish. In the 'first course of Fijshe,' were 

 'Salty fyshe,' and 'Breme samoun rostyd.' 'Of the comforts of the poor,' 16th century, 

 says an English journal, 'we may form a tolerably correct notion from the luxuries 

 registered in the household book of the great Earl of Northumberland.' From this 

 document it appears that, in one of the most noble and splendid establishments of 



