1166 MISCELLANEOUS. 



years had sent thither divers men and women;" and he adds, that 

 there are many other worthy persons, adventurers in the said plan- 

 tations, whose names are not herein mentioned;" concluding with 

 an appeal to his countrymen to sustain the colonies of which he had 

 given an account, because of the "great increase of shipping and 

 mariners, and the employment and enriching of many thousands of 

 poore people which now live chargeable to the parishioners," and for 

 other reasons. 



Leaving here the Newfoundland fishery, for the present, we turn to 

 adventures on the coast of New England. The Englishman who made 

 the first direct voyage across the Atlantic was Bartholomew Gosnold, 

 who explored our shores in 1602, and, catching codfish near the 

 southern cape of Massachusetts, gave the name which it still bears. 

 He was followed by the celebrated John Smith in 1614, who took 

 "forty thousand" fish, which he dried, and "seven thousand" which 

 he "corned," or pickled, in the waters of Maine, and purchased a large 

 quantity of furs of the natives. The profits of his voyage were up- 

 wards of seven thousand dollars. 



Four ships from London and four from Plymouth came in 1616. 

 They obtained full fares, and sold their fish in Spain and the Canary 

 Islands at high prices. The number increased rapidly. At the time 

 the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth the island of Monhegan, in Maine, 

 had become a noted fishing station. In 1622 no less than thirty-five 

 ships from London and the west counties of England made profitable 

 voyages to our shores. "Where in Newfoundland," says Smith, a 

 common fisherman "shared six or seven pounds," in New England 

 he "shared fourteen pounds." This was a great difference; and it is 

 to be remembered that the profit of the merchant who furnished the 

 vessel and the outfit was increased in the same proportion. I may 

 add that it is of interest to learn from this remark of Smith, and from 

 others that occur in his pamphlets, that the practice of fitting out 

 vessels "on shares" to use a term well known among practical men, 

 still so common was introduced more than two centuries ago. 



Abuses far greater than those which had required the correcting 

 hand of Whitbourne at Newfoundland soon demanded attention. Sir 

 Ferdinando Gorges and the quaint Hubbard both declare that the 

 fishermen and others taught the Indians "drunkenness, wickedness, 

 and lewdness;" that they "abused the Indian women openly," and 

 were guilty of "other beastly demeanors," to the "overthrow of our 

 trade and the dishonor of the government." To put an end to these 

 disorders, and to accomplish other purposes, Sir Ferdinando Gorges's 

 son Robert was commissioned, in 1623, to come to New England as 

 lieutenant general over all the country known by that name. Francis 

 West, bearing the commission of admiral of the seas, with power to 

 restrain such ships as came either to fish or trade on the coast without 

 license, arrived the same year. Neither were officers of the crown, 

 but the agents of a private corporation. 



King James had granted, three years previously, to forty noblemen, 

 knights, and gentlemen, the vast domain embraced between the 40th 

 and 48th degrees of north latitude, and extending from ocean to 

 ocean. This company, known in popular language as the "Council of 

 Plymouth," claimed not only the territory within their patent, but the 

 seas. Assuming that the fishing-grounds from Acadia to the Dela- 

 ware were no longer free to British subjects, they asserted exclusive 



