BACKGROUND OF EARLY COLONIZATION 35 



and, together with maps of the region, was distributed 

 throughout the western counties of England. In this ac- 

 count of his voyages Smith pays considerable attention to 

 the condition of the fisheries, entering into elaborate de- 

 tails. He tells us that they were successful in taking 

 47,000 fish in the vicinity of Monhegan Island, although 

 their intentions had been to "take whales, and make trials 

 of a mine of gold and copper. ' ' The better quality of the 

 fish of this catch were sold in England for "five pounds 

 the hundredth, the rest by ill usage betwixt three pounds 

 and fifty shillings." Another ship stayed on the coast to 

 fit herself with dry fish, which later sold at a good price 

 in Spain. Smith makes the prediction that the fisheries 

 of New England would prove a greater treasure than the 

 gold and silver mines of the king of Spain. He goes on 

 to draw a contrast between the relative advantages afforded 

 by Newfoundland and New England in the fisheries, always 

 with the advantage in favor of the latter region. His 

 references to the fisheries of Newfoundland would lead one 

 to infer that annually 800 sail of vessels were freighted 

 with fish from that place. 1 



The result of all these voyages and explorations, espe- 

 cially of those made since the opening of the seventeenth 

 century, was directly influential in developing English 

 fisheries in New England and in shaping and stimulating 

 permanent colonization. Smith mentions six ships that 

 came to these shores for fish in 1615. The next year eight 

 ships from London and Plymouth made voyages to our 

 coasts, carrying back their loads of fish and oil to Spain 

 and Portugal. Writing in 1620, Smith speaks of twenty- 

 six ships that have had success "within these six yeares" 

 on this coast, while we learn from another writer that by 

 1624 the New England fishing was so profitable that forty 



i Smith, A Description of New England. 



