76 NEW ENGLAND FISHERIES 



in their general course, were as arbitrary as the leaders of 

 the banditti. There were exceptions, it may be admitted ; 

 but the accounts are uniform that, as a class, the 'admirals' 

 were both knaves and tyrants. Yet the law which au- 

 thorized these iniquities bore the title of 'An act to en- 

 courage the trade of Newfoundland. ' ' ' 



The attitude of the English government towards the 

 fisheries of New England was less severe, but this, probably, 

 was occasioned more from necessity than from choice. The 

 statement of Sir Josiah Child, referring to the north- 

 eastern fisheries and shipbuilding, that nothing was more 

 prejudicial to any mother country than the increase of 

 shipping in its colonies, was only one instance of the grow- 

 ing jealousy with which English merchants viewed the pros- 

 perous condition of maritime affairs in New England. Our 

 fishermen were too energetic, too willful, and too far re- 

 moved from the source of authority to allow all, or a large 

 part, of the profits of the fisheries to go over the seas. 



They built their own smacks and vessels, and master and 

 crew were natives of the colonies. As early as 1676 there 

 hailed from Boston and other nearby ports thirty ships of 

 between fifty and one hundred tons, and five hundred 

 smaller vessels. Twenty-four years later Boston is credited 

 with 194 sea-going ships. Richard, Earl Bellamont, who 

 was colonial governor in Massachusetts at the close of the 

 century and who, an enemy of the Stuarts, was in sympathy 

 with the fishing interests of the people, wrote in admiration 

 of the spirit of the New Englanders, "I believe I may 

 venture to say there are more good vessels belonging to 

 the town of Boston than to all Scotland and Ireland, un- 

 less one should reckon the small craft, such as herring 

 boats." 



Within seventy-five years of the settlement of the coun- 

 try the energy of the New Englanders had built up an in- 

 dustry that was to be, if it had not already become, the 



