THE RENAISSANCE OF THE FISHERIES 143 



schooner Defiance, of Rockport, Massachusetts, which went 

 as far south as Cape May and took sixty barrels of mack- 

 erel; but this fishery did not become general until many 

 years after. 1 



There now remains a consideration of the growth and 

 expansion of the fishery industry in the towns and hamlets 

 along the New England sea-coast during this period. 

 Local records of the importance of the industry for a period 

 of years are exceedingly rare ; it is only here and there that 

 materials for history may be found, barely enough to 

 weave into a connected narrative, yet in the light of subse- 

 quent history the tendency of the times becomes evident. 

 That tendency was for fishermen to cling to their lines 

 and vessels, to leave to others the development of lands 

 beyond the Alleghenies, and to extend their interests far- 

 ther and farther along the eastern coast of Maine or into 

 the deep recesses of the shores of the Gulf of Saint Law- 

 rence and the unfrequented stretches of the Labrador coast. 



The system of granting allowances to vessels engaged in 

 the codfisheries, inaugurated by the government in 1791, 

 acted as a stimulus to the industry. Evident proof of this 

 fact can be seen from a comparison of the tonnage engaged 

 annually in this fishery from the passage of the first act 

 until the discontinuance of allowances in 1807. The ex- 

 pansion of the industry was not confined to a few of the 

 leading fishing ports of New England, it was widespread 

 throughout the coast towns of the country from New Bed- 

 ford to Eastport. All along the coast of Maine new settle- 

 ments were being made mere fishing hamlets in the earlier 

 part of their history. The easternmost part of the state 

 was settled in 1780, when a trading post was established 

 at Moose Island in Passamaquoddy Bay, later incorporated 

 (1798) as the town of Eastport. From its first settlement, 

 this place became an important post for English and Ameri- 

 i Ibid, pp. 308, 310. 



