EARLY HISTORY OF WHALING 67 



this. The fishermen of Guipuzcoa frequented the 

 banks of Newfoundland, but not certainly before 

 1530. Navarrete, who investigated the subject, 

 fixes the first voyages at about 1541. Towards 

 1550, the evidence is more definite, and we have 

 the name of a commander of a whaler Jean de 

 Urdaire, who afterwards became admiral. Theie 

 is good documentary evidence that from 1557 to tne 

 end of the seventeenth century Biarritz, Caberton, 

 Pasajes, Renteria, Saint Jean de Luz, Saint Sebas- 

 tian and Zubibura continually sent ships to 

 Newfoundland both for whaling and cod fishing. 

 At this time the Basque cod fishermen left the 

 Cantabrian coast towards the end of March or 

 beginning of April, returning from mid-September 

 to October. The whalers left in mid- June, and 

 returned in December or early January, their larger 

 and better vessels enabling them to withstand the 

 storms of winter. 



Although there must have been a considerable 

 trade in whale oil between the Basques and Great 

 Britain in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, there 

 is not much evidence of it. 



Late in the sixteenth century there is positive 

 evidence that the soap-makers used whale oil, and 

 that there was trade with Bayonne and other ports 

 for this product of the fisheries. 



Guerau de Spes, writing on the 5th August, 1569, 

 to the Spanish King, says, " Three ships of St Jean 

 de Luz have put into Bristol loaded with Biscay 

 iron, and are now leaving for their own country with 



