DEE AND HITCHCOCK 93 



(1577), gives 1540 as the date of the beginning 

 of the Dutch herring fishery on the EngHsh 

 coast, off Yarmouth. At the same date 300 

 foreign vessels had fished for herrings near 

 Aberystwyth and the Lancashire coast, and 

 the author estimates that there were then 

 500 herring busses^ resorting out of the Low 

 Countries, under " King Phihp his domain," 

 and 100 more of French ownership. Dee 

 assisted Robert Hitchcock, author of the " PoH- 

 tique Piatt " (1580 — 91) to rouse public opinion 

 towards building up the English Navy, which 

 was then unable to protect either commerce, 

 shipping, fishing, or to put down pirates, 

 keep off spies, " Catholic traffickers," and the 

 like, so that England was much exposed to 

 attacks by the French, assisted by the agents 

 of Philip of Spain and Mary, Queen of Scots. 

 The privately-owned English vessels which 

 warred against these foreign invaders — pirates 

 as the Spaniards called them, privateers as we 

 should call them now— proved excellent recruits 

 for Drake, and later assisted him in repelling 

 the Spanish Armada ; a petty navy born of 

 a fishery protection force and of the herring 

 fishery would, as Dee perceived, form a nur- 

 sery for the Navy. He therefore supported 

 Hitchcock, who had spoken in Parliament and 

 at public dinners and had published pamphlets 

 for the purpose of enlisting j^ublic support for 



* In 1416 the word "busses" (latterly pronounced bushes), as 

 applied to the vessels used by the Dutch in the herring fishery, 

 first appeared, and was soon extended to those of other nations, 



