IS 



THE CODFISH FRONTIER 



WHEN the new western world opened to the races of 

 Europe, no single nation or people had any organized 

 plan, nor were they efficiently prepared in any way to take 

 advantage of the greatest opportunity for expansion ever 

 offered to civilized man. It is not an unusual picture in his- 

 tory to see blind and preoccupied rulers leave the hazard of 

 new adventure to bold individuals. The opening of the Atlan- 

 tic, the discovery of the rich world of the Ocean River, and the 

 wealth of the shores westward seem slow and tardy business as 

 we look back into history. But there was nothing slow about 

 the exploitation of the New World once man's natural aver- 

 sion to an unfamiliar notion was overcome by the clink of gold 

 and the holy odor of codfish. The only thing lacking was order 

 and law. 



Perhaps if Henry the Navigator had lived a century later the 

 Portuguese under his enlightened leadership might have been 

 the heirs to the western world; but they had already turned the 

 Cape for India. So the fierce energy of Spain consumed the 

 peace of the native Caribbean, and the French and the tough 

 English seadogs moved in on the codfish banks. Though these 

 things happened almost simultaneously at the beginning of 

 the sixteenth century, the immediate pay-off fell, as we have 

 just seen, to Spain. 



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