THE CODFISH FRONTIER 271 



the southern markets of the West Indies and the Mediterra- 

 nean. As this fleet drew near to land, the captain would lower 

 away a ship's boat with his best oarsmen and a sail stepped 

 forward. This rough regatta of single boats raced for the shore, 

 hardly pausing to eat until they found a cove or harbor suitable 

 for the sheds and drying frames. The law of the fleet each sea- 

 son gave command in any cove to the first comer; the captain 

 of the vessel whose boat got in first was admiral of that terri- 

 tory, and assumed complete control even over any local inhab- 

 itants who might have presumed to squat there. A kind of 

 rough but absolute frontier justice prevailed among the fisher- 

 men as a self-contained group. 



But the merchants back home who paid for the ships and 

 gear were not pleased to see any kind of settlement on the 

 shores of Newfoundland or Nova Scotia. They knew that men 

 who lived there the year around had an advantage in the fish- 

 eries, pre-empting the harbors and avoiding the high costs of 

 transatlantic fetch and haul. And for a while they were suc- 

 cessful in preventing the colonization of the maritime prov- 

 inces. From their point of view colonial enterprise was detri- 

 mental, for as a result of it the English fishing fleet of 250 

 vessels in 1605 had decreased by 1670 to a mere 80. So the 

 Lords of Plantations in England determined to depopulate 

 Newfoundland, and the dwellings of the settlers were system- 

 atically wrecked and burned. The military nature of the new 

 policy is well illustrated by the fact that in 1676 a fleet of 202 

 ships, each carrying twenty guns and eighteen boats, made the 

 Banks, escorted by two ships of war, and the total value of the 

 fish and oil brought home was £385,000 sterling. 



Sabine, in his report on the situation, wrote: 'The triumph 

 of the English merchants over their fellow subjects in this lone 

 and desolate isle, was as complete as that of a warrior who 

 storms a city ... as a class the 'Admirals' were both knaves and 

 tyrants." 



Here we have a classic example — fortunately of only a tem- 



