56 THE ASSOCIATION FOR THE FISHING 
also to have free access to the various harbours and lochs 
on the mainland opposite Lewis. In that island an armed 
force was to be maintained by the Association, so that its 
interests might be protected. So sanguine were the ex- 
pectations concerning the enterprise that six acres of ground 
near Deptford were fixed upon, on which ‘“ workhouses 
and dwellings” were to be built for the poor people, who, 
it was thought, would soon be employed by the company 
in the spinning and making of nets. As regarded the fish 
caught, it was decided that all were to be sold within the 
British Isles, ‘‘except the summer herrings, which are 
only fit for the market in Muscovia, Poland, and other 
islands.” 2 
Unfortunately, however, the Association never had occa- 
sion to carry more than a very few of these decisions into 
effect. It was soon evident, indeed, that Mason and the 
other managers of the undertaking were insufficiently 
acquainted with the fishing grounds round the Lewis. 
Great preparations were made, land being bought and fishing 
stations erected for the curing and packing of the herring. 
But the fish had first to be caught, and in this work, their 
ignorance of local conditions so hindered the fishermen 
of the Association that a great part of the outlay was lost.® 
At first, however, all seemed favourable. Captain William 
Buxton, for example, writes to Nicholas on May 25th, 1633, 
that he has just arrived at the Lewis and found all going well. 
The Earl of Seaforth he finds to be ready to do all that he 
can to further the interests of the society, and this attitude 
of the Earl animates the natives to do likewise. He thinks 
the fishing in the Lewis will be very successful, not only 
for herrings but also for lng and cod.4 He hopes, indeed, to 
1 Cal. S.P. Dom. Car. I., vol. 229, No. 95. 2 Ibid. vol. 229, No. 100. 
®?Simon Smith, A True Narrative of the Royal Fishings of Great. 
Brittaine and Ireland (1641). 
4 Cal. S.P. Dom. Car. I., vol. 239, No. 51. 
