20 THE DUTCH GRAND FISHERY 
Orknay, for giving them his oversight, for ilk shipe ane 
Angell and ane Barrell of Birskate bread. But he would 
have no less nore ane Double Angell, or ane Rose Noble at 
the least.” 
Some further contemporary evidence with regard to the 
Dutch fishing in the Orkney and Shetland islands is given 
in two letters, one written by the Earl of Dunfermline to 
Lord Binning, dated Edinburgh, 27th November, 1618, the 
other by S. Murray to the same, dated 26th November, 
1618.1 Lord Binning, it will be remembered, was one of 
the commissioners appointed in 1618 by James to confer 
with the Dutch on the matter of the fisheries ; he evidently 
had been asking for information as to the manner in which 
the Hollanders first began their fishing off the Scotch coast 
in 1594. In answer to Lord Binning’s request for “‘ Informa- 
tion in these matters concerning the Hollanders fishing in 
our seas,” the Earl of Dunfermline replies that he can find 
no record of any negotiations with the Hollanders “in 
1594 or any other tyme, although all Registers and Records 
in the Castle have also been examined.” 
Mr. Murray, however, gives a little more information. 
“‘ Since the wryting of my letter, I conferred with William 
Bruce, that dwells in Zetland, anent ye matter of ye fishings, 
who told me that the Hollanders albeit the most part of 
their fishings were fourtie myles of the land and more, yet 
they come ordinarily with fourteen myles before they let 
their netts fall, and on the East of Orkneys come within 
six or seven myles. Now they come so near the land that 
some of them break their netts upon ye rocks. They fish 
not within the Isles near adjacent to the Mainland of Zet- 
land, nor are yr any great fish gotten, but such small fishes 
as serve ye people for yr meat and whereof they gitt the 
oyle wherewith to pay their rent of that kind. But they come 
alse near those Isles as they can.” 
1MSS., Advocates’ Library, 31.2.16. 
