836 PEOSE HALIEUTICS. 



more profitable, equally certain, and far less inexhaustible, 

 • than those which the proud rivals of his nation derived 

 from the mines of Potosi, the conquest of which had been 

 effected with such effusion of blood : but the fact has so 

 turned out, and a fish in other respects by no means re- 

 markable, has become, in the hands of almost every na- 

 tion in Europe, the origin of one of their most assured 

 and lucrative branches of commerce/ Though New- 

 foimdland was thus discovered, and afterwards visited by 

 the Norwegians as early as the tenth and eleventh cen- 

 turies, its fishy depths appear to have remained generally 

 unexplored, and its very existence on the globe for the 

 most part lost sight of, until the region was once more 

 revisited in the year 1497, by one John Cabot, in the pay 

 of Henry VIII., who thereupon imposed on the whole 

 territory, island and mainland, the same name which is 

 at present confined to the island exclusively. Cabot not 

 only re-found the land, but discovered the cod ; and on 

 communicating the iuteUigence at home, many nations, 

 as well as our own, speedily began to reap advantage 

 from it, setting up extensive Unes of fisheries along the 

 east and south coasts of the island. Nor was the sea alone 

 a source of profit to these hardy 'ancient mariners ;' the 

 island itself was for a time was found to be rich in bears, 

 beavers, red foxes, martens, and hares, and a profitable 

 trade was carried on with the Indians for the skins of these 

 animals, which were then shipped to Ceylon. At first, 

 deterred by the fears of a winter's campaign in this in- 

 hospitable region, no one seems to have thought of re- 

 siding permanently at Newfoundland ; by degrees, how- 

 ever, men took courage, and made one or two attempts, 

 which, though in themselves failures, led ultimately to 

 others whereof the issue was more fortunate, and success 

 at last complete. The first Englishman who essayed to 

 make Newfoundland his winter-quarters was a merchant 

 named Hoare, who after encountering great hardships 



