&ADEAJSrS AST) PLEURONECTS. 337 



was at length compelled to give up the attempt, ancf to 

 return to England. In 1583, a half-brother of Sir 

 Walter Raleigh made a second attempt, with five vessels 

 and two hundred people, to establish a colony there; 

 but his failure was yet more signal and disastrous than 

 the first had been, ending in the total loss of the crews. 

 In 1623, Sir George Calvert, afterwards Lord Baltimore, 

 actually formed a colony in the south-eastern part of the 

 island, which he called Avalon, and over which he ap- 

 pointed his son governor. As this gentleman is reported 

 to have repaired thither in order that he ' might freely 

 enjoy the. profession of the Catholic religion,' he could 

 not have selected a spot more congenial to his views. 

 The fogs of Newfoundland would no doubt be a subject 

 for daily penance ; and if he were opsophagist by iaclina- 

 tion as well as from conscience and necessity, he might 

 addict himself to an innocent and unrestricted use of 

 cod and salmon all the days of his life. 



Under our most religious and gracious King ' Carlo 

 Dolce' the Second, a tax which the French had hitherto 

 paid to England in acknowledgment of our courtesy in 

 letting them fish there, was abrogated, and our flourish- 

 ing cod trade, which had at one time occupied eight 

 thousand hands, and given employment to two hundred 

 vessels, began to stagger, whilst that of France throve in 

 proportion, which made our Gallic neighbours all cock- 

 a-hoop ; but Englishmen are not so easUy bullied out of 

 their rights : ' Dieu et mon droit' is a motto which we 

 do not write up everywhere in large letters for nothing; 

 and this was a lesson in which John Bull was determined 

 to instruct both a gracious king and his graceless fa- 

 vourites. A princely cod merchant, in 1676, took with 

 him one hundred and two twenty-gun ships, and two 

 ships of war, and in spite of French fortification suc- 

 ceeded in a capture of so many {not Frenchmen, but) cod, 

 as brought him in no less a sum than i6386,400. What 



