33 



French eoi^ihery. 



COD-FISHEKY OF SPAtV. 



Participating in the excitement which prevailed in Eurqpe on the 

 (iiscpyery in the American seas of varieties of fish not previously known 

 or used in the fasts of the Roman church, Spain was an eaz'ly competi- 

 tor with France and England. Vessels of her flag were certainly at 

 Newfoundland as soon as the year 1517. Sixty years later, the num- 

 ber of her vessels employed in the fishery there is estimated at one 

 hundred. The number rapidly diminished. Sylvester Wy at, of Bris- 

 tol, England, who made a voyage to the St. Lawrence and Newfound- 

 land in 1593, found only eight Spanish ships in a fleet of upwards 

 of eighty sail of French and English vessels. From the remarks of 

 Smith — ^who became the father of Virginia — it would seem that in the 

 early part of the seventeenth century, the Spanish fishery was pursued 

 with greater vigor than at the time last mentioned. But the greater 

 wealth to be acquired in the gold regions of South America soon lured 

 the Spaniards from an avocation of so great toil, and of so uncertain 

 rewards. No controversy between Spain and England as to their re- 

 spective rights to the fishing grounds, ever arose. 

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