Clafs IV. COMMON COD FISH. 139 
numbers decreafe, in proportion as they advance to- 
wards the fouth, when they feem quite to ceafe be- 
fore they reach the mouth of. the Straits oF Gib- 
raltar. 
Before the difcovery of Newfoundland, the greater 
fifheries of cod were in the feas of Iceland, and of 
our Weftern Ifles, which were the grand refort of 
fhips of all the commercial nations; but it feems 
that the greateft plenty was met with near Iceland ; 
for we find Queen Elizabeth condefcending to afk 
permiffion to fifh in thofe feas from Chriftien the 
{Vth. of Denmark, yet afterwards the fo far repent- 
ed her requeft, as to inftruct her embaffadors to that 
court, to infift on the right of a free and univerfal 
fifhery *. 
But the Spanifh, the French, and the Britons, had 
much the advantage of us in all fifheries at the be- 
ginning, as appears by the ftate of that in the feas 
of Newfoundland in the year 1578 **, when the 
number of fhips belonging to each nation ftood 
thus : 
Spaniards, 100, befides 20 or 30.that came from 
Bifcaie, to take whale for train, being about 
five or fix thoufand tons. 
Portuguefe, 50, or three thoufand tons. 
French and Britons, 150, or feven thoufand tons, 
Englifo, from 30 to 50. 
But Mr. Anderfon, in his Dictionary of Commerce, 
I. 363, fays, that the French began to fith there fo 
* Rymer’s Fad. xvi. 2753 425+ 
** Hackluyt’s Coll. Voy. iti. 132. 
K 3 early 
