ioo 
built of bricks brought from France. More than two hundred 
pieces of cannon were mounted to defend it. So great was its 
strength that it was called the Dunkirk of America. It had 
nunneries and palaces, terraces and gardens. That such a city 
rose upon a lone desolate isle in the infancy of American colo¬ 
nization, appears incredible. Explanation is alone found in the 
fishing enthusiasm of the period.”— Sabine. 
In 1602 a British fleet, under Gosnald, visited New England 
and explored the waters fringing that coast. Cape Cod harbor 
appears to have been the base of operation ; different varieties 
of fish were found in great numbers, and the mainland furnished 
valuable furs, which the Indians bartered with the strangers. 
The wealth latent in and around Massachusetts was duly re¬ 
ported in Britain, which raised an excitement and stimulated 
the most adventurous spirits to visit our waters; among the 
more ardent came the redoubtable Capt. John Smith, a man 
very generally known among the merchants of Europe. In 
1614 he made a voyage to our shores, explored the coast bord¬ 
ering on Massachusetts Bay, and drove a successful trade with 
the natives, and caught a fare of cod. On his return to Eng¬ 
land he parceled out the products of his voyage to the elite of 
the kingdom ; he also circulated wonderful reports touching the 
fabulous wealth latent in New England, which stirred up the 
people to a degree of frenzy. Merchants invested largely in 
the American fisheries ; officers in the army, navy and civil ser¬ 
vice, in numbers, resigned positions of emolument; noblemen 
abandoned their estates ; judges doffed the ermine ; clergymen 
their cassocks, and joined Smith in an enterprise to Massachu¬ 
setts for fish, oil and peltry. Hundreds of vessels came, and 
the products of the land and sea were earnestly sought. The 
germ of our commerce was then and there “ sown in weakness.” 
Nor was the excitement confined exclusively to the British 
isles ; it raged violently on the continent and affected commu¬ 
nities. In Holland it attacked even the staid Puritans. They 
had for years witnessed the successful development of the her¬ 
ring fishery at Leyden, and they now determined to take a hand 
in the more excellent fish in America. In this frame of mind 
they sent a delegation to England to the British King imploring 
His Majesty for the privilege to settle in America and develop 
the fisheries on that coast. The King deemed the request a fa¬ 
vorable excuse to get clear of a turbulent element, and he gave 
