234 BRITISH AMERICA.

CHAPTER VII.

Fisheries of British America—Rise, Progress, and Present State of these Fisheries—Freuehand United States Fisheries on the Coast of Newfound- luml, Labrador, and the Gulf of St Lawrence—Vast importance of these

Fisheries, il‘ exclusively possessed by Great Britain.

THE cod fishery 0n the banks of Newfoundland, and along the coasts of North America, commenced a few years after its discovery. In 1517, mention is made of the first English ship which had been at Newfoundland ; where, at the same time, fifty Spa- nish, French, and Portuguese ships were fishing. The French, in 1536, were extensively engaged in this fishery; and we find, that, in 1578, there were employed in it, by Spain one hundred ships, by Por- tugal fifty ships, and by England only fifteen ships?‘6 The cause of the English having, at this period, so few ships in this branch of trade, was the fishery carried on by them at Iceland. The English ships, hOWever, from this period,were considered the largest and best vessels, and soon became, and continued to be, the admirals. The Biscayans had, about the same time, from twenty to thirty vessels in the whale fishery at Newfoundland ; and some English ships,

* Hakluyt—Herrara.