lt fish from the
North kept gaining. The General Assembly that had met in 1619 censured
a Captain Warde for establishing a plantation in Virginia without
asking anybody's permission. But when it was brought out that he had
conveyed quantities of salt fish to the Colony from Canada on his ship
he was forgiven. This captain was an important link between the Colony
and the North. John Rolfe wrote to Sir Edwin Sandys in 1619:

Captain Warde in his ship went to Monhegan [island, Maine] in the
Northern Colony in May and returned the latter end of July with
fish which he caught there. He brought but a small quantity by
reason he had but little salt. There were some Plymouth ships where
he harbored, who made great store of fish which is far larger than
Newland [Newfoundland] fish.

The Maine waters were far busier than those of Virginia. For more than
a century vessels from half-a-dozen European nations had thronged
there, even to Greenland, attracted by the fishing, and the furs
available on the mainland. When some of the early experiments at
colonization failed, fishing became all the more emphasized. There was
usually excellent demand for the catches whether landed in Plymouth
(England) or Plymouth (Massachusetts), Portugal, Holland, the West
Indies or Virginia. These bold adventurers made use of the land in the
New World only for drying, salting and barreling their fish. If
conditions permitted, they transported them fresh, in a cargo commonly
known as "corfish." Oil made from whale and cod was a profitable
commodity.

Fishermen were the pioneers and explorers of America's first days just
as the miners, trappers and traders were those of a later period.

The importance of fish was thus underlined. In addition, conceding the
value to the untrained whites of Indians as fishermen, the 1619
Assembly agreed to a proposal that Indians to the limit of six be
permitted to live in white settlements if they engaged in fishing for
the benefit of the settlement. Indian methods were first described by
Hariot of the Roanoke island colony:

They have likewise a notable way to catch fish in their rivers, for
whereas they lack both iron and steel, they fasten unto their
reeds, or long rods, the hollow tail of a certain fish like to a
sea crab instead of a point, wherewith by night or day they strike
fishes, and take them up into their boats. They also know how to
use the prickles, and pr