named Province of Avalon (after
Avalon in Somersetshire), which embraced a considerable portion of the
island's area. Calvert established himself at Ferryland--the name
being a corruption of Verulam, so called after the great
Chancellor--and stayed only long enough to infuse a tenacious Roman
Catholic strain into the island. Finding the climate too cold,
however, he applied for a more southerly colony for himself and forty
companions. In reply, the King said that the climate was not too cold,
but that Sir George Calvert was too soft, and had better return home.
But he had in the meantime transferred himself and his forty followers
to the milder climes of the south, and there established Maryland,
whose capital, Baltimore, was named after the founder's family title.
Perhaps the turbulence of his surroundings, and the troubles with the
French, were not to his taste. Law and order were indeed far to seek,
and there were neither civil tribunals nor military forces. We may
suppose that the "Fishing Admirals," authorized by the Star Chamber
and confirmed in their authority by 10 and 11 William III., c. 25,
had already asserted a _de facto_ jurisdiction on the spot, for it is
hardly credible that the mere wantonness of legislative invention can
have produced such a tribunal. To anticipate for a moment: the Act
provided that the master of the first ship arriving from England with
the season should be admiral of the harbour; to the masters of the
second and third in order were given the titles of vice-admiral and
rear-admiral. To this tribunal were committed fishing disputes in
general, and the maintenance of peace among sailors and fishermen. It
may be supposed that these rough sailors were both corrupt and
inefficient. "I must be a pretty sort of a judge if I could not do
justice to myself," said one west country sailor, when charged with
delivering an interested judgment. At the close of the season the
judges disappeared, together with their cargoes of blubber and cod.

In spite of all these drawbacks the island was gradually increasing in
reputation. Writers, as well as returned "planters" and visitors, did
much to make it known. Thus Sir Richard Whitbourne, to whom reference
has already been made, wrote in his "Discourse of Newfoundland"
(1622): "Divers worshipful citizens of the City of Bristol have
undertaken to plant a large circuit of that country, and they have
maintained a Colony of his Majesties subjects there any ti