though the most hideous cruelties were practised to procure these slaves, the traffic continued to increase and, half a century afterwards, one hundred and fifty vessels were fitted out in one year for the east coast of Africa from the ports of France alone, transporting in the course of that year twenty thousand slaves to the island of St. Domingo.
Newfoundland.
Usages at the fishery.
The French, indeed, during the reign of Louis
XIV. had encroached at all points on the English
trade, especially on her fisheries at Newfoundland;
hence William III. in his declaration of war against
that country in 1689, intimated "that whereas not
long since the French had been accustomed to take
licences from the British governor of Newfoundland
for fishing in the seas upon that coast, and to pay
tribute for such licences as an acknowledgment of
the sole right of the Crown of England to that
island, yet of late their encroachments upon his
subjects' trade and fishery there had been more like
the invasions of an enemy than of becoming friends
who enjoyed the advantages of the said trade only
by permission." But the capture of Nova Scotia at
the commencement of this war restored English supremacy
in that quarter. The preamble of an Act passed
in 1698 for the encouragement of the trade with Newfoundland,
declared it to be a beneficial trade to
Great Britain, not only in so far as it employed great
numbers of ships and seamen in those fisheries, but
also in that it procured returns of valuable commodities
direct from other countries in exchange for the
produce of those fisheries. The prevailing customs
at the fisheries were sanctioned expressly in this Act,
one of the most important being that the master of
