and Charles I.; to the defeat of the Royalists
and Scotch by Cromwell; and, lastly, to the Restoration, and the consequent
disbanding of the army, and fears of the partizans of Cromwell. It may be
added, that most of the men who were driven to America from these causes,
were admirably fitted to form new settlements, being of industrious habits,
and accustomed to plain fare and hard work.
The American plantations, as they were called, increased so rapidly in
commerce that, according to the last author referred to, they did, even in
the year 1670, employ nearly two-thirds of all our English shipping, "and
therefore gave constant sustenance, it may be, to 200,000 persons here at
home." At this period New England seems to have directed its chief
attention and industry to the cod and mackerel fisheries, which had
increased their ships and seamen so much as to excite the jealousy of Sir
Josiah Child, who, however, admits that what that colony took from England
amounted to ten times more than what England took from it. The Newfoundland
fishery, he says, had declined from 250 ships in 1605, to eighty in 1670:
this he ascribes to the practice of eating fish alone on fast days, not
being so strictly kept by the Catholics as formerly. From Carolina, during
the seventeenth century, England obtained vast quantities of naval stores,
staves, lumber, hemp, flax, and Indian corn.
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