There was great complaint of the _New England-men_, who for seven or eight years, he says, had resorted to Newfoundland. They had also their agents in most of the harbours, and drove an indirect trade, supplying several commodities to the planters, which they ought to take from England. Such New England vessels generally made two or three trips in a year, with bread, flour, pork, tobacco, molasses, sugar, lime-juice, and rum. They sold cheaper in general, but obliged their purchasers to take certain quantities of rum. This the inhabitants sold to the fishermen, and so encouraged them to stay behind, and leave their families in England a burthen on the parish. The inhabitants also sold rum to their servants, who run in debt, and were forced to hire themselves in payment of their debt; so that one month’s profuse living, and a pair of shoes, often left them in bondage for a year; and good fishermen, who deserved fifteen or twenty pounds per annum, were thus made to serve for seven pounds. He says, the _New Englanders_, at the close of the year, used to inveigle away a great many seamen and servants, with promises of great wages; but these men were often disappointed, and turned robbers and pirates. The New England vessels were said, the last year, to have taken away five hundred men in this manner, in _Conception Bay_ only; many of these were headed up in casks to prevent discovery. He recommends, for preventing this practice, that the masters of New England vessels should give bond, when they cleared out, not to bring men from Newfoundland without leave from the commodore. We find, in after times, the captains of the king’s ships used to oblige every New England master of a ship to give such bond, in a penalty of five hundred pounds, with two sureties in two hundred and fifty pounds each, not to carry any persons out of the island. As to the fishery, he did not hear of more than one New England vessel fishing on the coast. Indeed it appears, that _their_ fishery was all carried on upon their own coast, where they had better fish, and that they looked to Newfoundland for nothing but the sort of traffic above-mentioned. He informs us, that the inhabitants and planters of Newfoundland were poor, indigent, and withall a profuse sort of people, that cared not at what rates they got into debt, nor what obligations they gave, so they could have credit. But the seizing of their fish for debt, seemed to this gentleman to be both irregular and unjust, as to the time and manner of doing it; for the fishermen seeing the flakes stript before the fishing season was half over, were discouraged from proceeding any further; which often proved the ruin and overthrow of several planters’ voyages.