A token of the stress resulting from inadequate fisheries even after 16 years of active colonization is this letter preserved in the records of the Virginia Company. A Virginia citizen named Arundle in 1623 wrote to his friend, Mr. Caning, in London: The most evident hope from altogether starving is oysters, and for the easier getting of them I have agreed for a canoe which will cost me 6 livres sterling. Emigrants had been advised not to leave for Virginia without some fishing equipment. In his _Travels_, John Smith had included the warning: "A particular of such necessaries as either private families or single persons shall have cause to provide to go to Virginia ... nets, hooks and lines must be added." Records of the Virginia Company in London throw light on the extensiveness of the fish trade. Robert Bennett wrote from Virginia to Edward Bennett in London in 1623: My last letter I wrote you was in the _Adam_ from Newfoundland, which I hope you shall receive before this. God send her back in safety and this from Canada. I hope the fish will come to a good reckoning for victuals is very scarce in the country. Your Newfoundland fish is worth 30s. per hundred, your dry Canada [fish] L3, 10s. and the wet L5, 10s. per hundred. I do not know nor hear of any that is coming hither with fish but only the _Tiger_ which went in company with the _Adam_ from this place and I know the country will carry away all this forthwith. And again from the records of the Company, this extract from _An Account of Sums Subscribed and Supplies Sent Since April_, dated July 23, 1623: ... We have received advice that from Canada there departed this last month a ship called Furtherance with above forty thousand of that fish which is little inferior to ling for the supply of the Colony in Virginia and that fish is worth not less than L600. [Illustration: _The broyling of their fish over the flame of fire._ Library of Congress Photo The first settlers did not have to learn from the Indians how to cook fish, but this method was perhaps as appetizing as any they knew.] [Illustration: _The manner of their fishing._ Library of Congress Photo The first colonists saw the Indians engaged in fishing practices that included spearing, luring with firelight, and entrapping in staked-off enclosures.] [Illustration: The sheepshead was one of the favorite seafoods of Tidewater Virginians from the beginning. It was fairly abundant, according to their records, and remained so until the twentieth century, when it became almost extinct in Chesapeake waters. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Photos] [Illustration: The ugly-looking but delicious-tasting sturgeon was the fish that principally engaged the attention of the first colonists. They were impressed by its abundance and were busy for a time in shipping its roe to England for [1]caviar. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Photos]