at Vestmannyjar in Iceland, and stole nine lasts of the king's

stockfish. About the sme time we hear of ten English clerks or merchants, by name, who tmdcd with Icehind, and dwelt there through the winter. So also the English crews landed, killed a Dinfish officer, and robbed and plundered. In 14:24 they carried off six more lasts of dried fish, and had actually entrenched bases on the detached islets of the coast. In 14:25 they crried oft' Hans Pau]sson and one Baitbazar, besides despoillug the cloisters of Helgafel]. In 1430 the Icelandic annals end, but iu 1436 the Bishop of Iceland is licensed to engg6 John 5Iay with his ship Katherine to sail to Icehind; and in the same year the name of a London stockfish dealer is well knowu to the Icehinders. In 1440 two ships are scut by the king linden with goods, as the Icelmders had neither wiue nor salt in the country. In 1450 a treaty between EngImd and Denmark prohibits Englishmen from trading to Iceland; hut Thomas Cmyng, 5Iayor of Bristol, is exempted, because he has done the Icelanders 'eat service. He was allowed to send out two ships to lod with fish. In 1445 two men of Lynn are punished for kidnapping a boy in Iceland. And, in 1478, Robert Alcock, of Hull, was permitted to send a ship, which was to bring back fish or other goodsJ The 'Libel of English Policie,' devotes several lines to the "commodious stockfish of Iceland," adding that--

"Out of Bristowe and costes many one Men have practised by nedle and by stone, Thider wardes within a little while Within twelve yers and without perill, Gon anti come, as men were wont of ohl, Of Scarborough tmto the costes cold. And howe so fele shippes this yeere there ware That moth losse lBr unfi'eight they hare."

Again, in his letters, Columbus writes :." I sailed (iu Febnmry, 1477) a hmdred leagues beyond the island of Tile, the southern part of which is not as some will have it 63 but 73 from the equinoctial line. It lies much more to the west than the western meridian of Ptolemy. This island is as large as England, and the English, especially those of Bristol, go there with their merchandise. At the time that I was there the sea was not frozen." a His statement that the sea was not frozeu is corroborated by the Icelandic mmals, and

Icelandic Sagas, Chronicles and 11olls Series, iv. 421 IL; and De Costa, ' Inventio Forttmata,' I'P- 11-13.

Itakluyt, B. L. i. 201. s MtOor, 'Zeni,' xviii.