at Vestmannäyjar in Iceland, and stole nine lasts of the king's stockfish. About the same time we hear of ten English clerks or merchants, by name, who traded with Iceland, and dwelt there through the winter. So also the English crews landed, killed a Danish officer, and robbed and plundered. In 1424 they carried off six more lasts of dried fish, and had actually entrenched bases on the detached islets of the coast. In 1425 they carried off Hans Paulsson and one Balthazar, besides despoiling the cloisters of Helgafell. In 1430 the Icelandic annals end, but in 1436 the Bishop of Iceland is licensed to engage John May with his ship Katherine to sail to Iceland; and in the same year the name of a London stockfish dealer is well known to the Icelanders. In 1440 two ships are sent by the king laden with goods, as the Icelanders had neither wine nor salt in the country. In 1450 a treaty between England and Denmark prohibits Englishmen from trading to Iceland; but Thomas Canyng, Mayor of Bristol, is exempted, because he has done the Icelanders great service. He was allowed to send out two ships to load 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 goods.[1] 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 and come, as men were wont of old, Of Scarborough unto the costes cold. And nowe so fele shippes this yeere there ware That moch losse for unfreight they bare."[2]
Again, in his letters, Columbus writes: "I sailed (in February, 1477) a hundred 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."[3] His statement that the sea was not frozen is corroborated by the Icelandic annals, and
