Page:The History of the Island of Dominica.djvu/194

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The History of the

yet that article bears a much higher price in Dominica, than in moſt other Engliſh ſettlements. This is alſo owing to the want of proper regulations in the fiſh market; for though there is an act for obliging every fiſherman, who catches fiſh within a certain diſtance from Roſeau, to bring it there for ſale, yet the major part of the inhabitants, who are Roman Catholics, faſt the greateſt part of the week upon fiſh; and the fiſhermen, being all of the ſame religion, they contrive to evade this act, by ſending the beſt part of their fiſh to their friends, and bring only what they cannot otherways diſpoſe of to the market. By this means that article is often ſcarce, as well as dear; and on particular faſt days, in Lent eſpecially, the Engliſh inhabitants are frequently obliged to faſt without fiſh.

It has often been wondered at, that in Dominica there are no Engliſh fiſhermen; and that a buſineſs, which is known to be ſo very

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