It Was In His
Time That An English Pirate, "Gentleman John," As He Was Called,
Committed Great Ravages In Iceland, For Which James Had Afterwards
To Make Compensation.
The chief markets for the fish are in the
Catholic countries of Europe.
In the seventeenth century, a great
traffic in fish was carried on between Iceland and Spain. - ED.
{18} The dues charged by the Danish Government on all vessels
passing through the Sound have been levied since 1348, and therefore
enjoy a prescriptive right of more than five hundred years. They
bring to the Danish Government a yearly revenue of about a quarter
of a million; and, in consideration of the dues, the Government has
to support certain lighthouses, and otherwise to render safe and
easy the navigation of this great entrance to the Baltic. Sound-
dues were first paid in the palmy commercial days of the Hanseatic
League. That powerful combination of merchants had suffered
severely from the ravages of Danish pirates, royal and otherwise;
but ultimately they became so powerful that the rich merchant could
beat the royal buccaneer, and tame his ferocity so effectually as to
induce him to build and maintain those beacon-lights on the shores
of the Sound, for whose use they and all nations and merchants after
them have agreed to pay certain duties. - ED.
{19} The Feroe Islands consist of a great many islets, some of them
mere rocks, lying about halfway between the north coast of Scotland
and Iceland. At one time they belonged to Norway, but came into the
possession of Denmark at the same time as Iceland.
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