a large island of North America, belonging to Great Britain, lying between 46° 50' and 51° 30' N. Lat. and between 53° 30' and 58° 20' W. Long. from London. The form is that of an irregular triangle, the base or south side being 80 leagues in extent; the east side is the longest; and the whole circumference about 150 leagues. It is bounded on the north by the Straits of Belleisle, which separate it from Labrador; on the east and south it hath the Atlantic Ocean, and on the west the Gulph of St Laurence. The climate is rather severe; and the soil, at least on the sea coast, which is all that we know of it, is poor and barren. A few kitchen vegetables with strawberries and raspberries are all its produce. The country within land is mountainous, and abounds with timber; there are several rivers which are plentifully stored with various sorts of fish, abundance of deep bays, and many good ports. St John's and Placentia are the two principal settlements, and at each of these there is a fort; the number of people who remain here in the winter hath been computed at 4000. The French, by the treaty of Utrecht, were permitted to fish from Cape Bonavista on the east side round the north of the island to Point Rich on the west; and by the treaty of Paris, they are allowed the isles of St Pierre and Miquelon, upon which they are to dry their fish, but not to erect fortifications of any kind.

The great importance of this place arises from its fishery, which is in part carried on by the inhabitants at the several harbours, which are about 20 in number, who take vast quantities of cod near the coast, which they bring in and cure at their leisure, in order to have it ready for the ships when they arrive. But the great and extensive fishery is on the banks at some distance from the island. The great bank lies 20 leagues from the nearest point of land from the latitude of 41° to 49°, stretching 300 miles in length and 75 in breadth. To the east of this lies the False Bank; the next is styled Vert or the Green Bank, about 240 miles long, and 120 over; then Banquero, about the same size; the shoals of Sand Island, Whale Bank, and the Bank of St Peter's, with several others of less note, all abounding with fish.

The cod are caught only by a hook, and an expert fisher will take from 150 to 300 and upwards in a day; for the fish never bite in the night, and the labour is very great. The season is from May to October, in the height of which there are from 500 to 700 sail upon the banks at a time. The fish caught in the spring-months are best; they are cured in very different ways. Some are styled white fish, others mud fish, which are flowed and salted in the hold, and will not keep long; but the best and most valuable are the dried cod. The quantity taken is prodigious; yet in some seasons and in different places varies considerably, as the fish frequently change their stations. The fishing-ships, as they are called, lie upon the banks, with the help of their boats take and cure their own fish, and as soon as they are full fail for a market. The sack-ships proceed directly to the island, where they purchase fish from the inhabitants either by barter or bills of exchange. The principal markets for cod are Spain, Portugal, Italy, and the West Indies. The value of this fishery is computed at some hundred thousand pounds annually; employing, besides several hundred ships, some thousands of seamen, and affording a maintenance to a number of tradesmen of different occupations, by which many large towns on the west side of England accumulate much wealth, and at the same time contribute in many respects to the benefit of the public.

The great utility of this fishery was very early seen, and very vigorously pursued; for in the beginning of the reign of king James I., we had two hundred and fifty sail employed therein. It is computed, that three quintals of wet fish make one quintal of dried cod. Besides, the livers of every hundred quintals make a hog's head of oil; and exclusive of these, there are many lesser advantages that go in diminution of the expense. The fishery, as we have said above, produces differently in different seasons; but it is judged to be a very good one when it produces 300,000 quintals of fish, and 3000 barrels of oil, both equally saleable and valuable commodities. As every ship carries 12, and each of their boats eight men, and as these return home in six months, there cannot be a more noble nursery for seamen. The artificers and traders employed in building, victualling, and repairing these vessels, are very numerous in the respective ports from which they sail. These circumstances justify the particular attention paid by government to this branch of the public service; in respect to which, that they may be well informed, an annual and very distinct account, by which the whole is seen at one view, is delivered by the proper officer to the governor of Newfoundland, that is, to the commodore of his majesty's squadron.