134 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



" What effect this state of affairs may have hail in the arrangement of treaties of commerce 

 with Great Britain is somewhat uncertain, but. the attempt to a consummation of this plan was 

 intrusted to a man not only thoroughly imbued with New England principles, but of sufficient 

 statesmanship to realize of how much national importance this matter was. None knew better 

 than John Adams that the secret of the commercial greatness which should be developed lay in 

 the codevelopmeut of the fisheries; that herein was the nursery for seamen who would be a source 

 of wealth in peace and of power in war. It was desirable, to irake duties and courtesies more 

 reciprocal, and one of the first duties intrusted to Mr. Adams on his appointment to the court of 

 St. James in 1785 was the arrangement of some treaty which should be mutually satisfactory. 

 Naturally, one of the principal points was the importation of the products of our fishermen, since 

 that industry, perhaps more than any other, was in danger of serious injury from the existing con- 

 dition of things. 



" I* a letter to the Marquis of Carmarthen, dated July 29, 1785, Mr. Adams refers to the 

 trouble accruing from the alien duties laid by England in these words : ' The course of commerce 

 since the peace, between Great Britain and the United States of America, has been such as to 

 have produced many inconveniences to the persons concerned in it on both sides, which become 

 every day more and more sensible. The zeal of Americans to make remittances to British 

 merchants has been such as to raise the interest of money to double its usual standard, to 

 increase the price of bills of exchange to 8 or 10 percentum above par, and to advance the price 

 of the produce of the country to almost double the usual rate. Large sums of the circulating 

 cash, and as much produce as could be purchased at almost any rate, have been remitted to 



" ' 2d. The concession of a tract of ground to build their houses and stores. 



" '3d. All the privileges, exemptions, and advantages promised by the King's declaration in 1662, confirmed by 

 letters patent of 1784, to all strangers who come to establish there, which are the same as those enjoyed by the natif 

 subjects of his majisty. 



" '4th. The importation into the Kingdom, free from all duties whatever, of the oil proceeding from their fishery, 

 and the same premiums and encouragement granted for the cod and other fisheries to natif subjects. 



"'Sth. A premium per ton ou the burthen of the vessels that will carry on the whale fishery, which shall be 

 determined in the course of the negotiation either with Mr. Rotch or with the select men of the island. 



" '6th. All objects of provisions and victuals for their ships shall be exempted from all duties whatever. 



" '7th. An additional and heavier duty shall be laid on all foreign oil, as a further encouragement to them, in 

 order to facilitate the sale of their own. 



" ' 8th. The expenses of removing those of the inhabitants who are not capable of defraying themselves shall be 

 paid by the Government. 



" ' 9th. A convenient dock shall be built to repair their ships. 



" ' 10th. All trades-people, such as smiths, boat-builders, coopers, and others shall be admitted to the free exer- 

 cise of their trade without being liable to the forms and expense usually practiced and paid by the natif subjects for 

 their admittance to mastership. 



" ' llth. They shall have liberty to command their own vessels, and have the choice of their own people to navi- 

 gate them. 



" '12th. They shall bo free from all military and naval service, as well in war as in peace, in the same manner 

 and extent as expressed by the King's ordinance of the 16th of February, 1759.' (Macy, 257, 258.) 



" These were probably essentially the same concessions made to Mr. Rotch in person. How many American 

 captains pursued the fishery from the various British and French ports subsequently to the Revolution it would be 

 difficult to determine. Nantucket alone furnished eighty-three captains for the French and one hundred and forty- 

 nine captains for the English fishery ; probably the bulk of the total number came from this one port, though in the 

 course of the prosecution of whaling by these nations, New Bedford furnished a very considerable number. In a 

 ' Journal of a Voyage to Greenland ' from Dunkirk in the ship Penelope, Capt. Tristram Gardner (a Nantucket man), 

 be records, under the head of Friday, June 6, 1788, in latitude 70 north, ' 100 ships in sight.' On the 22d of the same 

 month he states, as a mere matter of fact not worthy of extended comment, ' Wind at South ; A Rnged sea ; Plenty 

 of Snow. Later Part Saw Ise to ye S. YV. of us a 4 ye wind Shifted to ye Northward, but Still thick weather. Saw 

 A Number of ships, but No whale. So ends this 24 hours. Lat. 79.02.' And yet this is within about 175 miles of 

 the highest northern point attained by any of our splendidly equipped expeditions undertaken with the express pur- 

 pose of pushing as far north as possible in vessels armored and strengthened and equipped in the most complete 

 manner, while the whaling voyages were pursued in small, not uncommonly strong ships, not even having the feeble 

 protection of coppered bottoms. As early as 1753, a schooner was fitted from Boston for the discovery of the north- 

 west passage. She sailed in the spiin^ and returned in October of the same year." 



