38 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



' has got the beach on the sea shore for fourty miles together, after an odd manner as I have been 

 told by some of the inhabitants * * * having forced the town of Southampton to take a 

 poore 10 for the greatest part of the said beach, which is not a valuable consideration in law, 

 for Colonel Smith himself own'd to me that that beach was very profitable to him for whale fish- 

 ing, and that one year he cleared 500, by whales taken there.' 



" In 1716, Samuel Mulford, of Easthampton, in a petition to the King, gave a sketch of the 

 progress of this industry in that viciuity.* In the recital of the grievances of his neighbors and 

 himself, he writes that ' the inhabitants of the said Township and parts adjacent did from the 

 first Establishment of the said Colony of New Tork enjoy the Privilege & Benefit of fishing for 

 whale & applying ye same to their own use as their undoubted right and property.'! By his 

 petition it appears further that in 1664 Governor Nicolls and council directed that drift-whales 

 should pay a duty of every sixteenth gallon of oil to the government, ' exempting the whales that 

 were killed at Sea by persons who went on that design from any duty or imposition.' Governor 

 Dongan also claimed duty on drift-whales, and he also exempted those killed at sea. 'There was 

 no pretence,' under Dongau, ' to seize such whales or to exact anything from the fishermen on 

 that account, being their ancient right and property. Thus the inhabitants had the right of fish- 

 ing preserved to them, and the Crown the benefit of all drift Whales, and everything seemed well 

 established between the Crown and the People, who continued chearfully, and with success, to 

 carry on the said fishing trade.' This state of affairs continued until 1696, when Lord Corubury 

 (afterward Earl of Clarendon) became governor. It was theu announced by those in authority 

 that the whale was a 'Royal Fish,' and belonged to the Crown; consequently all whalers must 

 be licensed ' for that purpose which he was sure to make them pay for, and also contribute good 

 part of the fruit of their labour ; no less that a neat 14th part of the Oyle and Bone, when cut up, 

 and to bring the same to New York an 100 miles distant from their habitation, an exaction so 

 grievous, that few people did ever comply for it.' \ The result of this policy was to discourage 

 the fishery, and its importance was sensibly decreased. In 1711 the New York authorities issued 

 a writ to the sheriifs directing- them to seize all whales. This demand created much disturbance, 

 but the people, knowing no remedy, submitted with what grace they could to what they felt was 

 a grievous wrong, and an infringement upon their rights under the patent under which their 

 settlement was founded. Since that time, Mulford continues, a formal prosecution had been 

 commenced against him for hiring Indians to assist him in whaling. He concludes his petition 

 with the assertion that, unless some relief was aiforded, the fishery must be ruined, since ' the 

 person concerned will not be brought to the hardship of waiting out at sea many months, & the 

 difficulty of bringing into New York the fish, and at last paying so great a share of their profit.' 



" Mulford, during the latter part of his life, was continually at loggerheads with the govern- 

 ment at New York. A sturdy representative of that Puritan opposition to injustice and wrong 

 with which the early settlers of Eastern Long Island were so thoroughly imbued, the declining 

 years of his life were continual eras of contention against the tyrannies and exactions of governors, 

 whose only interest seemed to be to suck the life blood from the bodies of these unfortunate flies 

 caught in their spider's-uet, and cast the useless remains remorselessly away. He was one of the 



*N. Y. Col. Kec., v, p. 474. 

 These are undoubtedly what the, authorities were pleased to term "Massachusetts notions." 



t It was these outrageously unjust laws that brought the government into the notorious disrepute it attained 

 with its outlying dependencies from 1675 to 1720. In March, 1693, the council of Lord Cornbury declared certain 

 drift-whales the property of the Crown (which apparently meant a minimum amount to the King and a maximum 

 share to the governor), "when the subject can make no just claim of having killed them." One Richard Floyd 

 having offered a reward to any parties bringing him information of such whales, the council ordered an inquiry into 

 the matter in order to prevent such practices in the future. (Council Minutes, viii, p. 6.) 



