124 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



" This letter was referred to a committee, who reported that a ropy of it should be sent to the 

 President of the Continental Congress, which report was adopted, and thus Massachusetts let slip 

 through her fingers the identical golden opportunity which the General Government had neglected 

 the year before. The suggestions of Mr. Adams, who of all our Revolutionary statesmen seems 

 most to have understood and appreciated the importance of this industry, were practically disre- 

 garded.* It is difficult to calculate how much the American whale fishery was affected by this 

 failure to act on this suggestion of Mr. Adams. Many of these captains and men, and others 

 catpured at other times during the war, had at its close sailed so long from British ports that the 

 extraordinary inducements held out by the English, and the depression in their business in the 

 United States, immediately succeeding the close of the war, operated to transfer to that country 

 .their skill and, measurably, their capital." 



FORAYS BY ENGLISH NAVAL VESSELS: TREATY OF 1778. "In the years 177S-'79 the 

 English navy made se\era.l forays upon the sea-coast towns of New England, destroying much 

 property at Warren, R. I., Dartmouth, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket in Massachusetts.! 

 Indeed, these predatory raids were frequent throughout the war, and liable to occur at any time, 

 consequently the unfortunate inhabitants were kept in a continual ferment. During the same 

 I ime the Government of France was continually intriguing for the exclusive possession of the North 

 American fisheries. On the (ith of Fein-nary, 1778, a treaty of amity and commerce was arranged 

 between France and the United States. Upon this point each side was to retain the exclusive 

 right to its own. The Americans conceded to the French the lights reserved by the treaties of 

 Utrecht | and Paris, even to the French interpretation of them, which were the right to fish upon 

 the Banks, and the exclusive use of one-half the shores of Newfoundland upon which to dry their 

 lish.|| In regard to what disposition should be made of that island in case it should be captured, 

 nothing was said; the sentiment of New England, however, upon that point was unmistakable. 

 Later in the same year Samuel Adams, in a letter from Philadelphia, wrote: 'I hope we shall 

 secure to the United Sta'es, Canada, N T ova Scotia, Florida, too, and the fishery, by our arms or by 

 treaty.' He writes further, and every year of the past centurv has borne witness to the soundness 

 of his views: ' We shall never be on a solid footing till Great Britain cedes to us, or we wrest 

 from her, what nature designs we should have.' fl 



"* Au exception to the general ;i|i;ilhy in iliis respect occurred late in the fall or early in tbe winter of 177(i, when 

 limits from the Alfred, man-of-war, were sent, ashore, at Canso and destroyed the whaling interest there, burning all 

 the materials for that industry, tog,-! her with all the oil stores with their < 



"t 'Return of vessels and stores destroyed on Acnshnet River the .~>th of September, 177'-': 8 sail of large vessels, 

 from 200 to 300 tons, most of them pri/.cs: (J armed vessels, carrying from 10 to Hi nuns; a number of sloops and 

 sehootiers of inferior si/,e, amouni ing in all to 70, besides whale-boats and other: amongst the prizes were three taken 

 by Count D'Estaign's fleet ; vili store houses at Bedford, several at McPherson's Wharf, Crans Mills, and Fairhaven ; 

 these were' filled with very grcal quantities of rum, sugar, molasses, eolt'ee, loliacco. cotton, tea, medicines, gunpow- 

 der, sail-cloth, cordage. Ac. ; two large rope-walks. 



" 'At Falrnouth, in the Vim -\ ai d Sou ml, the 10th of September. 177> : _' sloops and a schooner taken by the gal- 

 leys. 1 loaded with staves ; 1 sloop burnt. 



'' 'In Old Town Harbor, Martha's Vineyard: 1 brig of 150 tons burden, burnt by the Scorpion; 1 schooner ot 70 

 tons burden, burnt by ditto; -J.:', whale-boats taken or destroyed ; a quantity of plank taken. 



" 'At I lol mes's Hole, Manila's Vines ard : I vessels, with several boats, taken ordest roved : a salt -work destroyed, 

 and a considerable quant ity of salt I alien.' --(1 ticket. son's New Bedford, p. .'SJ. ) 



"At Sag Harbor Long Island, property was taken or destroyed to a large amount : Newport suffered greatly ; Nan- 

 tucket lost twelve or fourteen vessels, oil, stores, &c., to the value of 4,000 sterling. Warren, R. I., suffered during 

 the war to the extent of l.n;i:i tons of shipping, among them two vessels loaded with oil, and a large amount of other 



property . Sag Harbor also lost one or i c vessels by capture." 



"i April 11, ICii:;." " February 10, 1763." 



"'II Bancroft's U. S., ix, 481. Tho fact must, be kept in mind that whaling and fishing for cod were both carried 

 on on nearly the same waters, and often by the same vessels." 



"IT Bancroft's U. S., x, 177." 



