24 THE AMERICAN WHALEMAN 



shore, and if the pursuers could paddle long enough and hard 

 enough, they might perchance be permitted to witness the 

 death throes of their harassed and stricken prize. But in the 

 great majority of cases the whales must have escaped by 

 sounding or by swimming out to sea, in spite of the harpoons 

 which may have been imbedded in their flesh and the inade- 

 quate droges which dangled behind them.^ 



Despite their lack of real success, however, the Indian 

 whalemen possessed both courage and skill; and the early 

 colonists were not slow to recognize this fact. When the 

 whaling knowledge and dexterity of the Indians were com- 

 bined with the heavier boats and implements of the colonists, 

 the percentage of captures rose materially. As a result it was 

 common for the two parties to enter into partnerships which 

 involved the joint use of native labor and of white capital. 

 As early as 1650, for instance, the settlers at Southampton, 

 Long Island, were employing members of the neighboring 

 tribes to man their boats, and were allowing them a given 

 percentage of the captured oil in lieu of wages. At times the 

 terms of these whaling agreements were inscribed in the town 

 books, as at Easthampton on April 2, 1688. On that day 

 Jacobus Skallenger and others hired certain Indians to engage 

 in whaling from November i to April i at three shillings per 

 day apiece, with the whites furnishing all necessary equip- 

 ment.^ 



There are references to whales and whaling from the very 

 beginning of the colonies in New England and New York. 

 Captain John Smith reported that he had sighted large num- 

 bers of whales while sailing along the New England coast in 

 1 614; and Richard Mather wrote in 1635, that he had seen 

 "many mighty whales spewing up water in the air, like the 

 smoke of a chimney, and making the sea about them white 

 and hoary." ' 



1 Starbuck, A., "History of the American Whale Fishery," pp. 6-12, contains 

 a number of references to early Indian whaling. The most detailed and most 

 readable account of Indian whaling, however, is to be found in Spears, J. R., 

 "Story of the New England Whalers." 



2 Starbuck, A., "History of the American Whale Fishery," pp. 6-12. 



^ See Scaramon, C. M., "Marine Mammals of the Northwestern Coast," p. 



202. 



