Forenoon on New Seas 185 



Macy's descendants. The greatest is the present-day existence of a 

 world-wide American economic empire. 



Macy sent Starbuck back to the mainland a year later to co-opt 

 other permanent settlers, and nine of them came over. These to- 

 gether bought nine tenths of the island, including all its Amerindian 

 inhabitants, from Mayhew and divided it up equitably. Then each 

 took a partner, and so founded the body known to and enormously 

 venerated by all present-day islanders and historians as The Twenty 

 Purchasers. They cleared land, planted crops, and built log cabins 

 with thatched roofs. The Amerindians continued to fish for, and 

 land, whales, but the colonists took no part in these operations until 

 a right whale happened to wander into the enclosed natural harbor 

 and bumbled around there for three days trying to find its way back 

 to the open sea. Some of the islanders fashioned a crude harpoon, 

 gave chase, and managed to kill and land the beast. This made a 

 great impression on the whole community, but since the settlers 

 were not seamen, and had only a few small rowboats, nothing hap- 

 pened regarding whales for some time. Nonetheless, parties used to 

 gather on high places for recreation, according to the records, and 

 from there they watched schools of whales passing their coasts, with 

 the red men pursuing them in canoes. As a result, the elders finally 

 decided to do something about this obvious waste of valuable raw 

 material, and in 1690 they sent for Ichabod Paddock. 



This man seems to have been most energetic, for he not only 

 stimulated the building of boats, but he also set up a series of watch 

 towers on the southern coast of the island, along which the whales 

 most frequently passed. These consisted of huts and a sort of crow's- 

 nest on a tall tower and were manned by the islanders on a coopera- 

 tive and voluntary basis. When whales were sighted, all able-bodied 

 male colonists and red men piled into large rowboats and went after 

 them. They appear to have been successful immediately. 



The procedure from then on seems to have been similar to the 

 native practice on the mainland^ except that rowboats were used 

 instead of canoes, and the harpoons were made of iron instead of 

 stone. It is not known whether log or skin floats were used on the 

 island, but in any case the whales hunted were black right whales, 

 which do not sink when killed. The really amazing thing to contem- 

 plate — and apparently it has not been considered by any historian — 



