139 



by hanging by his hands over the stern. The passenger was examined 

 by a magistrate, who gave credit to his story, and suffered him to go at 

 large, but still sent a copy of the examination to the governor. The 

 account seemed untrue to the governor, who, as commissioner for trial 

 o£ piracies, issued a warrant to apprehend him, and he v/as tried for 

 murder at a special court of admiralty. He was acquitted ; but the 

 affair was transferred to the politics of the time, and did much to in- 

 crease the popuhir excitement. He was visited by several of the lead- 

 ing whigs, who affirmed their belief in his declnrations, and charged 

 the murder upon a vessel of the royal navy; while the tories, on the 

 contrary, insisted that he killed ihrce of the crew to obtain their money, 

 and then took the life of the fourth, who was a boy, to prevent detec- 

 tion. 



These incidents will serve to show the connexion of the fisheries 

 with the questions which caused a dismemberment of the British em- 

 pire. It remams to speak of the act of Parliament passed in 1775, 

 which, by depiiving the people of New England of the right of fishing, 

 was designed to "starve them into submission." The trade arising 

 from the cod-fishery alone, at that period, furnished the northern colo- 

 nies with nearly half of their remittances to the mother country, in 

 payment for articles of British manufacture, and was thus the very life- 

 blood of their commerce. The fishing towns had become populous and 

 rich. Marbkhead, for example, next to Boston, was the most import- 

 ant place in Massachusetts, and was second to the capital only in pop- 

 ulation and taxable property''. A fearful change awaited all. The dis- 

 pute was now to be determined by an appeal to arms, and every mar- 

 itime enterprise was to be interrupted and ruined.* 



On the KJth of February, Lord North moved "that leave be given 



* The inhabitants of the sea-shore of Massachusetts, impelled by their necessities, com- 

 menced the manufacture of salt from sea-water early in the Revolution. From the accounts 

 preserved, it would seem that they boiled the water at first, but were compelled to relinquish 

 the experiment because of the expense, and of the impurity of the salt. The next attempt 

 was by solar evaporation, on Boston Neck, by General Palmer, " a worthy an.l enterprising 

 gentleiufin," who failed in consequence of the rain-water which fell into his uncovered v.orks. 

 The third experiment is said to have been made in Dennis, Cape Cod, by Captain John Sears, 

 who, in the end, was successful. He constructed a vat with rafters and shutters, so arranged 

 as to exclude the rain in storms, and to expose the sea-water to the action of the sun in pleas- 

 ant weather. The first year he obtained only eight bushels of salt. His neighbors called his 

 invention " Sears's Folly;" yet he persevered. The second year he made thirty bushels of 

 salt. The fourth year, instead of pouring]; water into his vat from buckets, he introduced a 

 Aflw/-pump. In 1785, at the suggestion of Major Nathaniel Freeman, of Harwich, he contrived 

 a winf/-puuip, which he continued to use, and which saved a vast deal of labor. In ]79o Mr. 

 Eeuben Sears, of Harwich, invented covers for salt-vats, to move on shives, or small wheels, 

 as in ships' blocks. Five years later Mr. Hattil Kelley, of Dennis, constructed a new kind of 

 vat, and a new method of moving the covers. Various changes M'ere made by dilferent per- 

 sons subsequently; and the manufacture of salt from sea-water, by solar evaporiitinn, becamie 

 extensive, and at times profitable. Capt. John Sears was assisted in the improvements in his 

 works by Capt. William, Capt. Christopher Crowell, and by Capt Edward Sears, of Dennis. 

 They resigned to him whatever claims they might have had for their aid ; and in 1791) he ob- 

 tained a patent from the government. His right was, however, disputed by others, who 

 asserted that he made no " new discovery." 



In 18;)2 the niunber of salt-works in the county of Barnstable, Massachusetts, was 136, con- 

 taining lv!l,313 feet. These works were estimated to produce, annually, salt of the value of 

 $41,700. The business increased rapidly; and in 183-2 the number of feet of salt-works, in 

 the same county, was 1,425,000; the quantity of salt manufactured, 358,250 bushels. The 

 reduction of the duty on the foreign article, and other causes, produced a great change in the 

 value of this description of property. In 1834 the manuiacture was ruuiously depressed ; ami 



