179 



modity of this countiy." The mackerel fishery at Cnpc Cod was held 

 by the government of the colony of Plymouth ;i.s public property"-, and 

 its profits were appropriated to public uses. The records show that it 

 was rented, from time to time, to individuals, who paid stipulated sums, 

 and that a 'part of the fund to support the first free-school established by 

 our FUgrim fathers was derived fom it. 



The proposition to found and endow a school of this descriplion 

 seems to have been made in 16G3, but not to have been adopted until 

 seven years later, when the general court, "upon due and serious 

 consideration, did freely give and grant all such profits as might or 

 should annually accrue to the colony," from this and the bass and her- 

 ring fisheries, at the same place. In 1689, the " rent of the Cape fishery 

 was added to the appropriation for magistrates' salary for that year." 



Exact statements as to the progress and extent of the mackerel 

 fishery previous to the Revolution, are hardly to be found; but it is still 

 certain that the people of Rhode Island and Connecticut, as well as 

 those of Massachusetts, were "largely concerned in it," and that fleets 

 of sloops employed in it were often seen upon the coast and in tlie har- 

 bors. It is certain, also, that about the 3'ear 1770, the town of Scituate, 

 alone, owned upwards of thirty vessels that w^ere annually fitted out 

 as "mackerel catchers;" and that the whole number of vessels in 

 Massachusetts was not less thnn one hundred. Soon after the peace of 

 1783, a writer in a Boston newspaper, in a series of articles on Ameri- 

 can commerce, said that the mackerel fishery "was of more value to 

 Massachusetts than would be the pearl fisheries of Ceylon." 



There is little of interest relating to this branch of industry l()r sev- 

 eral years after the period last mentioned. A highly respectable ship- 

 master, who is still living, entertains the opinion that the fishery in ves- 

 sels wa.^ commenced within fifty years; and that " he was personally 

 engaged in the first regular mackerel voyage ever made in New Eng- 

 land." His account, as related to me by himself, would occupy too 

 much room. Its substance is, that, engaged in the coasting business 

 lor some time betw^een Massachusetts and Maine, he commonly saw 

 and caught mackerel, during the summer months, in the vicinity of the 

 island of Mount Desert ; that, believing that they might be taken in 

 quantities, he resolved, finally, to fit out a vessel for the express pur- 

 pose; that his success was even greater than he had expected, and 

 that others were induced to follow his example. The mistake of this 

 gentleman probably is, that what he considers the origin of the vessel 

 fishery was only a revival of it, since we can easily imagine that re- 

 peated losses and discouragements had caused a suspension of it. 



The accompanying table of statistics will show the number of bar- 

 rels inspected annually in Massachusetts since the year 1804, and also 

 the fluctuations and uncertainties of the fishery. . It will be seen, that, 

 commencing with a catch of eight thousand barrels, the quantity was 

 actually less in 1808, and during the three years of the w^ar of 1812; 

 that the inspection rose to two hundred and thirty-six thousand barrels 

 in 1820, and declined more than half in the following year; that, again 

 increasing in 1825, and again declining until 1829, there was a consid- 

 erable gain in 1830, and that the largest "catch" during the W'hole pe- 

 riod which it embz'aces was in 1831, when the quantity inspected was 



