161S.] SPITZBERGEN FISHERY. 2i) 



value, yet they had an opportunity of reaping but 

 little benefit from the trade before other nations 

 presented themselves as competitors. 



Such a novel enterprise as the capture of whales, 

 which was rendered practical, and even easy, by 

 the number in which they were found, and the con- 

 venience of the situations in which they occurred, — 

 an enterprise at the same time calculated to enrich 

 the adventurers far beyond any other branch of 

 trade then practised — created a great agitation, and 

 di'ew towards it the attention of all the commercial 

 people of Europe. By one impulse, their mer- 

 cantile spirit was directed to this new quarter, and 

 vessels from various ports were engaged, and began 

 to be fitted for the fishery. In the next year, how- 

 ever, when the Kussia Company sent two ships, 

 the "(Vhale of 160 tons, and the Sea-Horse of 180 

 tons, to the fishery, three foreign ships only made 

 their appearance. They consisted of one from Am- 

 sterdam, commanded by William IVIuydam, and 

 another from Sardam, intended only, it seems, for 

 the taking of sea-horses ; and a Spanish ship from 

 Biscay, fitted for the whale-fishery *. The English, 

 jealous of the interference of the Dutch ships which 

 they encountered during the voyage, (who now, as 

 on many former occasions, followed them closely 

 wherever there was presented a prospect of emolu- 



* De BR\'b Ind. Orientalis, torn. ill. p- 51. 



