1613.] SPITZBERGEN FISHERY. 27 



into oil for the English, who were not so w^ell ac- 

 quainted with the process of manufacturing this 

 article as the French. The Dutch vessel which 

 had English seamen on board, was captured and ta- 

 ken to London *, together \nth the greater part of 

 eighteen and a half whales, which their other ships 

 had procured, occasioning a loss, according to their 

 estimation, of 130,000 guilders f . The English, 

 however, were far from being gainers by these trans- 

 actions ; for whilst engaged in making reprisals on 

 their competitors, they neglected their o^vn voyage, 

 whereby their ships returned home 200 or 300 tons 

 dead freight, and occasioned a loss to the company 



* The Dutch, in their''modem publications on the whale- 

 fishery, are silent on the subject of this capture ; as also is 

 Captain Edge, who has given us an account of the early fishery 

 of tlie English, in Purchas's Pilgrimes, &c. in which he him- 

 self was engaged. I therefore presume, that the prize> on 

 its arrival in England, was restored to its proper owners. 



+ " Beschryving der Walvisvangst," &c. Deel i. p. 25., and 

 " Ind. Orientalis," by John Theodore de Bry, a. d. I619, 

 where we have a full account of the transactions above referred 

 to, in a chapter entitled " Descriptio regionis Spitzbergoe ; 

 " addita simul relatione injurianim, quas. An. l6l3, alii pisca- 

 " tores ab Anglis perpessi sunt : et protestatione conti'a Anglos, 

 " qui sibi solis omne jus in istam regionem vendicarunt."— 

 torn. iii. p. ¥J, 62. 



