1695.] CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY. 59 



der the name of " The Company of INIerchants of 

 " London Trading to Greenland." The privileges 

 of this coi-poration principally consisted in an ex- 

 tension of the indulgences granted by 25th Car. II. 

 c. 7., among which, the permission to engage two- 

 thirds of the crew of each fishing ship from foreign 

 countries, in consequence of the great scarcity of 

 English harpooners and other fishing officers, was a 

 prominent article. 



The shipping interests of Holland having now 

 become most extensively engaged in the whale-fish- 

 ery, occasional accidents from the ice and other ca- 

 sualties among such a number of vessels, were un- 

 avoidable. It became, therefore, an object of im- 

 portance to those concerned, to establish some laws 

 for the disposal of the property saved from wrecks. 

 Hence, a code of laws, which had been originally 

 drawn up by the Greenland adventurers in 1677, 

 was, in the year 1695, sanctioned and confirmed by 

 the States-General *. 



The London Greenland Company thinking 

 their originial capital of 40,000/. too inconsider- 

 able to fulfil their extensive designs, in the in- 

 terval between the time of their incorporation 

 and the year 1703, increased their subscriptions 



Beschryving der Walvisvangst, vol, i. p. 22,-34. 



