1723 ] CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY. 65 



the object probably, of stimulating the British 

 subjects by the example of foreign nations, appears 

 to have amounted to 355 sail : 251 of these ships 

 were fitted out from different ports in Holland ; 

 55 from Hamburgh ; 24 from Bremen ; 20 from 

 the ports in the Bay of Biscay ; and 5 from Bre- 

 men in Norway *. 



At this time, an attempt was made by a com- 

 pany of merchants, belonging to Bergen, to es- 

 tablish a trade with the Esquimaux, in Davis' 

 Straits, when they likewise made a feeble effort to 

 carry on a whale-fishery in that quarter. For this 

 latter purpose, one ship was dispatched, which, 

 meeting with a severe storm near Statenhook, 

 where there is a dangerous current, was dismasted, 

 and nearly upset. Notwithstanding her crippled 

 state, she arrived at Bergen in safety. Two years 

 afterwards (1723), the same company sent out an- 

 other shij) to Davis' Straits, which, after wintering 

 there, returned home the following summer, with 

 120 barrels of blubber, procured from one whale, 

 wliidi, with the whale-bone, sold for about 540 /. 

 On another occasion, this company's fishing ship 

 returned home clean, when, at the same time, their 

 trading a esscl procuring a bad freight, they relin- 

 quished botli these speculations f . 



VOL. II E 



* Anderson's Commerce, a. d. 172L 

 + Craiitz' Greenland, vol. i. p. 304. 



