100 WHALE-FISHERY. 



though with broken ribs and other serious wounds^ 

 lie v;as enabled to extricate himself from the vessel^ 

 and was picked up by one of the boats, and his life 

 preserved. 



In the fishery at Spitzbergen, the assistance of 

 Biscayans was still required, as well by the English 

 as by the other nations of Kurope, whic'i speedily 

 embarked in the same speculation ; and it Avas some 

 years before any of them ventured on the fishery, 

 relying on the strength of their own unsupported 

 abilities. 



Scarcely had the English established themselves 

 in the Spitzbergen whale-fishery, before the Dutch 

 and Spaniards followed their example ; and after 

 them immediately succeeded the French, Danes 

 and Hamburghers. 



The Russia Company, in consideration of their 

 having originally discovered and established this 

 commerce, and likewise of having incurred consider- 

 able expence in sending out ships on voyages of 

 discovery to the Polar Seas, — deemed themselves 

 entitled to the sole right of the Spitzbergen whale- 

 fishery ; and hence it was, that when the Dutch 

 appeared as their competitors, the first year they 

 drove them out of the country, and the second, be- 

 ing confirmed in the right to a monopoly of the 

 trade, by Royal Charter, a. d. 1613, they equipped 

 an anned fleet, and drove out of the country fifteen 

 <;ail of ships belonging to different nations, some of 



