104 WHALE-FISHERY. 



pany was once more resorted to, as offering one of the 

 most probable means of effecting the wishes of the 

 Government in its renewal. Accordingly, towards 

 the end of the seventeenth century, a company of 

 forty-two persons, who had subscribed 40,000 /. for 

 the purpose, were incorporated by act of Parliament, 

 for a term of fourteen years, and endowed with va- 

 rious privileges. Though the company made use 

 of their privilege, in employing a number of foreign 

 fishermen, equipped several ships, increased their 

 subscriptions to 82,000 /., and thus had every ap- 

 parent chance of success, yet, before the termination 

 of their charter, their capital, we are informed, was 

 totally expended, and their trade and expectations 

 completely blasted. 



The v/liale-fishery commerce again lay dormant 

 for several years, when the South Sea Company, 

 after a length of time spent in discussion and in- 

 decision, took it up, and, in the year 1725, sent a 

 fleet of twelve new ships of 300 tons burden each, 

 to Greenland, and afterwards increased it to twen- 

 ty-two sail. After they had persevered for eight 

 years, in which time a very large sum of money was 

 lost, this company, like all the former adventurers, 

 found it necessary to give up the trade. 



The almost universal failure of the English in the 

 whale-fishery, to this period, and the general good 

 success of their contemporaries, has excited much as- 

 tonishment. About the time that the English 



