166 WHALE-FISHERY. 



'^rhc Danes first resorted to the coast of Spitz- 

 bergen in the year 1615, when they appeared in 

 the fishing seas with three men of war, and de- 

 manded tribute from the English. Their plea was, 

 that they were the original discoverers of West 

 Greenland, of which country these islands Vvcre at 

 first supposed to be an extension, and, as such, 

 claimed the Islands of Spitzhergeu, and imagined 

 they were entitled to tribute from all other nations 

 resorting thither. The English, however, very 

 properly resisted this assumption, and preferred 

 their own claim, but on a ground scarcely more 

 tenable than that of the Danes. They decla- 

 red themselves to be alone entitled to all ad- 

 vantages derivable from the Spitzhergeu whale- 

 fishery, in consequence of the supposed discovery of 

 this country by Sir Hugh Willoughby in 1553 ; but 

 more plausibly, however, in virtue of the discovery 

 of the Spitzhergeu fishery by the English adven- 

 turers in the year i6lO. 



Shortly after the first visit of the Danes to Spitzher- 

 geu, other ships adapted for carrying on the whale- 

 fishery were sent out ; and these were allowed to oc- 

 cupy a small island and convenient bay, lying be- 

 tween the possessions of the English and the 

 Dutch, in the 80th degree of north latitude. In 

 1620, the King of Denmark established a Green- 

 land Company, which was to have sent out two 

 ships yearly to the whale-fishery ; but in 1624 it 



