The Rise of American Whaling. 25 
From that time until 1690 there is a lapse in the 
history of Nantucket whaling. There is a tradition 
among the islanders, says Macy,” that in 1690 several 
persons were standing on a hill watching the whalers 
off shore; one of the islanders, of prophetic soul, pointed 
to the sea, saying ‘‘There is a green pasture, where our 
children’s grand-children will go for bread.” However 
true the tradition, the content of the supposed prophecy 
was fully realized in later years. 
In the same year (1690) the islanders found “‘that the 
people of Cape Cod had made greater proficiency in the 
art of whale catching,’ and sending thither, they .. . 
“employed one Ichabod Paddock to remove to the island 
and instruct them in the best method of killing whales 
and obtaining the oil.’”* As Starbuck says,” “judging 
from subsequent events he must have proved a good 
teacher and they most apt pupils.”’ 
Thus, before the end of the century in which American 
colonization began, whaling was established as a regular 
business, if still on a small scale, in the different Massa- 
chusetts colonies, especially from Cape Cod; from the 
towns at the eastern end of Long Island, and from 
Nantucket. At all these places the fishery had gone 
through the same stages of first taking only whales cast 
ashore, and later developing into a regular practice of 
boat whaling. True it is that the industry was still very 
much in its infancy, but it is interesting to note that 
almost every locality subsequently to become important 
in its whaling interests had begun the enterprise before 
1700. The notable exceptions were New Bedford, 
Mass., and New London, Conn. 
With the opening years of the eighteenth century 
Nantucket rapidly came to be the foremost whaling 
port. The very situation and character of the island 
2 Macy, p. 43. 
1 Macy, Pp. 42. 
2 Starbuck, p. 17. 
