HISTORY OP THE AMERICAN WHALE FISHERY. 17 



grant made to him, upon condition tliat be took up his residence on the 

 island for the space of three years, and also that he should "follow his 

 trade of a cooper upon the island as the Town or whale Company have 

 need to employ him." Loper beyond a doubt nev^er improved this oppor- 

 tunity offered him of immortalizing himself, but Savidge did, and a per- 

 verse world has, against his own will, handed down to posterity the name 

 of Loper, who did not come, while it has rather ignored that of Savidge, 

 who did remove to that island. 



The history of whaling upon Nantucket from that time until 1G90 is 

 rather obscure. There is a tradition among the islanders that in this 

 year several persons were standing upon what was afterward known as 

 Folly House Hill, observing the whales spouting and sporting in the sea. 

 One of these people, pointing to the ocean, said to the others: " There 

 is a green pasture, where our children's grandchildren will go for bread."* 

 It would be a matter of interest to know the name of the individual 

 to whom this prophetic vision was revealed, but tradition is almost 

 always lame somewhere. In 1690 the people of Nantucket, "finding 

 that the people of Cape Cod had made greater proficieucy in the art of 

 whale-catching than themselves," sent thither and employed Ichabod 

 Paddock to remove to the island and instruct them in the best method 

 of killing whales and obtaining theoii.t Judging from subsequentevents, 

 he must have come and proved himself a good teacher and they most 

 admirable pupils. 



The earliest mention of whales at Martha's Vineyard occurs in Novem- 

 ber, 1G52, when Thomas Daggett and William Weeks were appointed 

 " whale cutters for this year." The ensuing April it was " Ordered by 

 the town that the whale is to be cut out freely, four men at one time, 

 and four at another, and so every whale, beginning at the east end of 

 the town." In 1G90 IMr. | Sarson and William Vinson were appointed 

 by " the proprietors of the whale" to oversee the cutting and sharing of 

 all whales cast on shore within the bounds of Edgartown, " they to have 

 as much for their care as one cutter." 



genealogical dictionary) to be the one spoken of, the petition (Mass. Col. MSS., 

 Usurpation, li, p. 136) gives his name as Jacohus Loper, and it is by this name alone 

 he is known. Thus in 1686 the constable of Eastham was ordered to attach Jacobus 

 Loper to find sureties for good behavior and appearance at the next court, and at the 

 October term Jacobus Loper was acquitted of a criminal charge. In no place does the 

 Latin name undergo a change, and accompanying circumstances would scarcely seem 

 to imply that the appellation was ever intended to be James. On the contrary the 

 Nantucket document plainly says James, as also do the MSS. relating to Easthamptan, 

 and in no place is the Latinized form used. 



* Macy's Nantucket, p. 33. 



t Macy's Nantucket, pp. 29-30. No record exists of this save in the form of tradition, 

 but many circumstances give it an appearance of far greater probability^ than the story 

 concerning Loper. Among other things, it is related as an historical tact by Zaccheus 

 Macy (Mass. Hist. Soc, Col. iii, p. 155), who died in 1797, aged 83 ye;irs, and hence was 

 cotemporary with some of the men living in Paddock's time. He, however, makes no 

 mention of Loper. 



t Richard L. Pease, esq., in Vineyard Gazette. 

 2 



