24 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



had their oil commauded the price which they considered it should have 

 brought, this state of affairs might long have continued, but such was 

 not the case. " It was found," says Macy,* " that Nantucket had iu 

 many places become famed for whaling, and particularly so in England, 

 where partial supplies of oil had been received through the medium of the 

 Boston trade. The people, finding that merchants in Boston were mak- 

 ing a good profit by first purchasing oil at Nantucket, then ordering it 

 to Boston, and thence shipping it to London, determined to secure the 

 advantages of the trade to themselves, by exporting their oil in their 

 own vessels. They had good prospects of success in this undertaking, 

 yet, it being a new one, they moved with great caution, for they knew 

 that a small disappointment would lead to embarrassments that would, 

 in the end, prove distressing. They, therefore, loaded and sent out one 

 vessel, about the year 1745. The result of this small beginning proved 

 profitable, and encouraged them to increase their shipments by sending 

 out other vessels. They found, in addition to the profits on the sales, 

 that the articles iu return were such as their business required, viz, 

 iron, hardware, hemp, sailcloth, and many other goods, and at a much 

 cheaper rate than they had hitherto been subjected to." This naturally 

 gave renewed life to the enterprise, and induced the fitting of new 

 vessels and the development of new adventurers. The sky was not 

 always fair, not every voyage proved remunerative, but the business as 

 a whole steadily increased in importance and profit. At about this 

 time (174G), according to Macy's History, whaling was commenced by 

 our people in Davis's Straits.t 



The transfer of the trade of Long Island to Boston and Connecticut 

 was a source of great uneasiness to the early governors of New York. 

 They were repeatedly stirred up on the subject by the lords of trade 

 in England, but with all their trouble and skill and efforts they were 

 unable to alienate the sympathies of the Long Islanders from those who 

 were their friends both by birth and association. They had but little in 

 common with the New York government, which seemed to them only 

 the symbol of wrong, injustice, and oppression. The governors of that 



* Page 51. The Boston News-Letter of October 5, 1738, reports from Nantucket that 

 an Indian plot to fire the English houses and kill the inhabitants of the island, had been 

 disclosed by a friendly Indian. In consequence of the ■warning the plot had been 

 abandoned, but fears were entertained for the safety of several whaling-vessels which 

 sailed in the spring, and of the crews, of which the natives formed an essential part. 



t Page 54. Davis's Straits were visited by whalemen as early as 1732, when a Captain 

 Atkins, returning from a whaling voyage thence, brought a Greenland bear. Captain 

 Atkins went as far as 66^^ north. Among the entries and clearances at the Boston cus- 

 tom-house as recorded in the Boston News-Letter as early as 1737 we find several to 

 and from this locality. Beyond a doubt those vessels are whalemen, and in fact some 

 of the names are common in the annals of this industry at Nantucket. The clearances 

 were usually in March or April, and the arrivals from September to November, vary- 

 ing according to the degree of success, the season, &c. In July, 1737, Capt. Athertoa 

 Hough took a whale " in the Straits," and in 1739, under date of August 2, the Boston 

 News-Letter says: "There is good Prospect of Success in the Whale Fishery to Greenland 



