30 EEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



ued to pay. The subject appears to have been flually referred to the 

 attorney -general, and the governor says (1719), waiting his opinion, he 

 has surceased all demands till it conies. The question must have been 

 left in a state of considerable mistiness, however, for in 1720 Governor 

 Burnett informs the lords,* in a letter which indicates a satisfied feel- 

 ing of compromise between official dignity and the requirements of the 

 trade, that he remits the five per centum on the whale-fishery, but asserts 

 the King's rights by still requiring licenses, though in "so doing he neg- 

 lects his own profit," " and this," he adds, " has a good effect on the 

 country." Under his administration the act for the encouragement of 

 the whale-fishery was renewed. 



In 1706 some of the inhabitants of Eastham and parts adjacent (in- 

 cluding, as one of the names seems to indicate, Nantucket) presented 

 to the general court a petition,! setting forth that the parties " whose 

 names are hereunto subscribed, being Inhabitants of Eastham and other 

 places thereunto adjoining, In regard all or most of us are concerned in 

 fitting out Boats to Catch & take Whales when ye season of ye year 

 Serves : and whereas when wee have taken any whale or whales, our 

 Custom is to cutt them up, and to take away ye fatt and ye Bone of 

 such Whales as are brought in, And afterwards to let ye Rest of ye 

 Boddy of ye Lean of whales Lye on shoar in lowe water to be washt 

 away by ye sea, being of noe valine nor worth any Thing to us ; " therefore 

 they petition for an act of the court to permit Thomas Houghton, of 

 Boston, or his assigns, to take and carry away all this waste, and en- 

 deavor, for the space of ten years, to put it to some profitable use, all 

 other persons in New England to be in the mean time " forbidden, dis- 

 charged, and restrained to make any further use of it than is now usu- 

 ally made, with a penalty on such as presume to doe it during y* time 

 without ye Consent and allowance of ye said Thorn : Houghton or his 

 Assignes." With an eye to future commercial prosperity, they allege 

 the following reasons why the patent, if granted, will inure to their ben- 

 efit : " first ... It will cause more staves to be fetcht and brought in 

 from other places as well as our own, and more Barrells made, and soe 

 more Coopers will be sett at Work, with other hands to build houses for 

 ye use of it. secondly. It will imploy our people to cutt it up, and to 

 order it according to his direction, at such convenient houses and places 

 as he appoints. Thirdly When tis ordered and prepared as hee or his 

 Assignes would have it, it will implye our Sloopes to carry it to Boston, 

 or to such places as hee or they direct, wich will be an advantage to us. 



* N. Y. Col. Rec, v, p. rj79. There is some discrepancy between the dates of Governor 

 Burnett's concessions, and the triumphant reception of Mulford on his return from 

 England, mentioned by Hedges. " In 1719, February 24," says Hedges, " a whale- 

 boat being alone, the men struck a whale, and she, coming up under ye boat, in part 

 staved it, and tho' ye men were not hurt with the whale, yet, before any help came to 

 them, four men were tired and chilled, and fell off ye boat and oars to which they hung 

 and were drowned, viz : Henry Parsons, William Schellenger, junior, Lewis Mulford, 

 Jeremiah Conkling, junior. 



t Mass. Col. MSS., Maritime, iv, pp. 72-3. 



