HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN WHALE FISHERY. 47 



most skillful mechanics as well as tbe most indefatigable mariners) felt 

 aggrieved. It seemed scarcely in consonance with the colonial ideas of 

 justice, crude as those notions appeared to the English nobility, that 

 the beneficial results of a conquest which they almost single-handed 

 had made, and for defraying the expense, of which England had de- 

 clined any remuneration, should be diverted to the sole benefit of those 

 alone who were residents of the British Isles. Merchants in London, 

 too, whose heaviest and most profitable trade was with the provinces, 

 joined their voices iff denouncing this wrong. During the early winter 

 the report came that Palliser's regulations were suspended until the 

 ministry and Parliament had time to consider the subject. The matter 

 had already, late in the last whaling season, been brought to the atten- 

 tion of the governor of Newfoundland, and he issued the following sup- 

 plementary edict, which appeared in the Boston papers of January, 1767: 

 "By His Excellency Hugh Palliser, Governor and Commander in Chief 



in and over the Island of Kev.'foundland, the Coast of Labradore and 



all the Territories dependent thereu[)on : 



"Whereas a great many Vessels from His Majesty's Plantations em- 

 ployed in the Whale-Fishery resort to that Part of the Gulph of St. 

 Lawrence and the Coast of Labradore which is within this Government: 

 and as I have been informed that some Apprehensions have arisen 

 amongst them that by the Regulations made by me relating to the dif- 

 ferent Fisheries in those Parts, they are wholly precluded from that 

 Coast : 



" Notice is hereby given, That the King's Ofificers stationed in those 

 Parts have always had my Orders to protect, assist and encourage by 

 ever}'^ Means in their Power, all Vessels from the Plantations employed 

 in the Whale-Fishery, coming within this Government; and, pursuant 

 to his Majesty's Orders to me, all Vessels from the Plantations will be 

 admitted to that Coast on the same Footing as they have ever been ad- 

 mitted in Newfoundland ; the ancient Practices and Customs established 

 in Newfoundland respecting the Cod Fishery, under the Act of Parlia- 

 ment passed in the 10 and 11th Years of William Hid commonly called 

 The Fishing Act, always to be observed.* 



" And by my Regulations for the Encouragement of the Whale Fish- 

 ers, they are also under certain necessary Restrictions therein pre- 



& she coming up with her jaws against the Bow of the Boat struck it with such Vio- 

 lence that it threw a Son of the Captain ; (who was forward ready with his Lance) a 

 considerable Height from the Boat, and when he fell the Whale turned with her de- 

 vouring Jaws opened, and caught him. He was heard to scream, when she closed her 

 Jaws, and part of his Body was seen out of her Mouth, when she turned, and went 

 off." 



* Duties on oil imported in British ships were remitted, the commander and one- 

 third of each crew being British. Duties were also remitted on fat, furs and tusks of 

 seal, bear, walrus or other marine animal taken in the Greenland Seas. By other acts 

 the imported materials to be used in outfitting were made non-dutiable and bounties 

 were established, amounting iu the final aggregate to 408. per ton. 



