

EARLY HISTORY. 



century the Dutch had built the considerable 

 village of Smeerenburg, on the Isle of Amster- 

 dam, along the northern shore of Spitzbergen, 

 within little more than ten degrees of the North 

 Pole, where the unbroken night lasts for four 

 months in the winter, and perpetual day as 

 long in summer. This was the great rendez- 

 vous of Dutch whale-ships, and it being their 

 practice to boil the blubber on shore, it was 

 amply provided with boilers, tanks, and all the 

 apparatus then used for preparing the oil and 

 whalebone. 



This fishing colony of the frozen zone, an 

 incidental fruit of those daring adventures after 

 a north-east or transpolar route to India, was 

 founded nearly at the same time with Batavia 

 in the East, and it was for a considerable time 

 doubtful which of the two would be most impor- 

 tant to the mother country. When in its most 

 flourishing state, near 1680, the Dutch whale 

 fishery employed two hundred and sixty shij>< 

 and fourteen thousand seamen. This singular 

 village and Bay of Smeerenburg, where tli 

 were seen at one time by the Dutch navigator 



B 2 



