THE AMERICAN WHALEMAN. 55 



600 ; to each of the seven having the next greatest quan- 

 tity, 500.' And it was further provided by the act .of 

 June 22, 1795, ' that foreigners, not exceeding forty in num- 

 ber, who had previously been employed in the occupation 

 of fishing for whales, and were owners of vessels, should be 

 permitted to come to Milf ord Haven, in Pembrokeshire, with 

 their families and vessels, not exceeding twenty in number, 

 each vessel being manned by at least twelve seamen accus- 

 tomed to the fishery. They were allowed to import their 

 goods, furniture, and stock, duty free, on giving security for 

 their residence at least three years in Great Britain. They 

 were then entitled to the premiums granted to British fish- 

 ermen, and in general to all the rights and privileges of 

 natural-born subjects.' 



" Opposed to this picture, I quote Captain Wilkes : c The 

 American whaling -fleet now (in 1840) counts six hundred 

 and seventy-five vessels, the greater part of which are ships 

 of four hundred tons burden, amounting in all to two hun- 

 dred thousand tons. The majority of these vessels cruise in 

 the Pacific Ocean ; between sixteen and seventeen thousand 

 of our countrymen are required to man them. The value of 

 the fleet is estimated at not less than twenty-five millions of 

 dollars, yielding an annual return of five millions, extracted 

 from the ocean by hard toil, exposure, and danger.' This 

 wonderful success of our whalemen has been achieved in 

 the face of an almost complete destruction of the ships in 

 the two wars with Great Britain, and entirely unaided by 

 any particular encouragement by Government in the form 

 of privileges or pecuniary aid." 



Having transgressed the directions of my good angel, and 

 remembering that to become statistical is felonious, I beg 

 your pardon, good reader, and promise to abstain therefrom 

 most religiously hereafter. Posey has had his scholarly say, 

 and we will clap a stopper on his tendency to figures. 



