6 The Story of the New England Whalers 



raised. It was the custom to employ the natives 

 of the island, the red Indians, in the boats used 

 for pursuing the whales. The story of the Indian 

 as a whaler shall be told in the next chapter, but 

 it may be noted here that the tribesmen of vari- 

 ous parts of the American coast had been in the 

 habit of going afloat in canoes in pursuit of 

 whales before the white man came, and that 

 they succeeded, now and then, in worrying one 

 to death, though possessed of no more efficient 

 weapon than a bone spear or a flint-pointed 

 arrow. And that is to say that they were able 

 and courageous in the handling of such weapons 

 as they had. How the European invaders usually 

 treated the unfortunate aborigines is very well 

 known to all readers; the story as a whole is 

 shocking, but at the east end of Long Island 

 the white settlers employed the Indians as whal- 

 ers instead of exterminating them. Moreover, the 

 pay given to the Indians when thus employed 

 was three shillings a day at a time when that of 

 common white laborers was two shillings. 



In fact, the competition of individual white 

 whalemen for the services of the more expert 



