8 The Story of the New England Whalers 



of his community, he lived for about seventy 

 years, and he would have died without any 

 greater claim upon posterity than such a career 

 afforded but for an arbitrary attack that was 

 made, meantime, upon the rights of all American 

 whalers of his day. When this attack was made, 

 Samuel Mulford, animated by a hatred of injus- 

 tice that was hereditary and ingrained, stepped 

 forward alone as the champion of his guild, and 

 won in a fight that, as said, has made his name 

 memorable in the annals of the nation. 



It was in the days when Governor Robert 

 Hunter ruled New York. Hunter, in his early 

 youth, was an apprentice to a druggist, but having 

 entered the British army, he rose by good work 

 and hard fighting to the rank of major general. 

 Then, at a time when he was not needed in the 

 field, he was sent to succeed Governor Lovelace 

 in New York. The rise of the poor apprentice 

 to such high rank shows that Hunter was a man 

 of uncommon ability; and that is not all one may 

 learn in his favor. His papers show that he wrote 

 French at least as well as he did English. He 

 had educated himself while working his way up 



