Samuel Mulford, Alongshore Whaler 9 



in the army, and "his intimacy with Swift and 

 Addison and the other wits of the day affords 

 another proof of his literary taste." 



Until he received his commission as governor, 

 Hunter had grasped at power and position 

 chiefly; in New York he reached out for wealth 

 as well, and thus fell foul of the Long Island 

 whalers. Observing that no tax was paid on the 

 catch of whales within his colony, Hunter decreed 

 that the whalemen should pay him one-twentieth 

 of all the oil and bone they gathered, not only 

 from drift whales, but from those captured with 

 boats; and the share thus to be taken was to be 

 delivered to him in New York, a point more than 

 a hundred miles, on the average, from the whal- 

 ing grounds. The whalers having ignored the 

 decree, "there was a writ directed to the sheriff 

 [1711] to seize all whale fish whatsoever" in order 

 to compel the whalers to bring in the share of oil 

 demanded. 



Up to this time Long Island whaling, though 

 it had been carried on by means of small boats 

 only, had been fairly profitable. A report by 

 Lord Cornbury, dated July I, 1708, in speaking 



