16 The Story of the New England Whalers 



Finding the power of the governor too great for 

 him in the colony (Hunter called him a traitor for 

 standing out against the decision of the Supreme 

 Court), Mulford left home secretly, crossed over 

 to Newport, walked thence to Boston, and sailed 

 for London to lay his case before the Crown. 



Rarely has a man seen a greater change in his 

 surroundings than Mulford saw when he went 

 from the stern sheets of a Long Island whale 

 boat to the crowded antechambers of those who 

 waited upon royalty at the beginning of the 

 eighteenth century. Dress, manner of speech, 

 and every motion proclaimed him a wayfarer 

 from a far country. The pickpockets of the 

 streets "annoyed" him much. The gentlemen of 

 the court found him vastly amusing at first, and 

 latterly, as he persisted, perhaps something of a 

 nuisance. But the resourcefulness and the deter- 

 mination of the whaler were in him. He sewed 

 fish-hooks inside of his pockets, and so caught the 

 light-fingered thieves; and by other hooks equally 

 effective he drew those in authority around him 

 until the Lords Justices wrote to Governor Hunter, 

 saying plainly, "We must observe to you that we 



