2 The Story of the New England Whalers 



thirty-five), they had formed a settlement at the 

 easterly end of Long Island as early as 1640. 



Long Island was a goodly country in its soil 

 and climate. Prodigious crops of wheat could 

 be raised, and prodigious crops of truck are yet 

 raised there. And what was of more importance 

 to this story, the sea, just off the dune-lined beach, 

 was a natural feeding ground for whales at cer- 

 tain seasons of the year. 



The pioneers on Massachusetts Bay, with their 

 followers, seem to have had some knowledge of 

 the whale fishery. When the Mayflower had 

 anchored inside of Cape Cod, the Pilgrims ob- 

 served that "large whales of the best kind for 

 oil and bone came daily alongside and played 

 about the ship. The master and his mate and 

 others experienced in fishing preferred it to the 

 Greenland whale fishery." Because of the num- 

 ber of whales seen there some of the Pilgrims 

 wished to settle on the cape rather than go on in 

 search of another location, for they had come to 

 establish a fishing colony as well as in search of 

 "freedom to worship God." 



As the products of the whale formed an impor- 



