The Minor Colonial Ports 75 



talists, one of whom had made a success on Nan- 

 tucket, went to Martha's Vineyard to establish 

 the fishery at Edgartown, and all failed as Chase 

 had done. Then the tide turned and Edgartown 

 was for more than a hundred years a moderately 

 successful whaling port. 



More important than any or all of the other 

 minor ports of that day was the settlement which 

 eventually developed into the famous port of New 

 Bedford, on Buzzard's Bay. The land where New 

 Bedford now stands was bought of the Indians 

 by William Bradford and others in 1652. The 

 first settlers were nearly all driven away by King 

 Philip's War; but when peace was made they re- 

 turned and prospered. Remembering that Nan- 

 tucket was first settled through the persecution of 

 the Quakers, and that as it increased in popula- 

 tion nine-tenths of the inhabitants were of that 

 liberty-loving sect, it is interesting to note that the 

 people of the New Bedford region were for the 

 greater part Quakers, and that their settlement 

 first acquired notoriety in New England through 

 their persistent refusal to support a minister of 

 the Puritan creed. When the General Court 



