A. D. 1 73 1' 1(^7 



among the ingar iiles, 8cc. and ulfo with chip hats for women, and 

 whatever eUe they can procure. 



Thus we have, in brief, a politico-commercial, and, in part, a natural, 

 furvey of all our colonies, excepting Nova-Scotia, at that time, in effedl, 

 no colony at all ; being moft unaccountably neglected till ot late years : 

 and, though written thirty years ago, fmce which time many alterations 

 and improvements have happened in all or moft of thofe colonies, of 

 which we have elfewhere taken notice; yet the main foundation of their 

 refpeclive trades and produttions being always the fame, and manv 

 points relating thereto being treated fo diftindly and methodically, as to 

 give much light thereinto, more efpecially to i'uch as are not pradlical 

 merchants, we thought it well merited the room it has taken up. The 

 author's conclufion is, * that Great Britain gains one million fterling by 

 ' her American colonies, exclufive of what we gain by any trades for 

 * negroes, or for dry goods, with the Spaniards in the Weft- Indies ; and 

 ' that, by our colonies alone, we maintain and employ at lead 18,000 

 ' feamen and fifhermen.' Neverthelefs, we have, in feveral other parts 

 of this work, made it plainly appear, that even this author's account of 

 the benefits we receive from our American plantations is far from 

 comprehending all the advantages we receive from thence. 



This year the parliament (by adi: 4 Geo. II, c. 5) paid out of the 

 fmking fund one million of the South-fea annuity ftock from michael- 

 mas 1 731, which the proprietors divided among themfelves, at the rate 

 of 6 1 per cent. 



That company now fcnt out their remaining 22 fliips on the whale 

 fifhery, one of which was loft, and the remaining 21 brought home 14. 

 whales, which was far from being a faving voyage. At tlie company's 

 dock there had at this time been invented a new fort of gun for Ihoot- 

 ing with gunpowder the harpoons into the bodies of whales, at a 

 greater diitance than they could be thrown by hand ; and the fliips 

 were accordingly provided with fome of them, which were ufed both 

 in this and the next year's hihery, with fome Ihccefs. They were 

 chicfty ufeful in calm weather, though fcurcely pradicable in blowing 

 wcatlier, which moftly prevails in the Greenland feas. And though 

 the foreign harpooners could not eaiily be brought to ufe them, as 

 being out of their ufual method, yet in a iTiip fitted out by Mr. Elias 

 Bird and partners, two years later, out of the three whales brought 

 home, two were faid to be killed by that new-invented gun. 



A company was now fet on foot in Sweden for trading from Gotten- 

 burg to the E;ill-Indies, by authority of the king of Sweden's grant to 

 Henry Koning, a rich and intelligent merchant, with fuch others as 

 ftiould join him, exclulive of all others, for fifteen years, to all parts 

 irom beyond the Cape of Good Hope to Japan : but they were not to 

 trade at any place, within thofc limits, belonging to any other European 



