372 A. D. 1763. 



with the Indians for their furs and ilcins *. Another great advantage, to 

 be derived from thofe territories, is the prodigious llores of wood in the 

 northern regions fit for mafts to the royal navy, and for boards, flaves, 

 &c. fo neceffary in the fugar colonies. 



Florida, the new-acquired province in the fouthern part of North 

 America, was reprefented as capable of producing indigo, (ilk, and many 

 of the tropical productions. 



The new-acquired iflands in the Weft-Indies promifed a great increafe 

 of fugar, coffee, cotton, and other tropical produce, of which our old- 

 fettled iflands fcarcely afford a fufHciency for our own increafing con- 

 fumption. 



The advantage pointed out, as the refult of our acquifition on the 

 coaft of Africa, was the fecurity of the gum trade from the monopoly 

 of it, which was lately in the hands of the French by their pofTeflion of 

 the River Senegal. 



Such, according to the obfervations of their lordfhips, were the ob- 

 vious advantages to be expeded from the territories ceded to Great Bri- 

 tain by the definitive treaty of peace, which could only be fecured by 

 an immediate eftablifhment of regular governments with fuflicient 

 ftrength to encourage new fettlers, and to proted the former inhabit- 

 ants in the enjoyment of the rights and privileges referved to them by 

 the treaty. 



That part of the report, which refpeds the fifhery in the Gulf of St. 

 Laurence, was confirmed by the fuccefs of the New-England whale-fifh- 

 ers, who in the year 1761 employed in it ten velTels of about ico tuns, 

 in 1762 fifteen, and in 1763 above eighty veffels ; whereupon the in- 

 creafe of the quantity of whale-bone imported from New-England to 

 Britain reduced the price of that article from ^^500 to ^^^350 a tun. 



An improved method of curing falmon with fpices was difcovered by 

 Mr. Alexander Cockburn, faflimonger in Berwick, for which he obtain- 

 ed a patent. 



So eager are the Dutch for a regale of herrings at the beginning of 

 the feaion, that two barrels were fold at 570 gilders {£s^ fferling), and 

 \2\ were fold at 460 gilders (about /?42), being a parcel difpatched 

 from Shetland at the beginning of the iilhery. It is well worth their 

 while to fend off fo fmall a cargo, to- be fold for above 600 guineas ; 

 but the prices, it feems, are not every year quite fo high. 



About the end of July feveral merchants in Amfterdam failed for 

 large fums, and their failure was followed by the bankruptcy of a much 

 greater number of others in Hamburgh, and fome of the other princi- 

 pal trading to\\^ls in Germany, which for fome time put almoft an en- 

 tire ftop to all bufmefs, no one being willing to deliver any goods but 



* The reader will be enabled to judge of the extent of the fur trade of Canada from the accounts 

 of it to be given under the years 1766 and 1787. 



