568 A. D. 1775. 



fifhery, they employed 160 in that bufinefs before the year 1775 ; and 

 the other branches of their fifhery increafed in the fame proportion. 

 In addition to the commerce fupportedby the produce of their tifheries, 

 they drove a very profitable circuitous carrying trade, which greatly en- 

 riched them, and fupplied moft of the money, which circulated among 

 them. Befides building veflels for the fervice of their own commerce, 

 they built great numbers, but of no very good quality of wood or work- 

 manfhip, for fale : and from the melalTes, which they brought in great 

 quantities from the Weft-Indies (chiefly from the French iflands) they 

 diftilled a kind of rum, which, though much inferior to that of the 

 Weft-Indies, was very acceptable to the Indians, who joyfully received 

 it in exchange for their furs and peltry. They alio found a great vent 

 for it among their own filhermen and others engaged in the Newfound- 

 land fifhery : and they carried confiderable quantities of it to Africa, 

 where they exchanged it for flaves, or fold it to the refident European 

 ilave-merchants for gold duft, ivory, woods, wax, and gums. The 

 candles made of fperma-ceti, furnifhed by their whale fifhery, formed 

 alfo an article of export to the amoimt of three or four hundred thou- 

 fand pound weight in a year, befides what were confumed upon the 

 continent. Their exports to Great Britain confifted chiefly of fifh oil, 

 whale bone (or fins), mafts and other fpars, to which were added feveral 

 raw materials for manufadures colledled in their circuitous trading voy- 

 ages, and a balance paid in foreign gold and filver coins. In fliort, their 

 earneft application to fifheries and the carrying trade, together with 

 their unremitting attention to the moft minute article which could be 

 made to yield a profit, obtained them the appellation of the Dutchmen of 

 uimerica. 



New York, New Jerfey, Pennfylvania, and Delaware, have a much 

 better foil than that of the New-England provinces, and they produce 

 corn and cattle of all kinds in great abundance, and alfo hemp, flax, and 

 lumber ; to which may be added iron, pot-afhes, and pearl-afhes. Their 

 exports were corn of all kinds, flour, and bread, in great quantities ; 

 faked provifions of all forts; live ftock, including horfes, horned cattle, 

 hogs, and Iheep, and all kinds of poultry in great numbers ; flax, and 

 hemp ; boards, fcantling, ftaves,fliingles,and wooden houfes framed and 

 ready to fet up * ; iron in pigs and bars ; and vefl^els, fuperior in workman- 

 Ihip to thofe of New-England. Their chief markets for thefe commodi- 

 ties were the Britifh and foreign Weft-Indies, Spain, Portugal, the Weft- 

 ern iflands, Madeira, and the Canary iflands, whence they carried home 

 the produce of each country and bullion. Great Britain and Ireland 

 received from them iron, henip, flax-feed, fome lumber, and fkins and 

 furs the produce of their trade with the Indians ; together with fome 

 articles of their imports from other provinces and from foreign coun- 



* I have been told, that the whole of the original honfes of the towa at Cape Nicola mole were 

 carried from Philadelphia. 3 



