590 A. D. 1776. 



as even moderate men apprehended it would have been: and there were 

 many circumftances, which greatly alleviated the calamities, infeparable 

 from' a rtate of hoftility. Among the firil of thefe may be reckoned 

 the integrity wherewith many of the merchants in America difcharged 

 their obligations to their correfpondents here, before the total interrup- 

 tion of friendly intercourfe took place ; and the advanced prices, which 

 American produce fold for on the profped: of an approaching fcarcity. 

 The war itfelf, if it turned many fliips, formerly engaged in the Ame- 

 rican trade, out of employ, found employment for perhaps fully as 

 many in tranfporting the forces acrofs the Atlantic, with all their ne- 

 ceflliry ftores, including horfes, live cattle, flieep, and hogs, and even 

 hay for their fupport after being landed in America, fuel for the fires, 

 and, in fliort, every minute article of neceflary expenditure * ; fo that 

 the vefTels and feamen were ftill employed, though not, as formerly, in 

 advancing the commercial profperity of the nation. Another branch 

 of trade alfo took its rife in fome degree from this war. The American 

 whale-fifhers, when they found the whales fcarce in their own feas, ufed 

 to ftretch over to the coafl of Ireland, and often as far as Africa, Brafil, 

 and even the remote Falkland's iflands, in purfuit of the fpermaceti 

 whales, the moft valuable of the cetaceous tribes. That fifherj- being 

 given up in confequence of the war, many of the harpooncers were in- 

 duced to enter into the fervice of Britilh merchants, who fitted out vef- 

 fels for the Newfoundland and Southern wdiale fifheries. For the later, 

 which was quite a new bufinefs in this country, there were equipped 

 fifteen veflels of about 170 tuns, and each carrying four American har- 

 pooncers ; and though their acquifitions were only about forty or fifty 

 luns of oil for each veflTel, yet the fuperior quality, and the price of it 

 advanced by the war from ^^35 to i^'jo per tun, were fufficient to en- 

 courage the merchants to perlevere in the bufinefs f . To all thefe we 

 may add an increaled demand for goods in Ruffia and Turkey in con- 

 fequence of the recent peace between thofe empires, and alfo in Poland 

 in confequence of the pacification after the partition of that country. 

 Even the warlike preparations of Spain at this time againfi; Algier made 

 fome extraordinary demand for Britifli goods. Neither was the Ame- 

 rican trade totally lofi:. It was only diverted from the dired, into cir- 

 cuitous, channels, by which Britifh goods ftill found their way into the 

 territory of the United ftates. For the invitation given by the Ameri- 

 cans to'all the world to refort to their ports had no very great effedl up- 

 on any of the nations of Europe, except the French, who, in the hopes 

 of reaping golden harvefts from the fpoils of Britifli commerce, fitted 



* Ilay, oats, and beans, for a fingle regiment \ We fliall hereafter have occafion to fee, that 



of cavah-y, Ihut up in Bofton, arc faid to have cod the Southern whale fidiery has become an objeft 



about ^2 2,0c o. Vegetables and vinegar, with ca(k3 of confiderable magnitude and importance as a 



to pack them in, amounted to an equal fiim. nurfery for feamen. 



