INTRODUCTION xv 



To men such as those I have just 

 mentioned, the hardships and dangers of a 

 fishing expedition could have been no more 

 than sport. 



If, as is evident, officers and men were not 

 wanting then, it is necessary to look elsewhere 

 for the reason of our abstention from the 

 exploitation of Arctic resources. The truth is 

 that the Antilles and the Indies appeared such 

 Eldorados to both our merchants and colonists, 

 that all available capital flowed there. As a 

 result, French shipowners found it difficult to 

 obtain sufficient funds to organise whaling com- 

 panies such as the Anglo-Muscovite Company 

 or the North Holland Company. It is, indeed, 

 curious that Richelieu and Colbert, who did so 

 much for the development of the French Navy, 

 should not have encouraged those commercial 

 enterprises which our neighbours found so 

 profitable. 



While, however, French shipowners quickly 

 abandoned fishing in the bays of Spitzbergen, 

 our privateers, profiting by the war following 

 the accession of William of Orange to the Eng- 

 lish throne, did not remain inactive. Between 

 the years 1689 and 1697, they sold at Dunkirk 

 prizes to the value of 22,000,000, of which a 

 large proportion consisted of enemies' whalers. 



