io The Story of the New England Whalers 



of this matter, says that "for example last year 

 they made 4000 Barrils of Oyl." On the other 

 hand, in the season preceding this very profitable 

 one, only six hundred barrels had been secured. 

 It was plain to all the fishermen that if they were 

 to be taxed one-twentieth of their gross product 

 of oil every year, they would have their labor for 

 their pains during a large part of the time. This 

 fact was, naturally, quite enough to create opposi- 

 tion, but a loss of profits was not the only feature 

 of the situation that aroused the indignation of 

 the whalers. Fishing was among the rights that 

 had been granted to them in the patent to their 

 lands, and for that patent they paid a yearly tax 

 of forty shillings. Under the rights thus granted 

 them they had been accustomed, from the making 

 of the settlement, a period of more than seventy 

 years, "to go out upon the Seas, adjacent to 

 their Lands, Six Men in a Small Boat, to take 

 and kill Whales and other fish, and the Capters 

 to have all they killed" 



That a governor, sitting at ease in New York, 

 should demand a share of their hard-earned 

 produce from the high seas, after all those years 



