192 SHEEP INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES 



in others that their glasses were taken, their money chests broken into, 

 the contents taken, and contributions levied. Ransom was sometimes 

 paid for liberation, and that at a good round sum. The Sachem, bound 

 for Baltimore, was shot at on September 10, 1810, boarded, robbed of 

 provisions and a few sheep; the Gideon, bound for New York with 70 

 sheep for Miles Smith, at New Brunswick, N. J., was captured by a 

 French privateer, robbed of provisions, and ransomed on payment of 

 $6,000, on April 2, 1811. The New York Gazette, of April 3, 1811, 

 says: 



Yesterday arrived at this port in the brig Harriett, from Lisbon, Capt. Malcolm and 

 crew, of the brig Sumner, of Warren, from Liverpool to Lisbon, loaded with wheat, 

 and Capt. Powers and crew, of the brig Endeavor, from Lisbon to Marblehead, with 

 salt and 100 Merino sheep. These two vessels were captured by the French frigates 

 Renomme, the Nereide, and Clorinda, all of 46 guns, from Brest for the Isle of France, 

 and sunk. On the 22d of February these frigates boarded the Harriett and robbed 

 Capt. Kurd of 46 sheep, all his stores, spyglasses, clothes, money, etc., and put on 

 board of him the above American crews, and left the Harriett with 30 souls on board 

 with only 3 barrels of bread and 3 of beef. Capts. Powers and Malcolm were also 

 robbed of everything. 



Even these indignities, robberies, and dangers did not deter the 

 American sailor from his enterprise, and wheat, corn, rice, and pork 

 were still crowded into the Lisbon and Cadiz markets, and Merino 

 sheep, salt, and raisins brought back in turn. However, by the middle 

 of April, 1811, the markets had been so well supplied that there was no 

 sale for flour, and many vessels that cleared from Boston and New York 

 for Lisbon and Cadiz were obliged to find a market elsewhere; indeed, 

 some of them brought back their outward cargoes. Sheep, too, were 

 more difficult to procure, and brought such low prices when landed that 

 many vesels did not dare to deal in them, and came home in ballast or 

 loaded with salt. Salt at all times was a favorite cargo, and nearly 

 every vessel carrying sheep had also its complement of salt. The 

 almost stereotyped note of arrival was such and such a vessel, so many 

 days from Lisbon, with salt and Merino sheep, and when the shipping 

 reporter felt facetiously inclined, he chronicled the latter as Merino pas- 

 sengers, Merino immigrants, or Spanish grandees. 



There were some large arrivals in July, 1811, but four in August, and 

 lessen September. By our own researches in the public libraries,? 

 through files of Boston, Providence, New Haven, New York, Philadel- 

 phia, Baltimore, Charleston, Savannah, Washington, and other news- 1 

 papers of that day, supplemented by the courtesy of the collectors of] 

 customs at the various ports of entry, we are enabled to give some par- 

 ticulars concerning the sheep shipped by the several parties from Por- 

 tuguese and Spanish ports, which, though seemingly unimportant and 

 certainly very dry, have much interest to some and mark a prominent 

 point in the agricultural, industrial, and economic history of the United 

 otates. 



