THE WHALEBONE WHALES OF THE WESTERN NORTH ATLANTIC. 69 



" In April (4th), 1656, the council of New York 'received a request of Hans 

 Jongh, soldier and tanner, asking for a ton of train-oil, or some fat of the whale 

 lately captured.' " 1 



"Francis Nicholson, writing from Fort James, December, 1688, says 'Our 

 whalers have had pretty good luck, killing about Graves End [Long Island] three 

 large whales. On the Easte End aboute five or six small ones.' " 2 



"In 1708, under Lord Cornbury, an act was passed for the 'Encouragement 

 of Whaling' [at Long Island], in which it was provided, 1st, that any Indian, who 

 was bound to go to sea whale-fishing, should not ' at any time or times between 

 the First Day of November and the Fifteenth Day of April following, yearly, be 

 sued,'" etc. 3 



" 'In 1719, February 24, a [Long Island] whaleboat being alone, the men struck 

 a whale, and she, coining up under ye boat, in part staved it.'" 4 



"Under date of March 20, 1727, the Boston News-Letter says: ' We hear from 

 the Towns on the Cape [Cod] that the Whale Fishery among them has failed much 

 this winter, as it has done for several Winters past, but having found out the way 

 of going to Sea Upon that Business, and having had much Success in it, they are 

 now fitting out several Vessels to sail with all Expedition upon that dangerous 

 Design this Spring, more (its tho't) than have ever been out from among them.' " 5 



"The same paper in its issue of February 12, 1730, contains the following 

 extract from a letter from Chatham [Mass.], dated 'February 6, 1729-30': 'There 

 has been a remarkable Providence in the awful death of some of my neighbors ; 

 on the day commonly called New Year's Day, a whaleboat's Crew coming home 

 from a Place called Hog's-Back, where they had been on a Whaling design, the 

 Boat was overset, and all the Men lost, on a reaf of Sand that lies out against 

 Billingsgate.'" 6 



"In March, 1736, the inhabitants of Provincetown captured a large whale at 

 sea, cut him up, and brought the blubber into that port. The estimated quantity 

 of oil that this blubber would produce was 100 barrels." 7 



"The season of 1737-8 must have been an unfortunate one at Provincetown 

 [Mass.], for up to January 5, 1738, the people of that town had only killed two 

 small whales, and some of the inhabitants took into serious consideration a change 

 of residence. In July, 1738, Captain Anthony Hough, master of a whaling vessel, 

 took ' in the Straits ' [of Belle Isle] a large whale, and brought him to the vessel's side 

 to cut in. ... In February, 1738, the Yarmouth [Mass.] whalemen had killed 

 but one large whale during the season ; the bone of that one was from 8 to 9 feet 

 long. Nor was the whaling-season of 17389 any more successful to the inhabit- 

 ants of the Cape [Cod]. Up to the 15th of February, 1739 the whaling-season 

 being then over there had been taken at Provincetown [Mass.] but six small and 

 one large whale, and at Sandwich [Mass.] two more small ones." 8 



"In August, 1723, a drift-whale is advertised in the Boston News-Letter as 

 ashore at Marblehead [Mass.] " 9 



"The Boston papers of December 12, 1707, state that a whale 40 feet long 

 entered that harbor and several whale-boats pursued and killed her near the back 

 of Noddle's Island." 10 



" We find in the News-Letter of September 3, 1722, an advertisement of a 



1 STARBUCK, p. n. From N. Y. Coll. MSS., 6, p. 354. 'Ibid., pp. 31-32. 



*Ibid., p. 15. From Mass. Coll. MSS., 6, p. 303. ''Ibid., p. 32. 



"Ibid., p. 25. From Bradford's Laws of New York, p. 72. "Ibid., pp. 32-33. 



''Ibid., p. 30. From Hedges in N. Y. Col. Rec., 5, p. 579. 'Ibid., p. 34. 



"Ibid., p. 31. "Ibid., p. 34. 



