131 



tn which Saimu'l Daly, of Plymouth, was ihc hero. While on a fishing 

 voynirc. he put into a harhor in Nova Scotia to procure water, and sce- 

 inc: John Ba])tist, a Frenchman, on shore, asked him to come on honrd. 

 Accomiiiuiicd by his son, Bitptist acc(>pt.ed the invit;ition ; and, after 

 some fricndlv conversation, Daly and his eider guest retired to the cabin 

 to drink. While there, the younger Baptist returned to the shore. 

 Suspecting no harm, Daly, with his mate and three of his crew, went 

 on shore also, leaving Baptist in the vessel. The son, with two In- 

 dians, immediatel}' joined Baptist, and assisted him to seize tlie vessel 

 as a prize. Daly applied to th(" mother of Baptist to intercede for the 

 restoration of his property; and after some delay, she consented. The 

 treacherous Frenchmnn was, however, inexorable; and, several other 

 Indians getting on bonrd, he ordered Daly to weigh anchor and make 

 sail. The savages threatened him with their hatchets, and the luckless 

 fisheroKin obc^'cd. But the next day Daly secured Baptist and three 

 of the Indians in the cabin, overpowered the son and the savages, who 

 remained on deck, and regained possession of his vessel. The Indians 

 in the cabin, fired upon by Daly, threw themselves into the sea. Bap- 

 tist, his son, and three surviving Indians, were safely landed at Boston, 

 where, tried for pirac}^ all were condemned and executed. 



In 1731 the fisheries of Massachusetts employed between five and 

 six thousand men. Three years later a township in Maine was granted 

 to sixty inhabitants of Marblehead, and a similar grant was made to 

 citizens of Gloucester in 1735.* Possibly many of the fishermen of 

 these ancient towns had become weary of the hazards of the sea, and 

 desired repos(> ; but whatever the motives of the grantees of these lands, 

 the perils and hardships of the forest a century ago were quite equal 

 to those encountered upon the ocean, and such was their particular 

 experience. 



In 1741 the cod-fishery was in a prosperous condition. The annual 

 produce was about two hundred and thirty thousand quintals, and the 

 value of the cpiantity exported nearly seven hiuidred thousand dollars. 

 The average size of vessels was fifty tons; and of these one hundred 

 and sixty were owned in Marblehead alone. The whole number of 

 fishinu: vessels in ^Massachusetts was not less than four hundred, besides 

 an ecjual numlser of ketches, shallops, and undecked l)oats. 



In the twen'y years tliat succecdi^d there was a sensii)le decline, for 

 which the causes were abundant. The emigrations to Maine just men- 

 tioned, from Marblehead and Gloucester, the settlements elsewhere in 

 the eastern country by emigrants from Cape Cod, the depopulation and 

 almost entire abandonment of Provincetown, the expedition against 

 Louisbourg, the general events of the two wars that occurred (hiring 

 this period between France and Kimland, in the calamitit^s of whicli 

 Massachusetts was deeply involved, the demand l()r fishermen to man 

 privatfM-rs and to enter the naval shij)s of the crown, with several minwr 

 events, combined to injure the fisheries to a very considerable de- 



• The firRt was callol " New Marblehoiul," but in now IFmilliam; the second, "New Glou- 

 cester," wliicli iii'iiiir liJiH Ix'cn rctaiiii'il to the present time. The .settlement nf N.-w (ilniieeM- 

 ter, aft(^r iiein^' (•iniimenceil, wim wimitended — in fiiet, iibMiuloued — for eleven yenrs, in conse- 

 qucuee oi the Indian warn. lUiiek-houses were built both thero aud at New ^larblohead, to 

 pruttict the Bcttlurti from the savogo foe. 



