179 



modity of this countiy." The mackerel fislicry at Cape Cod was held 

 by the government of the colony of Pi3nnouth as public property, and 

 its profits were appropriated to public uses. The records show that it 

 was rented, from time to time, to individuals, who paid stipulated sums, 

 and that a part of tJtc fund to support the Jirst fcc-srhool c.slahHshcd hij 

 our Pilgnin ftlhcrs was derived from it. 



The proposition to found and endow a school of this description 

 seems to have been made in 1G63, but not to have been adopted until 

 seven j'cars later, when the general court, "upon due and serious 

 considera.lion, did freely give and grant all such profits as might or 

 shouhl annually accrue to the colony," from this and the bass and her- 

 ring fisheries, at tlie same place. In 1689, the " rent of the Cape fishery 

 was added to the appropriation for magistrates' salary for that year." 



Exact statements as to the progress and extent of the mackerel 

 fishery previous to the Revolution, are hardly to be fiiund ; but it is still 

 certain that the people of Rhode Island and Connecticut, as well as 

 those of Massachusetts, were "largely concerned in it," and that fleets 

 of" sloops employed in it were often seen upon the coast and in the har- 

 bors. It is certain, also, that about the year 1770, the town of Scituate, 

 alone, owned upwards of thirty vessels that were annutdly fitted out 

 as "mackerel catchers;" and that the whole number of vessels in 

 Massachusetts was not less than one hundred. Soon after the peace of 

 1783, a writer in a Boston newspaper, in a series of articles on Ameri- 

 can commerce, said that the mackerel fishery "was of more value to 

 Massachusetts than would be the pearl fisheries of Ceylon." 



There is little of interest relating to this branch of induslry fir sev- 

 eral years after the period last mentioned. A highly respcctulile ship- 

 master, who is still living, entertains the opinion that the fisher}^ in ves- 

 sels was commenced within fifty years; and that "he was personally 

 engaged in the frst regular mackerel voyage ever made in New Eng- 

 land." His account, as related to me by himself, would occupy too 

 much room. Its substance is, that, engaged in the coasting business 

 fi)r some time between Massachusetts and Maine, he commonly saw 

 and caught mackerel, during the summer months, in the vicinity of the 

 island of Mount Desert; that, believing that they might be talcen in 

 fjuantities, he resolved, finally, to fit out a vessel for the express pur- 

 pose; that his success was even greater than he had exp(;cted, and 

 that others were induced to f()llow his example. The mistake of" this 

 gentleman probably is, that what he considers the origin of the vessel 

 fishery was only a revival of it, since we can easily imagine that re- 

 peated losses and discouragements had caused a suspension of" it. 



The accompanying table of statistics will show the number of bar- 

 rels inspcf'ted aiuiually in Massachusetts since the year 1S04, and also 

 the fluctuations and uncertainties of" the fishery. It will be i^cvn, that, 

 commencing with a catch of eight thousand barrels, the (|n,iiiiliv was 

 actuall}' less in 1S08, and during the three years of the war ol" 1*^12; 

 that the inspection rose to two hundred and thirty-six ihousaiid barrels 

 in 1820, and deeliued more than half in the l()llo\\iug year; that, again 

 increasiuLj in f'^iJo, and agaiu declining until ls2!), there was a eonsid- 

 erabl(! gain in 1830, aud that the largest "catch" during the whok^ pe- 

 riod which it embraces was in 1831, when the (quantity inspected was 



