THE WHITE WORLD 



boys — a fleet of vessels from Nantucket, New Bedford, 

 New York, and other American seaports, cruised to the 

 whaling grounds south of Cape Horn, or took seals at 

 Massafuero Island, carried the furs to China, bartered for 

 China goods, and brought home cargoes that made owners 

 rub their hands with pleasure. Fifty thousand dollars was 

 not an uncommon profit for such a voyage, and in those 

 days fifty thousand dollars was a good, sound bit of capital. 



The South Sea industry prospered. In the second de- 

 cade of this century, 132,000 tons of shipping and 10,000 

 men were occupied in this profitable trade. Nor was the 

 object of these seamen altogether commercial. The spirit 

 of exploration, pure and simple, was held in higher esteem 

 than it is to-day. Captain Fanning could urge his fellow- 

 citizens to attempt that " laudable enterprise " the dis- 

 covery of the South Pole, so that " other nations might 

 not snatch the credit and honor away from our own," 

 without fear of reading in his newspaper, the question, 

 " What is the discovery of the South Pole worth? " 



Voyages to the ice-fields and among the unknown rocks 

 of the Antarctic were dangerous, particularly in ships that 

 to-day would be deemed hardly fit for the deep seas. 

 Many of the craft of the sealers displaced but forty or fifty 

 tons. Several such vessels came to grief upon strange 

 reefs, and in the first decade of the century there arose a 

 sentiment that the United States ought to look to the 

 interests of its southern trade. It was almost twenty years 

 before the South Sea merchants, influential as they were, 

 could bring Congress to take this view of the matter, but 

 at length, in 1828, the General Assembly of New York, the 

 mayor and prominent citizens of Charleston, South Caro- 

 lina, the governor and prominent citizens of North Caro- 

 lina, the House of Delegates of Maryland, and many pri- 

 vate persons sent to Washington memorials, praying for 

 a small expedition that should chart the sealing and whal- 

 ing regions of the South, make known new opportunities 

 for trade, discover new lands, and add to the glory of the 

 United States. 



Congress responded at once; not by sending out the 

 expedition, but by asking naval authorities whether there 

 really was need for it. Not until May 14, 1836, did it pass 

 the bill, instructing the President to dispatch a sloop-of- 



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