Horse Raising in Colonial New England 



927 



carried as many as thirty-five in a single cargo. The Enterprise, bound 

 for Demerara, carried provisions, brick, lumber, twenty horses, seventeen 

 neat cattle, and seventeen mules, besides swine, geese, and turkeys (171). 

 The general extent of these shipments is shown in a marine list kept by 

 Thomas Alden in the New London Gazette. According to this record 

 there was sent out from Ncav London during the year 1785 a total of 8094 

 horses and cattle ; and in the years following, the numbers were, suc- 

 cessively, 6671, 6366, and 6678 — the record ceasing with the year 

 1788 (172). 



This revival of horse exporting apparently was not especially suc- 

 cessful and did not continue long,^' for the New London vessel owners 

 were soon casting about for some better occupation for their ships. On 

 the return of two of these ships from an expedition to the Gulf of St. 

 Lawrence with profitable cargoes of whale oil, the New London Gazette 

 exhorts, in rather mixed metaphor, '' Now my horse jockeys, beat your 

 horses and cattle into spears, lances, harpoons and whaling gear, and 

 let us strike out " (173). 



The reopening of the British West Indies ports to New England 

 vessels in 1789 (174) apparently failed to halt the decline that had 

 begun in the New England horse trade, if one is to judge by the infre- 

 quency with which this trade is now mentioned. It is probable that 

 in the general interruption of the trade during the Revolution, the 

 sugar islands, thrown on their own resources, had learned to furnish 

 their own supply (175). As already indicated, the larger islands of 

 Jamaica and Haiti were plentifully supplied with pasturage and wild 

 horses, by means of which this could be accomplished. Nor was Cuba 

 as promising a market as might have been expected, for it possessed 

 similar advantages. In addition, the substitution of water power for 

 the mills probably continued to take place in all the islands where it 

 was possible. Lastly, there are indications that the pasturage avail- 

 able in New England itself was not so ample as formerly and was being 



" An Indication of the general decline in the exportation of horses which occurred 

 after the Revolution is found in the following table reproduced from Pitkin (A Statistical 

 Virir of tJie Coinmrrce of fit" ('nitcd States of Amrrlca, p. 62—63). These figures include 



