His CAPTORS. 231 



Estimate of Men in the Whale Fishery. Whence derived. 



Allowing for the average thirty souls to a 

 ship, which is a moderate computation, there 

 were then more than twenty thousand persons 

 prosecuting this trade. The number has not 

 diminished since, but has rather increased, until 

 the present year, and it is an estimate much 

 within bounds, that there are now actually em- 

 ployed in this business, from the ports of the 

 United States, eighteen or twenty thousand 

 men. Among them are men of divers trades 

 and nations, but a large majority are citizens 

 of the United States from remote inland and 

 sea-port towns. 



Their characters and relative degrees of in- 

 telligence and moral worth are different, as are 

 their origin and education. Some are of vi- 

 cious, low stock, vicious education, and an in- 

 curable addictedness to vice. Others are of 

 good families, from religious communities, sons 

 of Christians, and have been taught to fear God 

 and keep his commandments. A few of them 

 profess godliness. All of them are alike in this, 

 that they are rational, accountable men, under 

 obligation to keep God's law, and having man's 

 natural right to and need of the Sabbath for 

 rest and religious worship. 



