THE WHALE' FI8HEET. 39 



remonstrants against the annexation of the eastern towns to the New York government, and from 

 1700 to 1720 was the delegate from these towns to the assembly. In 1715 the opposition of the 

 government to his constituency reached the point of a personal conflict with him. In a speech 

 delivered in the assembly in this year he boldly and unsparingly denounced the authorities as 

 tyrannical, extravagant, and dishonest. He cited numerous instances of injustices from officers 

 of the customs to the traders of and to his section. While grain was selling in Boston at 6s. per 

 bushel, and only commanding one-half of that in New York, his people were compelled by existing 

 laws to lose this difference in value. While the government was complaining of poverty and the 

 lack of disposition on the part of the people to furnish means for its subsistence, the governor had 

 received, says Mulford, during the past three years, three times the combined income of the 

 governors of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. In 1716 the assembly ordered this 

 speech to be put into the hands of the speaker, but Mulford, without hesitation, caused it to be 

 published and circulated.* From this time forth the war upon him was, so far as the government 

 was concerned, a series of persecutions, but Mulford undauntedly braved them all and in the end 

 was triumphant. Quite a number of letters passed between the governor and himself, and between 

 them both and the lords of trade in London. As an earnest of the feeling his opposition had 

 stirred up, the governor commenced a suit against him in the supreme court, the judges of which 

 owed their appointment to the executive. Shortly after this, Governor Hunter, in a communi- 

 cation to the lords of trade regarding the state of affairs in the province, writes that he is informed 

 that Mulford, who 'has continually flown in face of government,' and always disputed with the 

 Crown the right of whaling, has gone to London to urge his case.t He states that ' that poor, 

 troublesome old man' is the only mutineer in a province otherwise quiet (an assertion that 

 evidenced either a reckless disregard for truth, or a want of knowledge of affairs inexcusably 

 culpable) ; that the case he pleads has been brought before the supreme court and decided against 

 him, and Mulford is the only man who disputes the Crown's right, and the good governor 

 charitably recommends their lordships to ' bluff him.'f Still later, Hunter states that it was the 

 custom long before his arrival to take out whaling licenses. Many came voluntarily and did so. 

 If whaling is ' decayed,' it was not for want of whalemen, for the number increases yearly ; ' but 

 the truth of the matter is, that the Town of Boston is the Port of Trade of the People inhabiting 

 that end of Long Island of late years, so that the exportation from hence of that commodity must 

 in the Books be less than formerly.' The perquisites arising from the sale of these licenses were of 

 no account in themselves, but yielding in this matter would only open a gap for the disputation of 

 every perquisite of the government^ 



* A copy of this speech is bound iu an old volume of the Boston News-Letter, in the library of the Boston Athenaeum. 



t In the address of H. P. Hedges at the Bi-Centennial celebration at Easthampton, iu 1850, he says, when Mulford 

 finally repaired to London to present the case to the King, he was obliged to conceal his intention. Leaving South- 

 ampton secretly, he landed at Newport, walked to Boston, and from thence embarked for London. Arrived there, he 

 "presented his memorial, which it is said attracted much attention, and was read by him in the House of Commons." 

 He returned home in triumph, having obtained the desired end. At this time he was seventy-one years old. "Songs 

 and rejoicings," says J. Lyon Gardiner (vide Hedge's Address, p. 21), "took place among the whalemen of Suffolk 

 County upon his arrival, on account of his having succeeded in getting the King's share given np." It is related of 

 him (Ibid., p. 68) that while at the court of St. James, being some what verdant, he was much annoyed by pickpockets. 

 As a palliative, he had a tailor sew several fish-hooks on the inside of his pockets, and soon after one of the fraternity 

 was caught. This incident being published at the time won for him an extensive notoriety. He was representative 

 from East Hampton from 1715 to 1720, and died in 1725, aged eighty years. 



t N. Y. Col. Rec., v, 480. This assertion must be inexcusably inaccurate, for it was unquestionably on the ground 

 of his sturdy defense of their rights that the people of Easthampton so steadily returned him to the assembly. 



$N. Y. Col. Eec., v, p. 484. This admission of Hunter's of the smallness of the revenue is indisputable evidence of 

 his incompetence, and of the truth of Mulford's assertion of the ultimate ruin of the whale-fishery under such restric- 

 tions. 



