THE WHALE FISHERY. HI 



find on the Coast too weak to resist them, obstructing our Ship Adventurers from Britain by snndry 

 Ways, banking amongst their Boats along the Coast, which ruins the Coast-Fishery, and is contrary 

 to the most ancient and most strictly observed Eule of the Fishery, and must not be suffered ou 

 Account ; also by destroying their Fishing- Works on Shore, stealing their Boats, Tackle and 

 Utensils, firing the Woods all along the Coast, and hunting for and plundering, taking away or 

 murdering the poor Indian Natives of the Country; by these Violences, Barbarities, and other 

 notorious Crimes and Enormities, that Coast is in the utmQst_Confusion, and with respect to the 

 Indians is kept in a State of War. For preventing these Practices in future Notice is hereby given, 

 That the King's Officers stationed in those Parts, are authorized and strictly directed, to appre- 

 hend all such Offenders within this Government, and to bring them to me to be tried for the same 

 at the General Assizes at this Place: And for the better Government of that Country, for regulat- 

 ing the Fisheries, and for protecting His Majesty's Subjects from Insults, from the Indians, I have 

 His Majesty's Commands to errect Block-Houses, and establish Guards along that Coast. This 

 Notification is to be put in the Harbours in Labradore, within my Government, and through the 

 Favour of His Excellency Governour Bernard, Copies thereof will be put up in the Ports within 

 the Province of Massachusetts, where the Whalers mostly belong, for their Information before the 

 next Fishing Season. 



" ' Given under my Hand at St. John's in Newfoundland, this First Day of August, 1766. 



" < HUGH PALLISEB. 



" ' By Order of His Excellency, 



"<JN. HOKSNAILL.' 



" There can scarcely be a doubt but that the indiscretions of the whalemen were much magni- 

 fied (if indeed they really existed) in this pronunciamento of Governor Palliser, for the sake of 

 bolstering up the former one. The whalemen of those days were far from being the set of graceless 

 scamps which he represents them to be. Probably there was here and there a renegade. It would 

 be quite impossible to find in so large a number of men that all were strict observers of the laws. 

 Self-preservation, if no more humane motive existed, militated against the acts of which he 

 complained. The whalemen were accustomed to visit the coast for supplies, in many cases several 

 times a year ; usually on their arrival in those parts they stood in for some portion of the coast 

 and ' wooded ; ' and it is hardly credible that they should wantonly destroy the stores they so much 

 needed, or make enemies on a coast where they might at any time be compelled to land. The 

 colonial governors quite often made the resources under their control a source of revenue for 

 themselves, and the fact of the modification of Palliser's first proclamation only under pressure of 

 the King and Parliament would seem to indicate personal interest in keeping whalemen from the 

 colonies away from the territory under his control. 



"It is quite evident that even with this modification the colonial fishermen did not feel that 

 confidence in the Saint Lawrence and Belle Isle fishery that they felt when it was first opened to 

 them, for a report from Charleston, S. C., dated June 19, 1767, states that on 'the 22d ultimo put 

 in here a sloop belonging to Ehode Island, from a whaling voyage in the southern latitudes, having 

 proved successful about ten days before. The master informs us that near fifty New England 

 vessels have been on the whale fishery in the same latitudes this season by way of experiment.'* 

 Over the open sea fortune-seeking governors could exercise no control, and there our seamen 

 probably felt they could pursue their game without let or hindrance. Whales at that time 

 abounded along the edge of the Gulf Stream, and there they continued to be found for some years, 



"Boston News-Letter." 



