124 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



" This letter was referred to a committee, who reported that a copy of it should be sent to the 

 President of the Continental Congress, which report was adopted, and thus Massachusetts let slip 

 through her fingers the identical golden opportunity which the General Government had neglected 

 the year before. The suggestions of Mr. Adams, who of all our Revolutionary statesmen seems 

 most to have understood and appreciated the importance of this industry, were practically disre- 

 garded.* It is difficult to calculate how much the American whale fishery was affected by this 

 failure to act on this suggestion of Mr. Adams. Many of these captains and men, and others 

 cat pared, at other times during the war, had at its close sailed so long from British ports that the 

 extraordinary inducements held out by the English, and the depression in their business in the 

 United States, immediately succeeding the close of the war, operated to transfer to that country 

 their skill and, measurably, their capital." 



FORAYS BY ENGLISH NAVAL VESSELS: TREATY OP 1778. "In the years 1778-'79 the 

 English navy made several forays upon the sea-coast towns of New England, destroying much 

 property at Warren, E. I., Dartmouth, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket in Massachusetts.! 

 Indeed, these predatory raids were frequent throughout the war, and liable to occur at any time, 

 consequently the uufortuuate inhabitants were kept in a continual ferment. During the same 

 time the Government of France was continually intriguing for the exclusive possession of the North 

 American fisheries. On the 6th of February, 1778, a treaty of amity and commerce w;is arranged 

 between France and the United States. Upon this point each side was to retain the exclusive 

 right to its own. The Americans conceded to the French the rights reserved by the treaties of 

 Utrecht | and Paris, even to the French interpretation of them, which were the right to fish upon 

 the Banks, and the exclusive use of one-half the shores of Newfoundland upon which to dry their 

 fi8li.|| In regard to what disposition should be made of that island in case it should be captured, 

 nothing was said; the sentiment of New England, however, upon that point was unmistakable. 

 Later in the same year Samuel Adams, in a letter from Philadelphia, wrote: 'I hope we .shall 

 secure to the United Stales, Canada, Nova Scotia, Florida, too, and the fishery, by our arms or by 

 treaty.' He writes further, and every year of the past century has borne witness to the soundness 

 of his views : ' We shall never be on a solid footing till Great Britain cedes to us, or we wrest 

 from her, what nature designs we should have.' fl 



"* An exception to the general apathy in this respect occurred late in the f;ill or early in the winter of 1770, when 

 boats from the Alfred, man-of-war, were sent ashore at Canso and destroyed the whaling interest there, burning all 

 the materials for that industry, together with all the oil stores with their contents." 



"t 'Return of vessels and stores destroyed on Acushnet River the .">th of September, 177S : 8 sail of large vessels, 

 from 200 to 300 .tons, most of them prizes: 6 armed vessels, carrying from 10 to 1C guns; a number of sloops and 

 schoouers of inferior size, amounting ill all to 70, besides whale-boats and others: amongst the prizes were three taken 

 by Count D'Estaign's fleet; 26 store-houses at Bedford, several at McPhersou's 'Wharf, Crans Mills, and Fairhavcu ; 

 these were filled with very great quantities of rum, sugar, molasses, coffee, tobacco, cotton, tea, medicines, gunpow- 

 der, sail-cloth, cordage, &c. ; two large rope-walks. . 



" 'At Falmouth, in the Vineyard Sound, the 10th of September, 177s : 2 sloops and a schooner taken by the, gal- 

 leys, I loaded with staves ; 1 sloop burnt. 



" ' In Old Town Harbor, Martha's Vineyard : 1 brig of 150 tons burden, burnt by the Scorpion ; 1 schooner of 70 

 tot'.N burden, burnt by ditto; 23 whale-boats taken or destroyed ; a ([iiantily of plank taken. 



" 'At Holmes's Hole, Martha's Vineyard : 4 vessels, with several boats, taken or destroyed : a salt-work destroyed, 

 and a considerable quantity of salt taken.' (Ricketson's New Bedford, p. 281) 



"At Sag Harbor Long Island, property was raken or destroyed to a large amount ; Xew]>ort suffered greatly; Nan- 

 tucket lost twelve or fourteen vessels, oil, stores, &c., to the value of 4,000 sterling. Warren, R. I., suffered during 

 I he war to the extent of 1,01)0 tons of shipping, among them two vessels loaded with oil, and a large amount of other 

 property. Sag Harbor also lost one or more vessels by capture." 



" t April 11, 16t:i." " $ February 10, 1763." 



" 1| Bancroft's U. S., ix, 481. The fact must be kept in mind that whaling and fishing for cod were both carried 

 mi on nearly the same waters, and often by the same vessels." 



"IT Bancroft's U. S., x, 177." 



