THE DUTCH WHALERS PREDOMINANT 169 



and Peterhead commenced their season's fishing. 

 The Dutchmen usually made first for South Bay in 

 Greenland in 67 10' N., where the ships also 

 assembled for the return journey. In Disco and 

 Liefde Bays there were at this time very rich whaling 

 grounds; even in the mid-nineteenth century the 

 British and American whalers fished regularly up to 

 Melville Bay. According to De Jong, 1 L. Feykes 

 Haan in July, 1715, found the strait was closed with 

 ice at 72 N. ; the fishery was nevertheless carried 

 on in these regions up to 79 N. There must at 

 this time have been a considerable Dutch trade with 

 Greenland. In 1691, on account of war (the French 

 defeated the allied British and Dutch fleets off 

 Beachy Head this year), the States General forbade 

 the Dutch whalers to set sail to Greenland; and 

 King Christian V. of Denmark issued a decree 

 prohibiting whaling at Greenland to all but Danish 

 subjects. In the following year Hamburg was com- 

 pelled to conclude a treaty with Denmark to enable 

 her citizens to fish in Davis Strait. In 1709 Great 



1 " Nieuwe Beschryving der Walvischvangst en Haring- 

 visschery," by D. de Jong-, H. Kobel, and M. Salieth. 

 1791. 



De Reste's book, " Histoire des peches des decouvertes et des 

 establis semens des Hollandais dans les mers du Nord," 3 vols., 

 Paris, 1801, is a translation of De Jong, with some of the illus- 

 trations different The first volume was ready in 1791, and the 

 second almost ready when the revolution broke out. De Reste 

 got into bad odour with the revolutionists (ces Cannibals as he 

 calls them), who objected to his association with the old govern- 

 ment, and he only escaped narrowly, the executioners surround- 

 ing his house in the Rue du Cherche-Midi half an hour after 

 his escape. Eventually his work was completed, and published 

 in the ninth year of the Republic. 



