14 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



conquerors, to send delegates to an assembly to be convened by the tem- 

 porary rulers. In reply the inhabitants of Easthampton, Southampton, 

 Southold,Seatoocook,and Huntington returned a memorial setting forth 

 that up to 1GG4 they had lived quietly and r>rosperously under the gov- 

 ernment of Connecticut. Now, however, the Dutch had by force as- 

 sumed control, and, understanding them to be well disposed, the people 

 of those parts profiler a series of ten requests. The ninth is the partic- 

 ular one of interest in this connection, and is the only one not granted. 

 In it they ask, " That there be fi'ree liberty granted ye 5 townes aforesd 

 for ye procuring from any of ye united Collonies (without molestation on 

 either side :) warpes, irons or any other necessaries ffor ye comfortable 

 earring on the whale design." To this reply is made that it " cannot in 

 this conjunction of time be allowed." " Why," says Howell,* "the Coun- 

 cil of Governor Colve chose thus to snub the English in these five towns 

 in the matter of providing a few whale-irons and necessary tackle for 

 capturing the whales that happened along the coast, is inconceivable ;" 

 but it must be remembered that the Euglish and Dutch had long been 

 rivals in this pursuit, even carrying their rivalry to the extreme of per- 

 sonal conflicts. The Dutch assumed to be, and practically were, the 

 factors of Europe in this business at this period, and would naturally 

 be slow to encourage any proficiency in whaling by a people upon whom 

 they probably realized that their lease of authority would be brief. 

 Hence, although they were willing to grant them every other right in 

 common with those of their own nationality, maritime jealousy made 

 this one request impracticable. How the people of Long Island 

 enjoyed this state of affairs is easy to infer from their petition of 1612. 

 The oppressions alike of New York governors and Dutch conquerors 

 could not fail to increase the alienation that difference of habits, associ- 

 ations, interests, and rights had implanted within them. Among other 

 arbitrary laws was one compelling them to carry all the oil they desired 

 to export to New York to be cleared, a measure which produced so much 

 dissatisfaction and inconvenience that it was beyond a doubt "more 

 honored in the breach than in the observance." At times some captain, 

 more scrupulous than the rest, would obey the letter of the law or pro- 

 cure a remission of it. Thus, in April, 1G78, Benjamin Alford, of Boston, 

 in New England, merchant, petitioned Governor Brock holds for permis- 

 sion to clear with a considerable quantity of oil that he had bought at 

 Southampton, directly from that port to London, he paying all duties 

 required by law. This he desires to do in order to avoid the hazard of 

 the voyage to New York and the extra danger of leakage thereby in- 

 curred. He was accordingly allowed to clear as he desired. t 



*Hist. of Southampton, p. 62. 



tN. X. Col. MSS., xxvii, pp. 65,66. Accompanying the order is a blank clearance 



reading as follows: " Permitt & suffer the good — of A. B. Commander, 



bound for the Port of London iu Old England to passe from the Harbo r at the North- 

 Sea near South 10 " at the East Eud of Long Isl. with her loading of Whale Oyl &, 



