4 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



to 17<30 had, as one of their objective points, a monopoly of these fish- 

 eries on the American coast from the plantations in Maine to the north- 

 ward, and Port Royal, the culminating point of the conflict revealed to 

 America the secret of her own strength. In the final treaty of peace 

 succeeding tbe war for Independence the protection of these interests, 

 which the colonists had, unaided, maintained, was made one of the ulti- 

 mati on the part of the Commissioners for the United States, and sub- 

 sequent events have demonstrated conclusively the wisdom of their 

 statesmanship. At almost every stage of the arrangement of treaties 

 of peace between England and France prior to 1783 and since 1G00, and 

 at almost every similar occasion in treaties between England and the 

 United States subsequently to that time, the question of the fisheries 

 has obtruded itself, and demanded a satisfactory solution. Latterly, it 

 is true, the questions have hiuged wholly upon the cod-fishery, since the 

 taking of whales is mostly carried on outside of any national jurisdic- 

 tion, but prior to and immediately after the war of the Revolution, as 

 late indeed as 1818, the question of whaling was quite as much involved. 

 The development of this industry in the United States, from the 

 period when a few boats first practiced it along the coast to the time 

 when it employed a fleet of seven hundred stanch ships and fifteen 

 thousand hardy seamen, is an interesting chapter in our national 

 history. 



B.— FROM 1600 TO 1700. 



CAPE COD, CONNECTICUT, LONG ISLAND, NANTUCKET, MARTHA'S VINE- 

 YARD, SALEM. 



The American whale fishery (limiting that subject entirely to the 

 prosecution of that pursuit from what is now known as the United 

 States,) is cotemporary with the settlement of the New York and New 

 England colonies. Indeed, one of the main ideas in the settlement of 

 Massachusetts was the founding of a fishing colony, and one of the pro- 

 visions in the charter guaranteed to the colonists their right to unre- 

 strictedly fish.* It was a serious question with the settlers of Eastern 

 Massachusetts whether to adopt Cape Cod for a residence, or select some 

 more propitious site, and the main arguments adduced for that locality 

 were: "1st. That it afforded a good harbor for boats, though not for 

 ships. 2d. That the ground was well adapted to the raising of corn. 

 3d. It was a place of profitable fishing, for large whales of the best hind for 



* " Wee have given and graunted * * * all fishes— royal fishes, whales, balan, 

 Bturgeons, and other fishes, of what kinde or nature soever that shall at any tyme here- 

 after he taken in or within the saide seas or waters, or any of them by the said" (hero 

 follow the names of the grantees) "their heires and assignes, or by any other person 

 or persons whatsoever there inhabiting, by them, or any of them, to bo appointed to 

 fishe therein." (Charter of Massachusetts.) 



