706 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



D -WHALE-FISHERY from 1750 to 1784— Continued. 



restraining bill, 02. Nantucket relieved of its rigors, 62. Resolve of the general 

 court of Massachusetts in regard to whaling- vessels, 62. Nantucket alone in the 

 business, 62. {Note. — Importation of gunpowder ; complaint of the Earl of Dart- 

 mouth, 62.) Desperate strait of the islanders, 63. Petitions to the general court 

 of Massachusetts for permission to sail on whaliDg voyages, 63. (Note. — Form of 

 bond required by the general court, 63.) Attempt to secure the alliance of France 

 and Spain, and the position of the fishery question, 64. How England was affected 

 by the cutting-off of colonial commerce, 64. Efforts of the English ministry to 

 transfer the fisheries to Great Britain, and their result, 64. (Note. — Captures of 

 American whalemen, 64.) Terrible calamity on the banks of Newfoundland, 65. 

 {Note. — Distress at the Barbadoes, 65.) Further severity of the English govern- 

 ment, 65. Its operation on American commerce, 66. (Note. — Heroism of a ship 

 captain, 66.) Letter from John Adams detailing the method by which England 

 prosecuted the whale-fishery, 66. (Note. — Report from Messrs. Franklin and Adams 

 of captives, 66.) List of some of the captains of whaling-vessels forced into the 

 English service, 66. Destruction of x^roperty by the British in sea-port towns in 

 1778-79, 68. (Notes. — British fishery at Canso destroyed ; abstract of property 

 destroyed by the British at New Bedford, Fairhaven, Falmouth, Edgartown, 

 Holmes's Hole, Sag Harbor, and Warren, 68.) Further negotiation between the 

 United States and France, 68. Sad state of affairs at Nantueket,71. Petitions to 

 the Federal and British authorities for permission to live, 72. (Note. — Correction 

 of slanders by Mr. Rotch ; form of permit issued by the English, 72.) Difficulties 

 in prosecuting the fishery, 73. (Note. — Destroyed and defaced records, 73.) Peti- 

 tion of the people of Nantucket reciting their distressed condition and praying for 

 relief, 74. Reference to the Continental Congress, 75. (Note. — Explanation of a 

 charge against the islanders, 75.) Nantucket sends two citizens to Philadelphia 

 to intercede with Congress for relief, 76. Diplomatic battle on the terms for peace, 

 76. (Note. — Congress grants 35 licenses to Nantucket vessels to whale, 76.) 



E.— WHALE-FISHERY from 1784 to 1816 : 



The condition in which the war left the business of whaling, 77. Nantucket's 

 i 

 sacrifice on the altar of liberty, 77. (Notes. — Loss of men to Nantucket; War- 

 ren's loss, 77.) The first thip to hoist the " rebellious stripes of America" in any 

 British port, 77. (Notes. — Anecdote of a sailor; where and when the Bedford was 

 built, 77.) Revival of whaliDg, 78. New ports enter into competition, 78. Tho 

 market overstocked, 78. Bounty on oil, 78. The bounty injurious to the business, 79. 

 Effort to transfer the fishery to foreign ports, 79. Mr. Rotch in England, 79. (Note. — 

 Letter of Capt. Alexander Coffin to Hon. Samuel Adams, 79.) Negotiations with the 

 English and French governments, 79. English obstinacy and French concession, 81. 

 National negotiations for a treaty of commerce, 81. The American minister thor- 

 oughly alive to American necessities, 82. (Note. — One hundred whalemen in 78° north 

 latitude;* whalemen as far north as 79° 2' 82".) (Note. — The Portuguese fishery, 85.) 

 Massachusetts navigation act only operative against Great Britain, 85. Letter 

 from James Bowdoin to Minister Adams, 85. (Note. — The English sperm-whale 



* The latitudo is misprinted in tho note. 



