xviii INTB OD UCTION. 



that systematic pursuit of the cachalot which has 

 thriven so wonderfully ever since, although it must 

 be confessed that the last few years have witnessed a 

 serious decline in this great branch of trade. 



For many years the American colonists completely 

 engrossed this branch of the whale fishery, contentedly 

 leaving to Great Britain and the continental nations the 

 monopoly of the northern or Arctic fisheries, while they 

 cruised the stormy, if milder, seas around their own shores. 



For the resultant products, their best customer was 

 the mother country, and a lucrative commerce steadily 

 grew up between the two countries. But when the 

 march of events brought the unfortunate and wholly 

 unnecessary War of Independence, this flourishing 

 trade was the first to suffer, and many of the daring 

 fishermen became our fiercest foes on board their own 

 men-of-war. 



The total stoppage of the importation of sperm 

 oil and spermaceti was naturally severely felt in 

 England, for time had not permitted the invention of 

 substitutes. In consequence of this, ten ships were 

 equipped and sent out to the sperm whale fishery from 

 England in 1775, most of them owned by one London 

 firm, the Messrs. Enderby. The next year, in order to 

 encourage the infant enterprise, a Government bounty, 

 graduated from £500 to JOIOOO per ship, was granted. 

 Under this fostering care the number of ships engaged 

 in the sperm whale fishery progressively increased until 

 1791, when it attained its maximum. 



This method of whaling being quite new to our 

 whalemen, it was necessary, at great cost, to hire 



