366 
Basque whale-fishery. The following facts show that it 
was a well established trade in the twelfth century, so that 
it probably existed at least two centuries earlier. King 
Sancho (the Wise) of Navarre granted privileges to the 
city of San Scbastian in the year 1150 A.D. In this 
grant there is a list of 
the duties that must be paid for warehousing. them : 
whale-bone has a prominent place in the list. ‘‘ Carga 
de boguinas-barbas de ballenas ... .2 dineros.’? The 
same privileges were extended by Alfonso VIII. of 
Castille to Fuenterrabia in 1203, and to Motrico and 
Guetaria in 1204. Ferdinand III., in a royal order dated 
at Burgos the 28th September, 1237, gave similar privi- 
leges to Zarauz; and this document contains further proof 
of the antiquity of the whale-fishery. Fora claimis made 
that, in accordance with custom ( “sicut forum est’’) the 
King should have a slice of each whale, along the back- 
bone, from the head to the tail. The custom here referred 
to indicates the antiquity of the fishery. At Guetaria it 
was the custom to give the first fish of the season to the 
King, who usually returned half. 
Another proof of the importance of the whale-fishery 
on the northern coast of Spain, and probably also of its 
antiquity, is the fact that no less than six of the towns 
have a whale for their coat of arms. This charge is in 
the arms of Fuenterrabia. Over the portal of the first 
house in a steep old street of Guetaria there isa shield of 
arms consisting of a whale amidst waves of the sea. At 
Motrico the town arms consist of a whale in the sea, 
harpooned, and a boat with men holding the line. The 
same device is carved on the wall of the Town Hall of 
Lequeitio. The arms of Bermeoand Castro-Urdiales also 
contain a whale. 
posts were established on the headlands, and high up the 
mountains overlooking the fishing-towns, whence notice 
was given directly a whale was seen spouting in the offing ; 
and soon the boats were in pnrsuit. On the mountain of 
Talaya-mendi (‘‘Look-out mountain”) above Zarauz, 
there are some ruined wails which, according to Madoz, 
are the remains of one of these watch-towers, whence 
warnings were sent down the momenta whale was in sight. 
In some of the towns there are records which throw 
light on the whale-fishery, but (chiefly during the French 
occupation) most of the ancient archives have been de- 
stroyed or are lost. Fortunately this is not universally the 
case. In the town of Lequeitio eight of the “ /éévos de 
fabrica” or fabric rolls of the church, commencing from 
the year 1510, have been preserved, which contain much 
interesting information. 
The most ancient document relating to whales in the 
Lequeitio archives is dated September 11th, 1381. It is 
there ordered and agreed by the Cadz/do that the whale- 
bone taken shall be divided into three parts, two for re- 
pairing the boat-harbour, and the third for the fabric of 
the church. The same order is repeated in another docu- 
ment dated 1608. In the Liévos de fabrica de la iglesia 
de Lequettio there is a list of the whale killed, in various 
years, by the boats of Lequeitio, from 1517 to 1661. 
1517. Two whales killed. 1525. Returns in money 
value. 1531. January and February, two large and one 
small whale kiiled. 1532. Nonekilled. 1536. Two large 
whales and one small. 1538. Six whales killed. 1542. Two 
whales killed. 1543. One whale wounded by the Lequeitio 
people, but captured at Motrico. 
two towns. 1543. Two whales killed, mother and young. 
The Mayor-domo working all day at the whalebone, and 
received 2 rials. 1546. February 24, a whale killed in 
front of St. Nicholas I:land. The bone yielded 9} 
ducados. 1550. Two whales killed. 1570. One whale 
killed. 1576. One whale killed. 1578. One whale killed. 
1580. Three and a young one. 1608. One whale killed. 
1609. Three whales killed. 1611. Two small whales 
killed, in concert with the men of Andarroa, which led to 
a law-suit. 1617. Cne whale killed. 
articles of merchandise with | 
I was assured that vzgzas or look-out | 
NATURE 
Divided between the | 
1618. One whale 
\ 
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1 : us 
| Feb. 16, 1882 
killed. 1619. One whale kiiled. 1622. One whale killed 
with its young. 1649. Two whales killed. 1650. Two 
whales killed. 1657. Two whales killed and two young. 
1661. One whale killed. 
In the Libro de Fabrica including the years from 1731 
to 1781 there is no mention of a whale, nor in the two 
succeeding books, The sailors went long voyages in 
search of them. But in 1712, fifty years after the last 
entry in the books, there were boats and apparatus for 
catching whales. In 1740 it was said that there were no 
sailors in Lequeitio, all having gone on long whaling 
voyages. Ina record of a marriage at Lequeitio on July 
15th, 1712, among the goods of the bride are mentioned 
a whale-boat with sails, lines, harpoons, and apparatus 
complete. Of the bridegroom it is said that “‘he was 
clothed decently, having four coats of London cloth, a 
good chest to keep his clothes in and another for travel- 
ling, a mattras, pillow, and blanket, and needful clothes 
for going to sea.” So that between them they were well 
prepared for a whaling expedition. 
These entries at Lequeitio indicate that, during the six- 
teenth century, the whales were abundant ; for if this was 
the catch of only one village out of at least twenty along 
the coast, we may fairly multiply it by at least ten for the 
average yield of the fishery. 
In the books of the Cofradia de Mareantes of Zarauz 
there are similar records, from which it appears that 
between the years 1637 and 1801 as many as fifty-five 
whales were killed by the Zarauz people, whose prowess 
was known throughout the Cantabrian coast. There is 
one noteworthy tradition at Zarauz, to the effect that two 
young sailors, without any help, chased, harpooned, and 
killed a large whale, and brought it safely to the beach. 
This deed is immortalised on imperishable stone. Over 
the portal of a house in Zarauz, No. 13 Calle de Azara, 
there is an inscription, now in the greater part rendered 
illegible by time, but with letters of the shape and stylo 
used in the sixteenth century. To the left of the inscrip- 
tion there is carved a harpooned whale, with the line 
fastened to a boat, in which are two men. Don Nicolas 
de Soraluce, the learned historian of Guipuzcoa, told me 
that an old resident in Zarauz, named Belaunzaran, had 
often spoken to him of the feat recorded on this stone 
slab ; adding that he used to hear his grandmother explain 
that the carving represented the harpooning and killing 
of a whale by two young sailors in a single boat. This 
deed was considered worthy of being handed down to 
posterity, and the stone was therefore placed over the 
door of the house of these two brothers, or, as some say, 
a father and son. 
There are some other records as to the disposition of 
the whalebone. By an order dated November 2oth, 1474, 
the town of Guetaria gave half the value of each whale 
towards the repair of the church and of the boat-harbour. 
In San Sebastian, according to an ancient custom, the 
whalebone was given to the Cofradia (brotherhood) of 
San Pedro. 
It is clear that the whales, close along the coast, be- 
came very scarce in the middle of the seventeenth cen- 
tury, when the entries at Lequeitio cease, and that the 
Basque sailors then began to seek the means of exercising 
their special craft by making long voyages, even to the 
Arctic regions. Such voyages were occasionally made at 
a still earlier period. It is stated by Madoz that a pilot 
of Zarauz, named Matias de Echeveste, was the first 
Spaniard who visited the banks of Newfoundland ; and, 
according to a memoir written by his son, that he made 
twenty-eight voyages from 1545 to 1599, the year of his 
death. In the accounts of the first English whaling 
voyages to Spitzbergen, in the collection of Purchas, we 
read of Basque ships from San Sebastian frequenting 
those Arctic seas in search of whales, and of the over- 
bearing way in which their captains were often treated 
by the English. Nevertheless, the English were glad to 
