974 MR. C. R. MARKHAM ON THE WHALE-FISHERY OF [Dec. \S, 



tery of whale-fishing. To the sailors of all other nations it was 

 an unknown business, appearing all the more perilous from their 

 lack of knowledge. So it was natural that the hardy and in- 

 trepid fishermen from the Cantabrian coast should be in requisition 

 as harponeers as soon as the English and Dutch entered upon the 

 Arctic whale-fishery, early in the seventeenth centurJ^ Along with 

 their services, we also borrowed their words. Harpoon is derived 

 from the Basque word Arpoi, the root being ar, " to take quickly." 

 The Basque Harpoinari is a " harponeer." 



There is a letter still extant at Alcala de Henares, from James I. 

 of England to the king of Spain, dated 1612, in which permission is 

 asked to engage the services, on board English vessels engaged in the 

 Arctic whaling-trade, of Basque sailors skilled in the use of the 

 harpoon. The fact that Basque boats' crews were frequently shipped 

 seems to show that this request was granted. In the whaling fleet 

 fitted out for Spitzbergen in 1G13, under the command of Benjamin 

 Joseph, with Baffin on board the general's ship as pilot, 24 Basques 

 Mere shipped. Orders were given that " they were to be used very 

 kindly and friendly, being strangers and leaving their own country 

 to do us service." The English seem to have adopted the fishing- 

 rules of the Basques, as well as to have benefited by their skill and 

 })rowess. Thus we read of an order being given because " the order 

 of the Biscaines is that whoso doth strike the first harping-iron into 

 him, it is his whale, if his iron hold." The Basques went out to 

 attack the whales in the offing, while the English got ready for 

 boihng-down. We read : — " News was brought to us this morning 

 that the Basks had killed a whale ; therefore we hasted to set up our 

 furnaces and coppers, and presently began work ; which we con- 

 tinued, without any want of whales, till our voyage was made " — 

 thanks to the Basques. In another place Baffin calls the Basques 

 " our whale strikers." 



Of course the English, in due time, learnt to strike the whales 

 themselves ; but the Basques were their instructors ; and it is there- 

 fore to this noble race that we owe the foundation of our whaling 

 trade. 



In travelling along the coast, I found a universal tradition of the 

 whale-fishery ; and often the families of fishermen had the harpoons 

 hanging in their houses, which had been there for generations. 

 They still have occasion to use them when porpoises come within 

 range ; and on board one of the Gijon steamers there was a 

 man with unerring aim. But many harpoons hang on the walls as 

 relics of the old whaling days. At Laredo the fishermen brought 

 me a harpoon of peculiar construction. The point was narrow and 

 very slightly barbed ; but there was a hinge halfway up the point, 

 which was kept in line with the shaft by a ring. When the harpoon 

 entered a whale, the ring slipped, the hinge turned, and the point 

 came at right angles to the shaft, making it impossible for the har- 

 poon to come out again. Baron Nordenskiold informs me that this 

 kind of harpoon is used by the Norwegians to kill the white whales. 



At Llanes, in Asturias, I found a large palatial house which was 



