WHALING. 333 



years in all the season thereof, beginning the first of 

 March next insuing. Also is to build upon his land, 

 and when he leaves Inhabiting upon the Island then 

 he is first to ofer his Land to the Town at a Valluable 

 price, and if the Town do not buy it — then he may sel 

 it to whome he please — the commonage is granted 

 only for the time he stays here." 



But although this would seem at first glance to imply 

 that Loper took up his abode among the islanders, 

 there is no proof that such was the fact. One James 

 Loper (or Looper) was a resident of Easthampton on 

 Long Island, and carried on the business of whaling 

 at that place; but there is no evidence that up to 1678 

 he had left there, for at that time he was still a tax- 

 payer in that town. Nowhere else on the Nantucket 

 records, neither in the proprietors' list of grantees for- 

 warded to New York in 1674, nor in the record of 

 lands u layd out by the land layers," is his name men- 

 tioned, nor does the document just quoted appear to 

 be signed. In the absence of such evidence, which 

 must have existed had he removed to the island, we 

 must conclude that he had no share in giving to the 

 islanders instruction in the art that subsequently made 

 them world-renowned. 



According to the account of Macy (" History of Nan- 

 tucket"), u the first whaling expedition in Nantucket 

 was undertaken by some of the original purchasers of 

 the island; the circumstances of which are handed 

 down by tradition, and are as follows: — 



" A whale of the kind called 'scragg ' came into the 

 harbor and continued there three days. This excited 

 the curiosity of the people, and led them to devise meas- 



