EARLY HISTORY Or CAPE MAY COUNTY. 



199 



market. He owned a vessel which he occasionally sent to the West 

 Indies.* 



It is supposed at the present time, that about one-fifth of the entire 

 male population are engaged in this pursuit ; and a more hardy and 

 adventurous band never sailed from any port ; no sea or ocean 

 where commerce floats a sail, they do not visit if duty calls. 



The Pilots of Cape Island are likewise renowned for .their skill 

 and enterprise in the way of their profession. They brave 

 the tempest and the storm to relieve the mariner in distress, or to 

 conduct the steamer, the ship, or the barque to the haven of her 

 destination. There were fourteen pilots at the Cape in 1658 : at 

 the present time their numbers are about trebled, being thirty-five 

 in 1850. 



The population* of Cape May, at different periods since the year 

 1726, was as follows, viz. : 



The population meets with an unceasing annual drain in the way 

 of emigration. Numerous families, every spring and fall, sell off 

 their lands and efi"ects to seek a home in the far West. Illinois has 

 heretofore been the State that has held out most inducements to 

 the emigrant, and there are at present located in the favored county 

 of Sangamon, in that State, some sixty or seventy families, which 

 have removed from this county within a few years past, most of 



» Spieer's Diary. 



f Manuscript proceedings of Assembly, State Library, and Census Reports. 



