50 NIMEOD OF TEE SEA; OB, 



"How could the British capitalist, who required a net 

 profit, compete with this industrious hive of co-operation- 

 ists? His Government aided him by a bounty equal to $10 

 per ton on the burden of his ship, protected him by excess- 

 ive duties on American oil, and granted immunities to his 

 seamen. All was in vain, and he was compelled to yield 

 the field. Listen also to the words in praise of our whalei-, 

 penned by a hand that wielded harpoon and lance as suc- 

 cessfully as the pen. Obed Macy, of Nantucket, tells us : 

 ' His youth and strength, his manhood and experience, are de- 

 voted to a life of great labor and much peril. His boyhood 

 anticipates such a life, and aspires after its highest responsi- 

 bilities, while his age delights in recounting its incidents. 

 For deeds of true valor, done without brutal excitement, but 

 in the honest aifd lawful piirsuit of a means of livelihood, 

 we may safely point to the life of the whaleman, and chal- 

 lenge the world to produce a parallel. The widow and or- 

 phan mourn not over his success; oppression and tyranny 

 follow not in his paths ; his wife and children reap the re- 

 ward of his toils and danger, and his prosperity is his coun- 

 try's honor.' " 



" Every word of that is true," said the captain, who was 

 listening to Posey, while his thoughts were doubtless soar- 

 ing beyond the snow-capped Cordilleras, to a quiet home, 

 and wife, children, and friends, near the distant hills of New 

 England. 



