110 THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA. 



teenth and fifteenth century fitted out ships for the whale 

 fishery. At first the bold men of Bayonne and Santander con- 

 tented themselves with pursuing their prey, (most likely ror- 

 quals) in the neighbouring seas, but as the persecuted whales 

 diminished in frequency, they followed them farther to the 

 north, until they came to the haunts of the real whale, whose 

 greater abundance of fat rewarded their intrepidity with a richer 

 spoil. 



Their success naturally roused the emulation and avidity of other 

 seafaring nations, and thus, towards the end of the sixteenth cen- 

 tury, we see the English, and soon after the Dutch, enter the lists 

 as their competitors. At first our countrymen were obliged to 

 send to "Biskaie for men skilful in catching the whale, and 

 ordering of the oil, and one cooper, skilful to set up the staved 

 casks," (Hakluyt's Voyages, i. 414) ; but soon, by their, skill, 

 their industry and perseverance, together with the aid and en- 

 couragement granted by the legislature, they learnt to carry on the 

 whale fishery on more advantageous terms than the original ad- 

 venturers, whose efforts became less enterprising as their success 

 was more precarious. 



The first attempts of the English date as far back as the year 

 1594, when some ships were sent out to. Cape Breton for morse 

 and whale fishing. The fishing proved unsuccessful, but they 

 found in an island 800 whale fins or whalebone, part of the 

 cargo of a Biscayan ship wrecked there three years before, 

 which they put on board and brought home. This was the 

 first time this substance was imported into England. 



Hull took the lead in the Greenland whale fishery in 1598, 

 thirteen years after the first company for that purpose had been 

 formed in Amsterdam, and as both maritime nations gave it 

 every encouragement, not only on account of its profits, but 

 also from considering it as one of the best nurseries for their 

 seamen, it gradually grew to a very important branch of 

 business. Some idea may be formed of the extent to which 

 the Dutch engaged in the whale fishery during the last century, 

 by stating that for a period of forty-six years preceding 1722, 

 5886 ships were employed in it, and captured 32,907 whales. 



La the year 1788, 222 English vessels were employed in the 

 northern fishery. 



The earliest period at which we find the pursuit of the sperm 



