131 



in ^ich Sanrael Daly, of Plymouth, was the hero. While on a fishing 

 voyage he put into a harbor ia Nova Scotia to procure water, and see- 

 ing John Baptist, a Frenchman, on shore, asked him to come on board. 

 Accompanied by his son. Baptist accepted the invitation ;. and, after 

 some friendly conversation, Daly and his elder guest retired to the cabin 

 to drink. While there, the younger Baptist returned' to the shore. 

 Suspecting no hai-m, Daly, with his mate and three of his crew, went 

 On shore also, leaving Baptist in the vessel. The son, with two In- 

 dians, immediately joined Baptist, and assisted him to seize the vessel 

 as a prise. Daly applied to the mother of Baptist to intercede for the 

 restoration of his property ; and after some delay, she consented. The 

 treacherous Frenchman was, however, inexorable ; and, several other 

 Indians getting on board, he ordered Daly to weigh anchor and make 

 sail. The savages threatened him with their hatchets, and the luckless 

 fisherman obeyed. But the next day Daly secured Baptist and three 

 of the Indians in the cabin, overpowered the son and the savages, who 

 remained on deck, and regained possession of his vessel. The Indians 

 in the cabin, fired upon by Daly, threw themselves into the sea,. Bap- 

 tist, his son, and three surviving Indians, were safely landed at Boston, 

 where, tried for piracy, all were condemned and executed. 



In 1731 the fisheries of Massachusetts employed between five and 

 six thousand men. Three years later a township in Maine was granted 

 to sixty inhabitants of Marblehead, and a similar grant was made to 

 citizens of Gloucester in 1735.* Possibly many of the fishermen of 

 these ancient towns had become weary of the hazards of the sea, and 

 desired repose ; but whatever the motives of the grantees of these lands, 

 the perUs and hardships of the forest a century ago were quite equal 

 to those encountered upon the ocean, and such was their particular 

 experience. 



In 1741 the cod-fisheiy was in a prosperous condition. The annual 

 produce was about two hundred and thirty thousand quintals, and the 

 value of the quantity exported nearly seven hundred thousand dollars. 

 The average size of vessels was fifty tons ; and of these one hundred 

 and sixty were owned in Marblehead alone. The whole number' of 

 fishing vessels in Massachusetts was not less than four hundred, besides 

 an equal number of ketches, shallops, and undecked boats. 



In the twenty years that succeeded there was a sensible decline, for 

 which the causes were abundant. The emigrations to Maine just men- 

 tioned, from Marblehead and Gloucester, the settlements elsewhere in 

 the eastern countiy by emigrants irom Cape Cod, the depopulation and 

 almost entire abandonment of Provincetown, the expedition against 

 Louisbourg, the general events of the two wars that occurred during 

 this period between France and England, in the calamities of which 

 Massachusetts was deeply involved, the demand for fishermen to man 

 privateers and to enter the naval ships of the crown, with several min«r 

 events, combined to injure the fisheries to a very considerable de- 



*The first was calleJ"New Marblehead," but is now Wvndliam.; the second, "New Glou- 

 cester," which name has been retained to the present time. The settlement of New Glouces- 

 ter, after being commenced, was suspended — in fact, abandoned — for eleven years, in conse- 

 quence of the Indian wars. Block-houses were built both there and at New Marblehead, to 

 protect the settlers from the savage foe. 



