146 
RISE AND PROGRESS OF 
North and South Atlantic oceans, it was the destiny of 
the mother country to enjoy the honour of opening the 
invaluable sperm fisheries of the two Pacifies , the disco- 
very of which formed an era in the commercial history 
of this country. For not only was the sperm whale 
fishery by this discovery prodigiously increased, but 
other commercial advantages rapidly accrued from the 
whalers who resorted to these seas opening a trade with 
the people who inhabited the extensive shores which 
bound the enormous ocean. 
64 The importance of the southern whale fishery,” says 
a gentleman who is deeply conversant with the whole 
subject, 44 has never been duly appreciated ; it is not 
generally known / 9 says he, “ that it is to this important 
branch of trade, and nursery for seamen, that we owe 
the opening of commerce with South America, and which 
even caused the separation of the Spanish colonies in the 
Pacific Ocean from the parent state. So meanly jealous 
was Spain of the interference of foreigners with the trade 
of her American colonies, that it was with the greatest 
difficulty, on the opening of the sperm whale fishery in 
the Pacific, that we could obtain permission for our ships 
to cruise within a hundred Italian miles of their coasts 
—and it was only through a few of our ships at first 
claiming the right of wooding and watering in a friendly 
port that a trade was first established, which spread in 
all directions the moment the great mutual advantages 
were felt. The enterprise of the ship-owners,” he con» 
tinues, “ engaged in the whale fishery knew no bounds. 
They sent ships to all parts of the world — to places at 
