THE SPERM WHALE FISHERY. 
147 
which no merchant vessel would have had cause to ven- 
ture, so that lands were visited upon which important 
colonies have been formed : — what merchant vessel 
would have visited Van Diemen’s Land, or even Aus- 
tralia ? Having no object or prospect of gain, and lying 
as they both did, out of the track of our merchantmen, 
it is not to be believed that they could have been much 
visited by them. But our whaling vessels, cruising for 
whales, examined their shores and brought home infor- 
mation respecting their value, and what was still more 
important, they carried out people to reside upon them, 
and established a regular communication between them 
and our own country — by which the wants of the primi- 
tive settlers could be supplied and their persons protected, 
and which could not have been done by other ships 
except at a frightful expense— at a time too, when the 
settlement of the above now valuable and flourishing 
colonies was a mere experiment, with many sneering at 
the project as an ignis fatuus ; — evidence inclines us to 
believe that these colonies would never have existed had 
it not been for whaling vessels approaching their shores. 
It is a fact, that the original settlers at Botany Bay were 
more than once saved from starvation by the timely 
arrival of some whaling vessels. 
“ But if our commerce has received benefit from our 
southern whaling expeditions, our intimate knowledge 
of the Polynesian islanders has also arisen from the 
same means ; and if missionaries have gone to reside 
among these people with the view of spreading among 
them a belief in the Christian faith, these messengers 
