148 
RISE AND PROGRESS OF 
have been preceded by the whaler, who has opened a 
barter with the savage, and brought about a friendly 
regard towards us, by which he has secured a ready 
welcome to the missionaries ; and they are doing so at 
the present hour at New Guinea, New Ireland, New 
Britain, and at hundreds of islands in the south Pacific ; 
New Zealand has been succeeded with in the same way, 
and if it was not for these preliminary meetings, not a 
missionary would dare to step upon their shores. 55 
In 1788, the grand mercantile speculation of sending 
ships round Cape Horn into the Pacific, in order to 
extend the sperm whale fishery was reserved for the 
bold and enterprising mind of Mr. Enderby, a London 
merchant and ship-owner, who fitted out, at a vast 
expense, the ship 44 Amelia,” Captain Shields, which 
sailed from England on the 1st of September 1788, and 
returned on the 12th of March 1790, making an absence 
of one year and seven months, but bringing home the 
enormous cargo of 139 tons of sperm oil! and likewise 
having the good fortune to receive 800£. more by way 
of an increased bounty in consequence of the peculiar 
nature of the expedition. The 44 Amelia” having been 
the first ship of any country which had entered the 
Pacific in search of whales, her success gave an amazing 
impulse to all persons engaged in the fisheries, so that 
several ships both from this country and America imme- 
diately followed in her track, for on her return in 1790, 
many vessels were directly sent off, the crews of which 
continued the fishery along the coast of Chili and Peru 
with great advantage ; so that in 1791, we had a great 
