"Welter upon the waters, mighty one--
And stretch thee in the ocean's trough of brine;
Turn thy wet scales up to the wind and sun,
And toss the billow from thy flashing fin;
Heave thy deep breathing to the ocean's din,
And bound upon its ridges in thy pride,
Or dive down to its lowest depths, and in
The caverns where its unknown monsters hide
Measure thy length beneath the gulf-stream's tide."
Brainard's _Sea-Serpent._
The colony had now reached a point when its policy must have an eye to
its future destinies. If it were intended to push it, like a new
settlement, a very different course ought to be pursued from the one
hitherto adopted. But the governor and council entertained more moderate
views. They understood their real position better. It was true that the
Peak, in one sense, or in that which related to soil and products, was
now in a condition to receive immigrants as fast as they could come; but
the Peak had its limits, and it could hold but a very circumscribed
number. As to the group, land had to be formed for the reception of the
husbandman, little more than the elements of soil existing over so much
of its surface. Then, in the way of trade, there could not be any very
great inducement for adventurers to come, since the sandal-wood was the
only article possessed which would command a price in a foreign market.
This sandal-wood, moreover, did not belong to the colony, but to a
people who might, at any moment, become hostile, and who already began
to complain that the article was getting to be very scarce. Under all
the circumstances therefore, it was not deemed desirable to add to the
population of the place faster than would now be done by natural means.
The cargoes of the two vessels just arrived were divided between the
state and the governor, by a very just process. The governor had
one-half the proceeds for his own private use, as owner of the Rancocus,
without which vessel nothing could have been done; while the state
received the other moiety, in virtue of the labour of its citizens as
well as in that of its right to impose duties on imports and exports. Of
the portion which went to the state, certain parts were equally divided
between the colonists, for immediate use, while other parts of the cargo
were placed in store, and held as a stock, to be drawn upon as occasion
might arise.
The voyage, like most adventures in sandal-wood, teas, &c., in that day,
had been exceedingly advantageous, and produced a most beneficent
influence on the fortunes and comforts of the settlement. A
well-selected cargo of the coarse, low-priced articles most needed in
such a colony, could easily have been purchased with far less than the
proceeds of the cargo of tea that had been obtained at Canton, in
exchange for the sandal-wood carried out; and Saunders, accordingly, had
filled the holds of both vessels with such articles, besides bringing
home with him a considerable amount in specie, half of which went into
the public coffers, and half into the private purse of governor
Woolston. Money had been in circulation in the colony for the last
twelve months; though a good deal of caution was used in suffering it to
pass from hand to hand. The disposition was to hoard; but this fresh
arrival of specie gave a certain degree of confidence, and the silver
circulated a great deal more freely after it was known that so
considerable an amount had been brought in.
It would scarcely be in our power to enumerate the articles that were
received by these arrivals; they included everything in common use among
civilized men, from a grind-stone to a cart. Groceries, too, had been
brought in reasonable quantities, including teas, sugars, &c.; though
these articles were not so much considered _necessaries_ in America
fifty years ago as they are to-day. The groceries of the state as well
as many other articles, were put into the hands of the merchants, who
either purchased them out and out, to dispose of at retail, or who took
them on commission with the same object. From this time, therefore,
regular shops existed, there being three on the Reef and one on the
Peak, where nearly everything in use could be bought, and that, too, at
prices that were far from being exorbitant. The absence of import duties
had a great influence on the cost of things, the state getting its
receipts in kind, directly through the labour of its citizens, instead
of looking to a customhouse in quest of its share for the general
prosperity.
At that time very little was written about the great fallacy of the
present day, Free Trade; which is an illusion about which men now talk,
and dispute, and almost fight, while no living mortal can tell what it
really is. It is wise for us in America, who never had anything but free
trade, according to modern doctrines, to look a little closely into the
sophisms that are getting to be so much in vogue; and which, whenever
they come from our illustrious ancestors in Great Britain, have some
such effect on the imaginations of a portion of our people, as purling
rills and wooded cascades are known to posses over those of certain
young ladies of fifteen.
Free trade, in its true signification, or in the only signification
which is not a fallacy, can only mean a commerce that is _totally
unfettered by duties, restrictions, prohibitions, and charges of all
sorts_. Except among savages, the world never yet saw such a state of
things, and probably never will. Even free trade ports have exactions
that, in a degree, counteract their pretended principle of liberty; and
no free port exists, that is anything more, in a strict interpretation
of its uses, than a sort of bonded warehouse. So long as your goods
remain there, on deposit and unappropriated, they are not taxed; but the
instant they are taken to the _consumer_, the customary impositions must
be paid.
_Freer_ trade--that is, a trade which is less encumbered than some
admitted state of things which previously existed--is easily enough
comprehended; but, instead of conveying to the mind any general theory,
it merely shows that a lack of wisdom may have prevailed in the
management of some particular interest; which lack of wisdom is now
being tardily repaired. Prohibitions, whether direct, or in the form of
impositions that the trade will not bear, may be removed without leaving
trade _free_. This or that article may be thrown open to the general
competition, without import duty or tax of any sort, and yet the great
bulk of the commerce of a country be so fettered as to put an effectual
check upon anything like liberal intercourse. Suppose, for instance,
that Virginia were an independent country. Its exports would be tobacco,
flour, and corn; the tobacco crop probably more than equalling in value
those portions of the other crops which are sent out of the country.
England is suffering for food, and she takes off everything like imposts
on the eatables, while she taxes tobacco to the amount of many hundred
per cent. Can that be called free trade?
There is another point of view in which we could wish to protest against
the shouts and fallacies of the hour. Trade, perhaps the most corrupt
and corrupting influence of life--or, if second to anything in evil,
second only to politics--is proclaimed to be the great means of
humanizing, enlightening, liberalizing, and improving the human race!
Now, against this monstrous mistake in morals, we would fain raise our
feeble voices in sober remonstrance. That the intercourse which is a
consequence of commerce may, in certain ways, liberalize a man's views,
we are willing to admit; though, at the same time, we shall insist that
there are better modes of attaining the same ends. But it strikes us as
profane to ascribe to this frail and mercenary influence a power which
there is every reason to believe the Almighty has bestowed on the
Christian church, and on that alone; a church which is opposed to most
of the practices of trade, which rebukes them in nearly every line of
its precepts, and which, carried out in its purity, can alone give the
world that liberty and happiness which a grasping spirit of cupidity is
so ready to impute to the desire to accumulate gold!
Fortunately, there was little occasion to dispute about the theories of
commerce at the Reef. The little trade that did exist was truly
unfettered; but no one supposed that any man was nearer to God on that
account, except as he was farther removed from temptations to do wrong.
Still, the governing principle was sound; not by canting about the
beneficent and holy influences of commerce, but by leaving to each man
his individuality, or restraining if only on those points which the
public good demanded. Instead of monopolizing the trade of the colony,
which his superior wealth and official power would have rendered very
easy, governor Woolston acted in the most liberal spirit to all around
him. With the exception of the Anne, which was built by the colony, the
council had decided, in some measure contrary to his wishes, though in
strict accordance with what was right, that all the vessels were the
private property of Mark. After this decision, the governor formally
conveyed the Mermaid and the Abraham to the state; the former to be
retained principally as a cruiser and a packet, while the last was in
daily use as a means of conveying articles and passengers, from one
island to the other. The Neshamony was presented, out and out, to Betts,
who turned many a penny with her, by keeping her running through the
different passages, with freight, &c.; going from plantation to
plantation, as these good people were in the practice of calling their
farms. Indeed, Bob did little else, until the governor, seeing his
propensity to stick by the water, and ascertaining that the intercourse
would justify such an investment, determined to build him a sloop, in
order that he might use her as a sort of packet and market-boat, united.
A vessel of about forty-five tons was laid down accordingly, and put
into the water at the end of six months, that was just the sort of craft
suited to Bob's wishes and wants. In the mean time, the honest fellow
had resigned his seat in the council, feeling that he was out of his
place in such a body, among men of more or less education, and of habits
so much superior and more refined than his own. Mark did not oppose this
step in his friend, but rather encouraged it; being persuaded nothing
was gained by forcing upon a man duties he was hardly fitted to
discharge. Self-made men, he well knew, were sometimes very useful; but
he also knew that they must be first _made_.
The name of this new sloop was the Martha, being thus called in
compliment to her owner's sober-minded, industrious and careful wife.
She (the sloop, and not Mrs. Betts) was nearly all cabin, having lockers
forward and aft, and was fitted with benches in her wings, steamboat
fashion. Her canvas was of light duck, there being very little heavy
weather in that climate; so that assisted by a boy and a Kannaka, honest
Bob could do anything he wished with his craft. He often went to the
Peak and Rancocus Island in her, always doing something useful; and he
even made several trips in her, within the first few months he had her
running, as far as Betto's group. On these last voyages, he carried over
Kannakas as passengers, as well as various small articles, such as
fish-hooks, old iron, hatchets even, and now and then a little tobacco.
These he exchanged for cocoa-nuts, which were yet scarce in the colony,
on account of the number of mouths to consume them; baskets, Indian
cloth, paddles which the islanders made very beautifully and with a
great deal of care; bread-fruit, and other plants that abounded more at
Betto's group than at the Reef, or even on the Peak.
But the greatest voyage Betts made that season was when he took a
freight of melons. This was a fruit which now abounded in the colony; so
much so as to be fed even to the hogs, while the natives knew nothing of
it beyond the art of eating it. They were extraordinarily fond of
melons, and Bob actually filled the cabin of the Martha with articles
obtained in exchange for his cargo. Among other things obtained on this
occasion, was a sufficiency of sandal-wood to purchase for the owner of
the sloop as many groceries as he could consume in his family for twelve
months; though groceries were high, as may well be supposed, in a place
like the Reef. Betts always admitted that the first great turn in his
fortune was the money made on this voyage, in which he embarked without
the least apprehension of Waally, and his never-ceasing wiles and
intrigues. Indeed, most of his sales were made to that subtle and active
chief, who dealt very fairly by him.
All this time the Rancocus was laid up for want of something to freight
her with. At one time the governor thought of sending her to pick up a
cargo where she could; but a suggestion by a seaman of the name of
Walker set him on a different track, and put on foot an adventure which
soon attracted the attention of most of the sea-faring portion of the
community.
It had been observed by the crew of the Rancocus, not only in her
original run through those seas, but in her two subsequent passages
from America, that the spermaceti whale abounded in all that part of the
ocean which lay to windward of the group. Now Walker had once been
second officer of a Nantucket craft, and was regularly brought up to the
business of taking whales. Among the colonists were half a dozen others
who had done more or less at the same business; and, at the suggestion
of Walker, who had gone out in the Rancocus as her first officer,
captain Saunders laid in a provision of such articles as were necessary
to set up the business. These consisted of cordage, harpoons, spades,
lances, and casks. Then no small part of the lower hold of the Henlopen
was stowed with shook casks; iron for hoops, &c., being also provided.
As the sandal-wood was now obtained in only small quantities, all idea
of sending the ship to Canton again, that year, was necessarily
abandoned. At first this seemed to be a great loss; but when the
governor came to reflect coolly on the subject, not only he, but the
council generally, came to the conclusion that Providence was dealing
more mercifully with them, by turning the people into this new channel
of commerce, than to leave them to pursue their original track.
Sandal-wood had a purely adventitious value, though it brought,
particularly in that age, a most enormous profit; one so large, indeed,
as to have a direct and quick tendency to demoralize those embarked in
the trade. The whaling business, on the other hand, while it made large
returns, demanded industry, courage, perseverance, and a fair amount of
capital. Of vessels, the colonists had all they wanted; the forethought
of Saunders and the suggestions of Walker furnished the particular
means; and of provisions there was now a superabundance in the group.
It was exceedingly fortunate that such an occupation offered to interest
and keep alive the spirit of the colonists. Man must have something to
do; some main object to live for; or he is apt to degenerate in his
ambition, and to fall off in his progress. No sooner was it announced
that whales were to be taken, however, than even the women became alive
to the results of the enterprise. This feeling was kept up by the
governor's letting it be officially known that each colonist should
have one share, or "lay," as it was termed, in the expected cargo; which
share, or "lay," was to be paid for in provisions. Those actually
engaged in the business had as many "lays" as it was thought they could
earn; the colony in its collected capacity had a certain number more, in
return for articles received from the public stores; and the governor,
as owner of the vessels employed, received one-fifth of the whole cargo,
or cargoes. This last was a very small return for the amount of capital
employed; and it was so understood by those who reaped the advantages of
the owner's liberality.
The Rancocus was not fitted out as a whaler, but was reserved as a
ware-house to receive the oil, to store it until a cargo was collected,
and then was to be used as a means to convey it to America. For this
purpose she was stripped, had her rigging thoroughly overhauled, was
cleaned out and smoked for rats, and otherwise was prepared for service.
While in this state, she lay alongside of the natural quay, near and
opposite to some extensive sheds which had been erected, as a protection
against the heats of the climate.
The Henlopen, a compact clump of a brig, that was roomy on deck, and had
stout masts and good rigging, was fitted out for the whaler; though the
Anne was sent to cruise in company. Five whale-boats, with the necessary
crews, were employed; two remaining with the Anne, and three in the
brig. The Kannakas were found to be indefatigable at the oar, and a good
number of them were used on this occasion. About twenty of the largest
boys belonging to the colony were also sent out, in order to accustom
them to the sea. These boys were between the ages of eight and sixteen,
and were made useful in a variety of ways.
Great was the interest awakened in the colony when the Henlopen and the
Anne sailed on this adventure. Many of the women, the wives, daughters,
sisters, or sweethearts of the whalers, would gladly have gone along;
and so intense did the feeling become, that the governor determined to
make a festival of the occasion, and to offer to take out himself, in
the Mermaid, as many of both sexes as might choose to make a trip of a
few days at sea, and be witnesses of the success of their friends in
this new undertaking. Betts also took a party in the Martha. The
Abraham, too, was in company; while the Neshamony was sent to leeward,
to keep a look-out in that quarter, lest the natives should take it into
their heads to visit the group, while so many of its fighting-men, fully
a hundred altogether, were absent. It is true, those who stayed at home
were fully able to beat off Waally and his followers; but the governor
thought it prudent to have a look-out. Such was the difference produced
by habit. When the whole force of the colony consisted of less than
twenty men, it was thought sufficient to protect itself, could it be
brought to act together; whereas, now, when ten times twenty were left
at home, unusual caution was deemed necessary, because the colony was
weakened by this expedition of so many of its members. But everything is
comparative with man.
When all was ready, the whaling expedition sailed; the governor leading
on board the Mermaid, which had no less than forty females in
her--Bridget and Anne being among them. The vessels went out by the
southern channel, passing through the strait at the bridge in order to
do so. This course was taken, as it would be easier to turn to windward
in the open water between the south cape and the Peak, than to do it in
the narrow passages between the islands of the group. The Mermaid led
off handsomely, sparing the Henlopen her courses and royals. Even the
Abraham could spare the last vessel her foresail, the new purchase
turning out to be anything but a traveller. The women wondered how so
slow a vessel could ever catch a whale!
The direction steered by the fleet carried it close under the weather
side of the Peak, the summit of which was crowded by the population, to
see so unusual and pleasing a sight. The Martha led, carrying rather
more sail, in proportion to her size, than the Mermaid. It happened, by
one of those vagaries of fortune which so often thwart the best
calculations, that a spout was seen to windward of the cliffs, at a
moment when the sloop was about a league nearer to it than any other
vessel. Now, every vessel in the fleet had its whale-boat and
whale-boat's crew: though the men of all but those who belonged to the
Henlopen were altogether inexperienced. It is true, they had learned the
theory of the art of taking a whale; but they were utterly wanting in
the practice. Betts was not the man to have the game in view, however,
and not make an effort to overcome it. His boat was manned in an
instant, and away he went, with Socrates in the bows, to fasten to a
huge creature that was rolling on the water in a species of sluggish
enjoyment of its instincts. It often happens that very young soldiers,
more especially when an _esprit de corps_ has been awakened in them,
achieve things from which older troops would retire, under the
consciousness of their hazards. So did it prove with the Martha's boat's
crew on this occasion. Betts steered, and he put them directly on the
whale; Socrates, who looked fairly green under the influence of alarm
and eagerness to attack, both increased by the total novelty of his
situation, making his dart of the harpoon when the bows of the fragile
craft were literally over the huge body of the animal. All the energy of
the negro was thrown into his blow, for he felt as if it were life or
death with him; and the whale spouted blood immediately. It is deemed a
great exploit with whalers, though it is not of very rare occurrence, to
inflict a death-wound with the harpoon; that implement being intended to
make fast with to the fish, which is subsequently slain with what is
termed a lance. But Socrates actually killed the first whale he ever
struck, with the harpoon; and from that moment he became an important
personage in the fisheries of those seas. That blow was a sort of Palo
Alto affair to him, and was the forerunner of many similar successes.
Indeed, it soon got to be said, that "with Bob Betts to put the boat on,
and old Soc to strike, a whale commonly has a hard time on't." It is
true, that a good many boats were stove, and two Kannakas were drowned,
that very summer, in consequence of these tactics; but the whales were
killed, and Betts and the black escaped with whole skins.
On this, the first occasion, the whale made the water foam, half-filled
the boat, and would have dragged it under, but for the vigour of the
negro's arm, and the home character of the blow, which caused the fish
to turn up and breathe his last, before he had time to run any great
distance. The governor arrived on the spot, just as Bob had got a hawser
to the whale and was ready to fill away for the South Cape channel
again. The vessels passed each other cheering, and the governor
admonished his friend not to carry the carcass too near the dwellings,
lest it should render them uninhabitable. But Betts had his anchorage
already in his eye, and away he went, with the wind on his quarter,
towing his prize at the rate of four or five knots. It may be said,
here, that the Martha went into the passage, and that the whale was
floated into shallow water, where sinking was out of the question, and
Bob and his Kannakas, about twenty in number, went to work to peel off
the blubber in a very efficient, though not in a very scientific, or
artistical manner. They got the creature stripped of its jacket of fat
that very night, and next morning the Martha appeared with a set of
kettles, in which the blubber was tried out. Casks were also brought in
the sloop, and, when the work was done, it was found that that single
whale yielded one hundred and eleven barrels of oil, of which
thirty-three barrels were head-matter! This was a capital commencement
for the new trade, and Betts conveyed the whole of his prize to the
Reef, where the oil was started into the ground-tier of the Rancocus,
the casks of which were newly repaired, and ready stowed to receive it.
A week later, as the governor in the Mermaid, cruising in company with
the Henlopen and Abraham, was looking out for whales about a hundred
miles to windward of the Peak, having met with no success, he was again
joined by Betts in the Martha. Everything was reported right at the
Reef. The Neshamony had come in for provisions and gone out again, and
the Rancocus would stand up without watching, with her hundred and
eleven barrels of oil in her lower hold. The governor expressed his
sense of Betts' services, and reminding him of his old faculty of seeing
farther and truer than most on board, he asked him to go up into the
brig's cross-trees and take a look for whales. The keen-eyed fellow had
not been aloft ten minutes, before the cry of "spouts--spouts!" was
ringing through the vessel. The proper signal was made to the Henlopen
and Abraham, when everybody made sail in the necessary direction. By
sunset a great number of whales were fallen in with, and as Capt. Walker
gave it as his opinion they were feeding in that place, no attempt was
made on them until morning. The next day, however, with the return of
light, six boats were in the water, and palling off towards the game.
On this occasion, Walker led on, as became his rank and experience. In
less than an hour he was fast to a very large whale, a brother of that
taken by Betts; and the females had the exciting spectacle, of a boat
towed by an enormous fish, at a rate of no less than twenty knots in an
hour. It is the practice among whalers for the vessel to keep working to
windward, while the game is taking, in order to be in the most
favourable position to close with the boats, after the whale is killed.
So long, however, as the creature has life in it, it would be folly to
aim at any other object than getting to windward, for the fish may be
here at one moment, and a league off in a few minutes more. Sometimes,
the alarmed animal goes fairly out of sight of the vessel, running in a
straight line some fifteen or twenty miles, when the alternatives are to
run the chances of missing the ship altogether, or to cut from the
whale. By doing the last not only is a harpoon lost, but often several
hundred fathoms of line; and it not unfrequently happens that whales are
killed with harpoons in them, left by former assailants, and dragging
after them a hundred, or two, fathoms of line.
It may be well, here, to explain to the uninitiated reader, that the
harpoon is a barbed spear, with a small, but stout cord, or whale line
fastened to it. The boat approaches the fish bow foremost, but is made
sharp at both ends that it may "back off," if necessary; the whale being
often dangerous to approach, and ordinarily starting, when struck, in a
way to render his immediate neighbourhood somewhat ticklish. The fish
usually goes down when harpooned, and the line must be permitted to
"run-out," or he would drag the boat after him. But a whale must breathe
as well as a man, and the faster he runs the sooner he must come up for
a fresh stock of air. Now, the proper use of the harpoon and the line is
merely to fasten to the fish; though it does sometimes happen that the
creature is killed by the former. As soon as the whale re-appears on
the surface, and becomes stationary, or even moderates his speed a
little, the men begin to haul in line, gradually closing with their
intended victim. It often happens that the whale starts afresh, when
line must be permitted to run out anew; this process of "hauling in" and
"letting run" being often renewed several times at the taking of a
single fish. When the boat can be hauled near enough, the officer at its
head darts his lance into the whale, aiming at a vital part. If the
creature "spouts blood," it is well; but if not hit in the vitals, away
it goes, and the whole business of "letting run," "towing," and "hauling
in" has to be gone over again.
On the present occasion, Walker's harpooner, or boat-steerer, as he is
called, had made a good "heave," and was well fast to his fish. The
animal made a great circuit, running completely round the Mermaid, at a
distance which enabled those on board her to see all that was passing.
When nearest to the brig, and the water was curling off the bow of the
boat in combs two feet higher than her gunwale, under the impulse given
by the frantic career of the whale, Bridget pressed closer to her
husband's side, and, for the first time in her life, mentally thanked
Heaven that he was the governor, since that was an office which did not
require him to go forth and kill whales. At that very moment, Mark was
burning with the desire to have a hand in the sport, though he certainly
had some doubts whether such an occupation would suitably accord with
the dignity of his office.
Walker got alongside of his whale, within half a mile of the two brigs,
and to-leeward of both. In consequence of this favourable circumstance,
the Henlopen soon had its prize hooked on, and her people at work
stripping off the blubber. This is done by hooking the lower block of a
powerful purchase in a portion of the substance, and then cutting a
strip of convenient size, and heaving on the fall at the windlass. The
strip is cut by implements called spades, and the blubber is torn from
the carcass by the strain, after the sides of the "blanket-piece," as
the strip is termed, are separated from the other portions of the animal
by the cutting process. The "blanket-pieces" are often raised as high
as the lower mast-heads, or as far as the purchase will admit of its
being carried, when a transverse cut is made, and the whole of the
fragment is lowered on deck. This "blanket-piece" is then cut into
pieces and put into the try-works, a large boiler erected on deck, in
order to be "tryed-out," when the oil is cooled, and "started" below
into casks. In this instance, the oil was taken on board the Abraham as
fast as it was "tryed-out" on board the Henlopen, the weather admitting
of the transfer.
But that single whale was far from being the only fruits of Betts'
discovery. The honest old Delaware seaman took two more whales himself.
Socrates making fast, and he killing the creatures. The boats of the
Henlopen also took two more, and that of the Abraham, one. Betts in the
Martha, and the governor in the Mermaid towed four of these whales into
the southern channel, and into what now got the name of the Whaling
Bight. This was the spot where Betts had tryed out the first fish taken,
and it proved to be every way suitable for its business. The Bight
formed a perfectly safe harbour, and there was not only a sandy shoal on
which the whales could be floated and kept from sinking, a misfortune
that sometimes occurs, but it had a natural quay quite near, where the
Rancocus, herself, could lie. There was fresh water in abundance, and an
island of sufficient size to hold the largest whaling establishment that
ever existed. This island was incontinently named Blubber Island. The
greatest disadvantage was the total absence of soil, and consequently of
all sorts of herbage; but its surface was as smooth as that of an
artificial quay, admitting of the rolling of casks with perfect ease.
The governor no sooner ascertained the facilities of the place, which
was far enough from the ordinary passage to and from the Peak to remove
the nuisances, than he determined to make it his whaling haven.
The Abraham was sent across to Rancocus Island for a load of lumber, and
extensive sheds were erected, in time to receive the Henlopen, when she
came in with a thousand barrels of oil on board, and towing in three
whales that she had actually taken in the passage between Cape South and
the Peak. By that time, the Rancocus had been moved, being stiff enough
to be brought from the Reef to Blubber Island, under some of her lower
sails. This moving of vessels among the islands of the group was a very
easy matter, so long as they were not to be carried to windward; and, a
further acquaintance with the channels, had let the mariners into the
secret of turning up, against the trades and within the islands, by
keeping in such reaches as enabled them to go as near the wind as was
necessary, while they were not compelled to go nearer than a craft could
lie.
Such was the commencement of a trade that was destined to be of the last
importance to our colonists. The oil that was brought in, from this
first cruise, a cruise that lasted less than two months, and including
that taken by all the boats, amounted to two thousand barrels, quite
filling the lower hold of the Rancocus, and furnishing her with more
than half of a full cargo. At the prices which then ruled in the markets
of Europe and America, three thousand five hundred barrels of
spermaceti, with a due proportion of head matter, was known to be worth
near an hundred thousand dollars; and might be set down as large a
return for labour, as men could obtain under the most advantageous
circumstances.