Such Was The Method This Wise People Took To Enjoy In Common Their New Settlement; Such Was The Mode Of Their First Establishment, Which May Be Truly And Literally Called A Pastoral One.

Several hundred of sheep-pasture titles have since been divided on those different tracts, which are now cultivated; the

Rest by inheritance and intermarriages have been so subdivided that it is very common for a girl to have no other portion but her outset and four sheep pastures or the privilege of feeding a cow. But as this privilege is founded on an ideal, though real title to some unknown piece of land, which one day or another may be ascertained; these sheep-pasture titles should convey to your imagination, something more valuable and of greater credit than the mere advantage arising from the benefit of a cow, which in that case would be no more than a right of commonage. Whereas, here as labour grows cheaper, as misfortunes from their sea adventures may happen, each person possessed of a sufficient number of these sheep-pasture titles may one day realise them on some peculiar spot, such as shall be adjudged by the council of the proprietors to be adequate to their value; and this is the reason that these people very unwillingly sell those small rights, and esteem them more than you would imagine. They are the representation of a future freehold, they cherish in the mind of the possessor a latent, though distant, hope, that by his success in his next whale season, he may be able to pitch on some predilected spot, and there build himself a home, to which he may retire, and spend the latter end of his days in peace. A council of proprietors always exists in this island, who decide their territorial differences; their titles are recorded in the books of the county, which this town represents, as well as every conveyance of lands and other sales.

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