The First Proprietors Of This Island, Or Rather The First Founders
Of This Town, Began Their Career Of Industry With
A single whale-
boat, with which they went to fish for cod; the small distance from
their shores at which
They caught it, enabled them soon to increase
their business, and those early successes first led them to conceive
that they might likewise catch the whales, which hitherto sported
undisturbed on their banks. After many trials and several
miscarriages, they succeeded; thus they proceeded, step by step; the
profits of one successful enterprise helped them to purchase and
prepare better materials for a more extensive one: as these were
attended with little costs, their profits grew greater. The south
sides of the island from east to west, were divided into four equal
parts, and each part was assigned to a company of six, which though
thus separated, still carried on their business in common. In the
middle of this distance, they erected a mast, provided with a
sufficient number of rounds, and near it they built a temporary hut,
where five of the associates lived, whilst the sixth from his high
station carefully looked toward the sea, in order to observe the
spouting of the whales. As soon as any were discovered, the sentinel
descended, the whale-boat was launched, and the company went forth
in quest of their game. It may appear strange to you, that so
slender a vessel as an American whale-boat, containing six
diminutive beings, should dare to pursue and to attack, in its
native element, the largest and strongest fish that nature has
created.
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