After Their
Examples Several Companies Have Been Formed In Many Of Our Capitals,
Where Every Necessary Article Of Provisions, Implements, And Timber,
Are To Be Found.
But the industry exerted by the people of
Nantucket, hath hitherto enabled them to rival all their
competitors; consequently this is the greatest mart for oil,
whalebone, and spermaceti, on the continent.
It does not follow
however that they are always successful, this would be an
extraordinary field indeed, where the crops should never fail; many
voyages do not repay the original cost of fitting out: they bear
such misfortunes like true merchants, and as they never venture
their all like gamesters, they try their fortunes again; the latter
hope to win by chance alone, the former by industry, well judged
speculation, and some hazard. I was there when Mr. - - had missed one
of his vessels; she had been given over for lost by everybody, but
happily arrived before I came away, after an absence of thirteen
months. She had met with a variety of disappointments on the station
she was ordered to, and rather than return empty, the people steered
for the coast of Guinea, where they fortunately fell in with several
whales, and brought home upward of 600 barrels of oil, beside bone.
Those returns are sometimes disposed of in the towns on the
continent, where they are exchanged for such commodities as are
wanted; but they are most commonly sent to England, where they
always sell for cash. When this is intended, a vessel larger than
the rest is fitted out to be filled with oil on the spot where it is
found and made, and thence she sails immediately for London. This
expedient saves time, freight, and expense; and from that capital
they bring back whatever they want. They employ also several vessels
in transporting lumber to the West Indian Islands, from whence they
procure in return the various productions of the country, which they
afterwards exchange wherever they can hear of an advantageous
market. Being extremely acute they well know how to improve all the
advantages which the combination of so many branches of business
constantly affords; the spirit of commerce, which is the simple art
of a reciprocal supply of wants, is well understood here by
everybody. They possess, like the generality of Americans, a large
share of native penetration, activity, and good sense, which lead
them to a variety of other secondary schemes too tedious to mention:
they are well acquainted with the cheapest method of procuring
lumber from Kennebeck river, Penobscot, etc., pitch and tar, from
North Carolina; flour and biscuit, from Philadelphia; beef and pork,
from Connecticut. They know how to exchange their cod fish and West-
Indian produce, for those articles which they are continually either
bringing to their island, or sending off to other places where they
are wanted. By means of all these commercial negotiations, they have
greatly cheapened the fitting out of their whaling fleets, and
therefore much improved their fisheries. They are indebted for all
these advantages not only to their national genius but to the
poverty of their soil; and as proof of what I have so often
advanced, look at the Vineyard (their neighbouring island) which is
inhabited by a set of people as keen and as sagacious as themselves.
Their soil being in general extremely fertile, they have fewer
navigators; though they are equally well situated for the fishing
business. As in my way back to Falmouth on the main, I visited this
sister island, permit me to give you as concisely as I can, a short
but true description of it; I am not so limited in the principal
object of this journey, as to wish to confine myself to the single
spot of Nantucket.
LETTER VI
DESCRIPTION OF THE ISLAND OF MARTHA'S VINEYARD; AND OF THE WHALE
FISHERY
This island is twenty miles in length, and from seven to eight miles
in breadth. It lies nine miles from the continent, and with the
Elizabeth Islands forms one of the counties of Massachusetts Bay,
known by the name of Duke's County. Those latter, which are six in
number, are about nine miles distant from the Vineyard, and are all
famous for excellent dairies. A good ferry is established between
the Edgar Town, and Falmouth on the main, the distance being nine
miles. Martha's Vineyard is divided into three townships, viz.
Edgar, Chilmark, and Tisbury; the number of inhabitants is computed
at about 4000, 300 of which are Indians. Edgar is the best seaport,
and the shire town, and as its soil is light and sandy, many of its
inhabitants follow the example of the people of Nantucket. The town
of Chilmark has no good harbour, but the land is excellent and no
way inferior to any on the continent: it contains excellent
pastures, convenient brooks for mills, stone for fencing, etc. The
town of Tisbury is remarkable for the excellence of its timber, and
has a harbour where the water is deep enough for ships of the line.
The stock of the island is 20,000 sheep, 2000 neat cattle, beside
horses and goats; they have also some deer, and abundance of sea-
fowls. This has been from the beginning, and is to this day, the
principal seminary of the Indians; they live on that part of the
island which is called Chapoquidick, and were very early
christianised by the respectable family of the Mahews, the first
proprietors of it. The first settler of that name conveyed by will
to a favourite daughter a certain part of it, on which there grew
many wild vines; thence it was called Martha's Vineyard, after her
name, which in process of time extended to the whole island. The
posterity of the ancient Aborigines remain here to this day, on
lands which their forefathers reserved for themselves, and which are
religiously kept from any encroachments. The New England people are
remarkable for the honesty with which they have fulfilled, all over
that province, those ancient covenants which in many others have
been disregarded, to the scandal of those governments.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 43 of 79
Words from 42667 to 43685
of 79752
