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.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 83 of 154
Words from 42693 to 43239
of 79752