Expeditions, which require the expense of the outfit
of vessels, and from nine to twelve months' navigation, as the southern
fishery does, most frequented by the Americans, cannot be undertaken
in sole reliance on a market, which is opened and shut from one day to
another, with little or no warning. The English alone, then, will remain
to furnish these supplies, and they must be received, even from them.
We must accept bread from our enemies, if our friends cannot furnish
it. This comes exactly to the point, to which that government has
been looking. She fears no rival in the whale-fishery, but America: or
rather, it is the whale-fishery of America, of which she is endeavoring
to possess herself. It is for this object, she is making the present
extraordinary efforts, by bounties and other encouragements: and her
success, so far, is very flattering. Before the war, she had not one
hundred vessels in the whale-trade, while America employed three hundred
and nine. In 1786, Great Britain employed one hundred and fifty-one
vessels; in 1787, two hundred and eighty-six; in 1788, three hundred
and fourteen, nearly the ancient American number: while the latter has
fallen to about eighty.
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