To the eastward of Narragansett another bay is thrust far up into the
land of Massachusetts, Buzzard's Bay, which almost bisects the great
defensive forearm of Massachusetts, Cape Cod. This bay is thirty miles
long and about seven miles wide. Between it and Narragansett are the
tree-clad hills of the sparsely-settled regions which the Indians
called Aponigansett and Acoaksett, out of which the Acushnet River
runs down to its broadening estuary, now the harbor of New Bedford.
Originally this city was peopled by Quakers of the English Russell
family, of which the Duke of Bedford is the head, so that the colony
was named from his title. A numerous Portuguese migration to the early
settlements has caused one of the suburbs to still retain the name of
Fayal. New Bedford stretches two miles along the western river-bank
and far back upon the gradually ascending surface, and the population,
including the opposite suburb of Fairhaven, numbers seventy thousand.
Early a shipping port, it grew into celebrity with the advance of the
whale fishery, which became its chief industry, and it was then said
to be the wealthiest city in the country in proportion to population,
having in 1854 four hundred and ten whaling ships, with ten thousand
sailors, its fleets patrolling the remotest seas. When this fishery
died out, the people went to manufacturing, and now they have numerous
large mills busily spinning cotton, its noted product being the
Wamsutta muslins. There still remain a few of the little bluff-bowed
and flush-decked old whalers rotting at the wharves, with huge
overhanging davits, and still redolent of oil--the relics of an almost
obsolete industry. The ample fortunes originally gathered in the
fishery enabled the marine aristocracy of the town to build their
stately and comfortable old mansions which now enjoy an honorable
repose in ample grounds along the quiet streets on the higher plateau
back from the river.
When Samuel de Champlain came into the St. Lawrence River, he wrote
that whales were killed by firing cannon-balls at them, and later
explorers described how the Indians captured them. The colonists early
began the fishery along the New England coasts, and New Bedford sent
out its first ships in 1755. The period of greatest success in whaling
was between 1820 and 1857. The advent of gas and petroleum, financial
reverses, the gradual extermination of the whales, which had been
pursued to the remotest regions, the substitution of steel for
whalebone, and the use of hard rubber, all contributed to the decline
of the business, and it was given its death-blow by the ravages of the
Confederate privateers among the Pacific whaling fleets. Its memory
is kept alive, however, by many romances of the sea, it having
furnished an extensive and interesting literature. Not long ago it was
related that the unfortunate sculptor who had carved the figure-heads
for the whaleships was since compelled to earn a precarious livelihood
by chopping out rude wooden idols for the South Sea islanders.
Acushnet River is dammed in its upper waters, making an immense
reservoir, furnishing power to the extensive mills. The harbor
gradually broadens as it opens into Buzzard's Bay, and Clark's Point
stretches far into the bay, having on the extremity an old-time square
stone fort, with bastions at the corners, formerly the trusted
defender of the harbor and the town, Fort Taber. Now, its only use is
to furnish, on the outer corner, a foundation for a lighthouse
lantern. The whaling fleet it formerly guided is all gone, but now it
is the beacon for an enormous trade in coal, landed here for
distribution by railway throughout New England. Another little stone
fort is also built on the opposite side of the harbor, on a rock at
the lower end of Fairhaven. Outside is the broad surface of the bay, a
noble inland sea, with irregular and generally thinly populated
shores, but with attractions that have drawn to it, in various
localities, a large summer population, with many ornate villas of
modern fashion. Just below Clark's Point is villa-studded Nonquitt,
upon an upland among the undulating hills, where lived General Philip
Sheridan, and to which he was brought home in a United States warship
to die, in July, 1888. They tell us that when the venturesome Norsemen
came along here, the bay was given the name of the Straum Fiord, but
the antiquary is at a loss to find a satisfactory derivation for the
present name of Buzzard's Bay. Far over its waters, as seen from
Clark's Point, is the low, dark, gray forest-clad eastern shore,
stretching down to the distant strait of Wood's Holl, leading out of
the bay into Vineyard Sound. Spread across the bay entrance to the
southward, and protecting it from the open sea, are the Elizabeth
Islands.