said Merwin. And, possessing himself of both her hands, kissed them
vehemently.
"I trust I am doing right, Captain Merwin; I am almost sure I love you."
"Thank you, dearest, thank you, for your sweet words. Your reward for
them shall be my life devoted to your service." And he drew her to him
and kissed her lips.
"You deserve a whole life of thanks, Captain Merwin"--
"Call me Harold."
"--for releasing me from such a captivity, Harold, and, lastly, from
death, or worse than death." And weeping, she threw her arms about his
neck and buried her head on his shoulder.
"My brave darling, I hope and believe your troubles are at an end. I
only wonder your strength has survived the hardships of such a life as
yours has been the past year."
"Think of how much has happened in the last short weeks!"
"True, ours has been a courtship in which the bitter and the sweet have
been equally mingled, but now the peace complete is coning love, for
King Philip is dead and the war is over."
THE PICTURE.
BY MARY D. BRINE.
It was only a simple picture,
The simplest, perhaps, of all
The many and costly paintings
That hung on the parlor wall;
But it held my gaze the longest,
And it touched my inmost heart
With a pathos in which the others
Held neither place nor part.
It showed me a lonely hill-side,
Where the light of the day had fled,
And the clouds of an angry twilight
Were gathering overhead;
And under the deepening shadows,
Tired and sore afraid,
A sheep and her lamb were grieving,
Far from the sheepfold strayed.
Only a simple picture;
But oh, how full of truth,
Which silently spoke from the canvas
Its lesson of age and youth!
For are we not sheep, sore needing
The safety of Christ's own fold?
And do we not often wander
Far from his loving hold,
Heedless of where we are straying
Till the light of day has fled,
And perchance a storm is gathering
With the shadow of night o'erhead?
My little one came beside me,
And climbed to my waiting knee,
And lifted her gaze to the picture,
Which told its story to me.
"Tell me about it, mamma;
Why does the sheep wait there?"--
So I told my own wee lammie
(So tender, and sweet, and fair),
How the poor white sheep had wandered
Far from its fold away,
And was tired, and sad, and lonely,
And afraid, at the close of day.
"But the _lamb_ couldn't help it, mamma,
'Cause its _mother_ led it, you see."--
Oh! there was another lesson
Brought silently home to me:
We mothers, who love our babies,
Guarding them day and night,--
Are we always careful to lead them
In ways that are best and right?
I gathered my darling closer,
With an earnest unspoken prayer,
That the tender Shepherd above us
Would help me with special care
To lead my little lamb onward
Thro' pastures prepared by him,
That naught could harm or afflict us
When the light of our day grew dim.
And I know he will graciously answer,
And, though come storms and cold,
He will gather his own in safety
Within one blessed fold.
And my baby still talks of the picture,
And pities the lamb so white,
Which was led by its careless mother
Out into the dark, cold night.
NEW BEDFORD.
BY HERBERT L. ALDRICH.
No visitor to the shore of Buzzard's Bay has really done his duty, or
shown due respect to the inhabitants, who has not learned to say in one
breath, and without a break or hesitation,--
Nashawena, Pesquinese,
Cuttyhunk and Penekese,
Naushon, Nonamesset,
Onkatonka and Wepecket.
[Illustration: OLD WHALERS AND BARRELS OF OIL.]
These are the names of the islands along the south entrance to the bay
which Bartholomew Gosnold, the English navigator, named for his queen
the Elizabeth Islands when he entered the bay in 1602. Fortunately his
attempt to substitute his own English names for these of the Indians was
futile. When Gosnold landed at Cuttyhunk in the early summer of that
year he found it densely wooded and abounding in game. To-day there is
hardly a tree there. In the west part of this island is a pond of fresh
water, in the waters of which is a considerable island, and it was on
this that these adventurers built the first habitation in this section
of New England of which there is any authentic account. There they were,
in a sense, safe from the Indians and from wild animals.
When Gosnold prepared to return to England in his vessel, the "Concord,"
with a cargo of native products, such as sassafras, cedar, etc., those
who had planned to remain and settle returned with him, fearing that
they might not share in the expected profits. But they could not take
back with them the cellar to the house they had built, and what little
vestige of the hole that still remains in that island within an island
is to-day pointed out as the spot where the first white settler's house
was built hereabouts. Unfortunately for the picturesqueness and poetry
of this historic incident, modern civilization has utilized the island
as a hen-yard, and the historic cellar as a chicken-roost.
[Illustration: City Hall]
[Illustration: Depot]
[Illustration: Front St.]
[Illustration: FISH MARKETS ALONG THE WHARVES.]
The real history of Southern Massachusetts began in June, 1664, when the
General Court of the Plymouth Colony passed an order that "all that
tracte of land called and known by the name of Acushena,[1] Ponogansett,
and Coaksett, is allowed by the court to bee a townshipe, and said towne
bee henceforth ... called and knowne by the name of Dartmouth." In
November, 1652, Wamsutta and his father, Massasoit, had signed a deed
conveying to William Bradford, Capt. Standish, Thomas Southworth, John
Winslow, John Cooke, and their associates all the land lying three miles
eastward from a river called the Coshenegg to Acoaksett, to a flat rock
on the western side of the said harbor, the conveyance including all
that land from the sea upward "so high that the English may not be
annoyed by the hunting of the Indians, in any sort, of their cattle."
The price paid for this tract was, thirty yards of cloth, eight
moose-skins, fifteen axes, fifteen hoes, fifteen pairs of breeches,
eight blankets, two kettles, one cloak, two pounds wampum, eight pairs
stockings, eight pairs shoes, one iron pot, and ten shillings in other
commodities. This immense tract had twenty miles of sea-coast, not to
mention harbors, etc., and represents, besides the present township of
Dartmouth, New Bedford, Fairhaven, Westport, and Acushnet.[2]
[1] In the old records this name is variously spelled Acushena,
Accushnutt, Cushnet, Acushnett, Acushnet, etc. The spelling now always
used is Acushnet. Apponegansett was often spelled without the initial A.
[2] The original township of Dartmouth was owned by thirty-six
proprietors at the time of its settlement. This old proprietorship was a
_quasi_ corporation, which existed for 170 years. It conveyed all the
lands sold until at last nothing remained. Its meetings were then mere
formalities, and they finally died for lack of attendance.
[Illustration: THE HEAD OF THE RIVER]
In a brief article it is impossible to give more than the cream of the
whole story of the growth and existence of this settlement. It
experienced the vicissitudes of Indian depredations and wars. In the
King Philip war it was nearly obliterated, only the little settlement of
Apponegansett surviving. But at the return of peace the settlers took up
their old avocations, and gradually, but surely, made the old town of
Dartmouth. The story of nearly every other outlying settlement in those
days is the story of this one, so that all that concerns us are the
historical events peculiar to this.
[Illustration: Along the Wharfs]
[Illustration: RELICS OF THE LAST CENTURY.]
These early inhabitants combined tilling the soil and extracting the
wealth of the sea, only, however, as shore fishermen, and an occasional
off-shore whaling voyage in small boats. One event in early history
shows that the people were possessed of something more than the
traditional courage and bold seamanship for which southern Massachusetts
was ever famed, and shows a spiritual courage as well as that deliberate
manly determination to overcome all physical obstacles to existence with
which the early settlers were permeated.
[Illustration: NEW STATION OF THE OLD COLONY RAILROAD.]
[Illustration: CUSTOM HOUSE.]
[Illustration: COURT HOUSE]
This was the dispute between the General Court at Plymouth and the town
authorities regarding a settled minister. A good two-thirds of the
people were Friends, and one of their number provided for their
spiritual wants without compensation. Those remaining were mostly
Baptists, who also had among them a _quasi_ minister who acted as
pastor. But the General Court at Plymouth wanted the settlers to have
_their_ kind of a minister; so in 1671 they ordered the settlers to
raise L15 by taxation "to help towards the support of such as may
dispense the word of God." But as the settlers were satisfied with their
own ministers they refused to obey the order. Fortunately they were far
away from the court. Then about that time King Philip's war broke out,
and absorbed the whole attention of the court; although time enough was
found to warn the people that the calamity of war was due to the "lack
of a dispenser of the word of God" among them. But no sooner had the war
ended than the old dispute was taken up just where it was left off. The
court pleaded and persuaded, then commanded, and finally threatened;
but year after year the colonists continued doing as they pleased,
regardless of the court. Finally, in 1722, as a last resort, the court
ingeniously combined the provincial and ministerial tax, L181 12s. in
all, with the intention of providing a minister by that means. The town
called a meeting, and, after promptly voting the provincial tax of L81
12s., as promptly refused to raise the extra L100, which they recognized
as the ministerial tax in a new garb. Such defiance led to the arrest of
the selectmen, and they were imprisoned at Taunton. This thoroughly
aroused the town. A meeting was immediately held, and L700 was
unanimously voted to support the selectmen. This enormous sum for those
days was used partly to support the selectmen and their families, but
mostly to send an embassy to England to seek redress from the King and
his council. In this the colonists were successful, for not only were
the selectmen ordered released from prison, but the province of
Massachusetts Bay was ordered to remit the obnoxious taxes which it had
in vain tried for thirty-one years to collect. It was not until about
this time that what is now New Bedford was settled. Joseph Russell had
been practically the sole inhabitant. He was succeeded by his twin sons
John and Joseph. The latter lived near the heart of the site of the
present city, and is regarded as its real founder. For some time vessels
of all classes had fitted out in the Apponegansett river, but he sent
his from the Acushnet. His merchantmen sailed all over the seas. At the
same time he fitted out whaling vessels. These whalers were small sloops
and schooners, which only went off-shore, captured a whale or two, then
returned to try out the oil. In connection with this business Mr.
Russell had built try works, and he started a sperm-oil factory. The
infant whaling industry began about 1760 to attract a boat-builder, then
a carpenter, a blacksmith, and so on until gradually there became quite
a little settlement. Larger vessels were built, voyages were extended
to some two or three weeks, and sometimes to as many months, the seas
being scoured from Newfoundland to Virginia for whales.
[Illustration: GRACE EPISCOPAL CHURCH.]
The year 1765 was an eventful one, as it brought Joseph Rotch, a man of
means and experience, from Nantucket,--or Sherburn as it was called up
to 1790,--to carry on the whaling business here; and his vessels,
together with those of other new-comers, materially increased the size
of the little fleet sailing from the Acushnet river. The settlement had
now become quite a little village, and needed a distinctive name, as it
had always been regarded as a part of the village of Acushnet; so it was
christened Bedford, and in after years the New was added to distinguish
it from the Bedford near Boston.
[Illustration: LOOKING DOWN UNION STREET.]
Being deeper, broader, and a safer harbor than the Apponegansett, the
Acushnet river gradually absorbed most of the fleet that had sailed from
there, so that the little fleet of a few vessels in 1765 had become one
of fifty vessels in 1773. Among these vessels was one owned by Mr.
Rotch,--the "Dartmouth,"--which will be remembered as long as the
American republic stands, for it was this vessel that took the tea to
Boston which was thrown overboard at the time of the famous Tea Party in
1773.
[Illustration: UNITARIAN CHURCH, UNION STREET.]
[Illustration: MANDELL'S HOUSE, HAWTHORNE STREET.]
But the Revolution put a stop to a continuance of this marvellous
growth, and during the following eight years in the struggle for
liberty, decay, fire, and the English did fatal destruction to the
vessels in Buzzard's Bay. Mr. Rotch returned to his off-shore island
home, taking his vessels with him, and one or two other merchants
followed his example and moved away. What vessels remained after these
desertions were moored along the wharves. But the people did not settle
down in idleness to wait for the war to be over. While the women were
working for the soldiers, in providing them clothing, etc., the men
young and old proved that their sea-training in the catching of whales
was invaluable in manning the little navy of the colonies. With such men
behind him, John Paul Jones scoured the ocean and even defied the
English in their own harbors, and the little navy became a powerful
and dangerous foe to the proud mistress of the seas. Not the least
destructive vessels of the brave American navy were the whaling
vessels from Buzzard's Bay made over into men-of-war. The frequent and
astonishing victories of these vessels caused many valuable prizes to be
brought into the bay, and the natural consequence was the raid of Major
Gen. Gray, accompanied by the ill-fated Andre, on the fourth day of
September, and the day following, in 1778, by which nearly the whole
town of Bedford was laid in ashes and property to the value of over half
a million of dollars destroyed, together with seventy vessels, including
eight large ships with their cargoes, and four privateers.
[Illustration: RESIDENCE OF MAYOR ROTCH.]
At the first whisperings of peace, Capt. Moores, of the good ship
"Bedford," with a cargo of oil, set sail for London, and first displayed
to the defeated English, in their great metropolis, the stars and
stripes of the infant republic of the western world. This promptness of
Capt. Moores is a fair sample of the manner in which the village of
Bedford grasped the return of peace and rushed into its former
industries. The greater part of the village had been rebuilt; the
vessels that survived the war--most of them as men-of-war--were
refitted, and whaling and commerce resumed, although it was years before
whaling fairly got on its feet again. This was owing to the lack of a
market for oil, as England and France had passed laws practically
prohibiting its importation. Some merchants were forced to live in
French or English territory and sail under those flags, in order to
pursue whaling with any profit.
[Illustration: THE "STONE" (CONGREGATIONAL) CHURCH.]
[Illustration: YACHT CLUB HOUSE.]
In 1787 the General Court of Massachusetts incorporated the town of New
Bedford, and in 1847 it became a city. The census of 1790 reported a
population of 3,313 in the new town. But there was nothing at this time
to cause the town to grow, nor was there until 1804, when, through the
intercessions of William Rotch, Sr., Great Britain remitted her alien
duty on oil. From that year New Bedford began to assume her distinctive
character as the whaling port preeminent of the world. The stock in
trade to begin with was no meagre one, as it consisted of fifty-nine
vessels of 19,146 tons' burden, about thirty of them being brigs and
ships employed in the merchant service with Europe, South America, and
the West Indies. This fleet suffered terribly from the impressment of
seamen, then the embargo, and finally by the second war with England,
during which many vessels were captured. This over, the place began in
earnest its distinctive career.
[Illustration: FISH ISLAND.]
[Illustration: SEAMEN'S BETHEL AND SAILOR'S HOME.]
[Illustration: MERCHANTS' AND MECHANICS' BANK.]
A few words as to the history of whaling in America. Capt. John Smith
makes mention of catching a few whales on some of his voyages, and it is
known that the Indians had quite a passion for hunting the whale, or
_powdawe_ as they called it. The Montauk Indians regarded the fin or
tail of a whale as a rare sacrifice to their deity. As the early
settlers began to spread throughout New England, it became quite an
industry along the sea-shore to hunt stranded whales for their oil and
blubber. This naturally led to hunting them in their native element, and
the industry extended along Cape Cod and Long Island, and, about 1672,
was introduced on the islands of Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard. About
fifty years later the brave Nantucket seamen began whaling in large
boats, and within the following twenty-five years Nantucket had direct
communication with England in her ships. These brave early mariners were
the first who understood and made use of the Gulf Stream, and by them it
was explained to the English admiralty. At the opening of the Revolution
there were one hundred and fifty vessels that sailed from Nantucket; but
at the close of the war one hundred and thirty-four of these had been
captured and fifteen more wrecked. The war also cost this island twelve
hundred sailors, and was the making of two hundred and two widows and
three hundred and forty-two orphans.
[Illustration: RESIDENCE OF JOSEPH GRINNELL.]
[Illustration: FRIENDS MEETING-HOUSE.]
In the year 1815 there sailed from Nantucket fifty whalers, while only
ten sailed from New Bedford. But the New Bedford fleet increased rapidly
year by year, reaching the climax in 1852, when two hundred and
seventy-eight sailed. From that date there has been an almost
uninterrupted decline in the whaling industry. Nantucket's decline
began many years earlier. In 1860 she had only very few vessels left,
and in 1872 her last whaler, the bark "Oak," was sold. In 1835 whaling
was at its height, the whole fleet of the United States consisting of
six hundred and seventy-eight ships and barks, thirty-five brigs, and
twenty-two schooners, valued at twenty-one millions of dollars; while
the foreign fleet consisted of only two hundred and thirty vessels of
various kinds. From the off-shore fishing as practised in the early days
of the industry, voyages had extended to all parts of the Atlantic, and
before the opening of the nineteenth century a considerable fleet was
cruising in the Pacific Ocean. By 1820 these voyages had extended to
Japan, and in 1836 they reached what is known as the Kodiak Grounds. In
1848 the wonderful field in the Arctic, by way of Behring's Strait, was
discovered by bark "Superior." Three years later two hundred and fifty
vessels took advantage of the "Superior's" discovery and entered the
same grounds. The largest catch in these grounds was in 1852, when two
hundred and seventy-eight vessels got three hundred and seventy-three
thousand, four hundred and fifty barrels of oil. Since then there has
been a very great decline; the Arctic fleet of 1876 consisting of only
twenty vessels, which caught five thousand, two hundred and fifty
barrels of oil. The fleet of 1885 consisted of forty-one vessels, more
than half hailing from New Bedford; but four of the fleet were lost.
[Illustration: PUBLIC LIBRARY.]
Seven years before the wonderful catch of 1852, disasters and other
reverses had caused many serious failures, and from that date really
begins the decline in whaling, which was rapid after 1860. But meantime
San Francisco had worked into the business. For years vessels had fitted
out from the Sandwich Islands, returning home only about once in five
years. But there were many abuses and disadvantages in this; hence San
Francisco as it grew in importance became the head-quarters for fitting,
and one ship after another was transferred from the New Bedford fleet to
that of San Francisco, until now she is next to New Bedford in the
whaling business. It is doubtful if the fleet sailing from Buzzard's Bay
twenty-five years hence is half the size of the fleet of to-day; for
vessels that are lost, sold, or broken up are seldom replaced. The
astonishing decline in this industry is shown by the fact that three
hundred and eleven whaling vessels were owned in New Bedford in 1855.
Thirty years later, in 1885, only one hundred and thirty-five such
vessels were owned in the whole United States, eighty-six of which
hailed from New Bedford, twenty from San Francisco, and the rest from
Provincetown, New London, Edgartown, Boston, Stonington, and Marion.
The disasters which have befallen the whaling industry are many and
fearful. During the late war rebel cruisers captured fifty vessels,
forty-six of them, with their cargoes and outfits, being burned.
Twenty-eight of them were New Bedford vessels. These, with other losses,
show what New Bedford had at stake before the Court of Commissioners of
Alabama Claims. Her slice of the Geneva Award will approximate, when all
paid, three millions of dollars. The "stone fleets," sunk off Charleston
and Savannah harbors in 1861, drew heavily on whaling vessels; for more
money would be paid by the Government for vessels than they could earn
in whaling. In the first stone fleet were twelve New Bedford whalers,
and in the second, eight. Then there were the horrible calamities of
1871 and 1876. In the former year thirty-three vessels were crushed or
abandoned in the Arctic, twenty-two belonging in New Bedford. The direct
loss from this was one million, one hundred thousand dollars. Twelve
hundred and nineteen men were thrust out on the ice to perish from cold
and hunger. Nothing but the bravery of Capt. Frazier, of one of the
abandoned vessels, in journeying seventy miles over the ice-fields to
the fleet outside for rescue, prevented untold suffering and death. In
the calamity of 1876 twelve vessels were abandoned, causing a loss to
New Bedford merchants of about six hundred and sixty thousand dollars.
But a greater horror was added to this calamity, some fifty lives being
lost.
The wealth that was brought to New Bedford by whaling in its palmiest
days was enormous, and gave the city the reputation of being the
wealthiest of its size in the world. The catch of 1853, the banner year,
was over one hundred and three thousand barrels of sperm oil, valued at
four millions, fifty thousand, five hundred and forty dollars; two
hundred and sixty thousand, one hundred and fourteen barrels of whale
oil, valued at four millions, seven hundred and sixty-two thousand, five
hundred and twenty-five dollars; and five millions, six hundred and
fifty-two thousand, three hundred pounds of bone, valued at one million,
nine hundred and fifty thousand, forty-four dollars,--bone that year
averaging only thirty-four and one-half cents per pound; while it now
sells at from $2 to $2.50 per pound. The catch of the one hundred and
thirteen vessels arriving in the following year brought into the city
some over six millions of dollars. In 1866, when prices were very high,
the cargoes of the forty vessels that arrived aggregated over four
millions of dollars. All was not always palmy, however. Forty-four of
the sixty-eight vessels that arrived home in 1858 made losing voyages,
causing a direct loss of a million of dollars. Other disasters of less
importance have never been uncommon.