The illustrations used in this brochure are from rare prints in the
possession of the Dartmouth Historical Society and the Free Public
Library of New Bedford, H. S. Hutchinson & Co., Charles H. Taylor,
Jr., Roy C. Andrews of the American Museum of Natural History of
New York, Doubleday, Page & Co., and others.
* * * * *
“Neither the perseverance of Holland, nor the activity of France, nor
the dexterous and firm sagacity of the English enterprise, ever carried
this most perilous mode of hardy industry to the extent to which it
has been pushed by this recent People; a People who are still, as
it were, but in the gristle, and not yet hardened into the bone, of
manhood.”—_From a speech by Edmund Burke before Parliament in 1775._
[Illustration: Capturing a huge sperm whale. (From a very rare print.)]