Culomary Education and Employment of the Inhabitants of Nantucket. From Letters from an American Farmer, by J. Hector St. John. T HE eafieft way of becoming acquainted with the modes of thinking, the rules of conduct, and the prevailing manners of any people, is to examine what fort of education they give their children; how they treat them at home, and what they are taught in their places of public worship. At home their tender minds must be early ftruck with the gravity, the ferious though cheerful deport ment of their parents; they are inured to a principle of fubordination, arifing neither from fudden paffions nor inconfiderate pleafure; they are gently held by an uniform filk cord, which unites foftness and ftrength. A perfect equanimity prevails in moft of their families, and bad example hardly ever fows in their hearts the feeds of future and fimilar faults. They are corrected with tenderness, nurfed with the moft affectionate care, clad with that decent plainnefs, from which they obferve their parents never to depart in fhort, by the force of example, which is fuperior even to the frongest instinct of nature, more than by precepts, they learn to follow the fteps of their parents, to defpife oftentatioufnefs, as being finful. They acquire a taste for that neatnefs for which their fathers are fo confpicuous; they learn to be prudent and faving; the very tone of voice with which they are always addreffed, eftablithes in them that foftnefs of diction, which ever after becomes habitual. Frugal, fober, orderly parents, attached to their bufinefs, conftantly following fome useful occupation, never guilty of riot, diffipation, or other irregularities, cannot fail of training up children to the fame uniformity of life and manners. If they are left with fortunes, they are taught how to fave them, and how to enjoy them with moderation and decency; if they have none, they know how to venture, how to work and toil as their fathers have done before them. If they fail of fuccefs, there are always in this island (and wherever this fociety prevails) effablifhed refources, founded on the most benevolent principles. At their meetings they are taught the few, the fimple tenets of their fect; tenets as fit to render men fober, induftrious, just, and merciful, as thofe delivered in the moft magnificent churches and cathedrals: they are inftructed in the most effential duties of Chrif tianty, fo as not to offend the Divinity by the commiffion of evil deeds; to dread his wrath and the punifliments he has denounced; they are taught at the fame time to have a proper confidence in his mercy while they deprecate his juftice. As every fect, from their different modes of worship and their different interpretations of fome parts of the fcriptures, neceffarily have various opinions and prejudices, which contribute fomething in forming their character. iftics in fociety, fo thofe of the Friends are well known: obedience to the laws, even to nonrefiftance, juftice, good-will to all, benevolence at home, fobrier ty, meeknefs, neatnefs, love of order, fonduefs and appetite for I commerce. commerce. They are as remarkable here for those virtues as at Philadelphia, which is their American cradle, and the boast of that fociety. At fchool they learn to read, and to write a good hand, until they are twelve years old; they are then in general put apprentices to the cooper's trade, which is the fecond effential branch of bufinefs followed here; at fourteen they are fent to fea, where in their leisure hours their companions teach them the art of navigation, which they have an opportunity of practifing on the fpot. They learn the great and ufeful art of working a flip in all the different fituations which the fea and wind fo often require; and furely there cannot be a better or more ufeful school of that kind in the world. Then they go gradually through every station of rowers, fteerimen, and harpooners; thus they learn to attack, to purfue, to overtake, to cut, to drefs their huge game: and after having performed feveral fuch voyages, and perfected themselves in this bufinefs, they are fit either for the counting-houfe or the chace. The first proprietors of this ifland, or rather the first founders of this town, began their career of induftry with a. fingle whaleboat, with which they went to fifa for cod; the fmall diftance from their fhores at which they caught it, enabled them foon to increase their bufinefs; and thefe early fucceffes first led them to conceive that they might likewife catch the whales, which hitherto fported undisturbed on their banks. After many trials and feveral mifcarriages, they fucceeded; thus they proceeded, step by step; the profits of one fuccefsful enterprize helped them to purchase and prepare better materials for a more extenfive one: as these were attended with little costs, their profits grew greater. The fouth fides of the ifland, from east to west, were divided into four equal parts, and each part was afligned to a company of fix, which though thus feparated, ftill carried on their business in common. In the middle of this diftance, they erected a maft, provided with a fufficient number of rounds, and near it they built a temporary hut, where five of the affociates lived, whilft the fixth from his high ftation carefully looked towards the fea, in order to obferve the spouting of the whales. As foon as any were discovered, the fentinel defcended, the whale-boat was launched, and the company went forth in queft of their game. It may appear ftrange to you, that fo flender a veffel as an American whale-boat, containing fix diminutive beings, fhould dare to pur fue and to attack, in its native element, the largest and strongest fish that nature has created. Yet by the exertions of an admirable dexterity, improved by a long practice, in which these people are become fuperior to any other whale-men; by knowing the temper of the whale after her first movement, and by many other useful obfervations, they feldom failed to harpoon it, and to bring the huge leviathan on the fhores. Thus they, went on until the profits they made enabled them to purchafe larger veffels, and to purfue them farther when the whales quitted their coafts; those who E 3 failed failed in their enterprizes returned to the cod-fisheries, which had been their firft fchool, and their first resource; they even began to vifit the banks of Cape Breton, the ifle of Sable, and all the other fishing - places with which this coaft of America abounds. By degrees they went a whaling to Newfoundland, to the Gulph of St. Laurence, to the Straits of Belleifle, the coast of Labrador, Davis's Straits, even to Cape Defolation, in 70° of latitude; where the Danes carry on fome fisheries in fpite of the perpetual feverities of that inhofpitable climate. In procefs of time they vifited the western iflands, the latitude of 34 famous for that fifli, the Brafils, the coast of Guinea, Would you believe that they have already gone to the Falkland Islands, and that I have heard feveral of them talk of going to the South Sea! Their confidence is to great, and their knowledge of this branch of business fo fuperior to that of any other people, that they have acquired a monopoly of this commodity. Such were their feeble beginnings, fuch the infancy and the progres of their maritime fchemes; fuch is now the degree of boldnefs and activity to which they are arrived in their manhood. After their examples feveral companies have been formed in many of our capitals, where every neceflary article of provifions, implements, and timber are to be found. But the industry exerted by the people of Nantucket, hath hitherto enabled them to rival all their competitors; confequently this is the greateft market for oil, whale-bone, and fpermaceti on the continent. his veffels; fhe had been given over for loft by, every body, but happily arrived before I came away, after an abfence of thirteen months. She had met with a va, riety of difappointments on the station fhe was ordered to, and rather than to return empty, the people steered for the coast of Guinea, where they fortunately fell in with feveral whales, and brought home upwards of 600 barrels of oil, befide bone. Thofe returns are fometimes difpofed of in the towns of the continent, where they are exchanged for fuch commodities as are wanted; but they are most commonly fent to Eng land, where they always fell for cash. When this is intended, a veffel larger than the reft is fitted out, to be filled with oil on the fpot where it is found and made, and thence the fails immediately for London. This expedient faves time, freight, and expence; and from that capital they bring back whatever they want. They em ploy alfo feveral veffels in tranfporting lumber to the West Indian Iflands, from whence they procure in return the various productions of the country, which they af terwards : Abort Narrative of the late Gilbert Weft, L.L.D. The following Account of the late Dr. G. Weft, we have reafon to affure our Readers, is perfecily au thentic. ILBERT WEST was the Glon of the Reverend Doctor terwards exchange whatever they can hear of an advantageous market. Being extremely acute they well know how to improve all the advantages which the combination of fo many branches of bu finefs conftantly affords; the fpirit of commerce, which is the fimple art of a reciprocal fupply of wants, is well understood here by every body. They poffefs, like the ge- Weft. He had the misfortune to nerality of the Americans, a large be deprived of his father whilst fhare of native penetration, acti- under the age of thirteen years, vity, and good fenfe, which lead and just too at the time when a them to a variety of other fecon- mitre was expected for the doctor, dary schemes too tedious to men- through the intereft of a powerful tion they are well acquainted friend, Lord Orford, who had with the cheapest method of pro- gained the royal affent to raise him curing lumber from Kennebeck to that dignity. At this early river, Penobscot, &c. pitch and period of his life, he was left to tar from North Carolina, flour the care of his difconfolate and difand bifcuit, from Philadelphia, treffed mother, who had not only beef and pork from Connecticut. her own lofs to deplore, but also the They know how to exchange their blafted hopes of a young family. cod fish and West Indian produce Gilbert Weft was fent to Eaton, for thofe articles which they are and completed his education at continually either bringing to their Oxford. His mother was the ifland, or fending off to other eldest daughter of Sir Richard places where they are wanted. Temple, and fifter to Lord CobBy means of all these commercial ham; a woman not more distin negociations, they have greatly guifhed for her beauty than for cheapened the fitting out of their her exemplary conduct through whaling fleets, and therefore much life. Her marrying a clergyman, improved their fifheries. They though a man of family, of learnare indebted for all thefe advan- ing, and high character, was fo tages not only to their national genius but to the poverty of their foil; and as a proof of what I have so often advanced, look at the Vineyard (their neighbouring ifland) which is inhabited by a fet of people as keen and fagacious as themselves. Their foil being in general extremely fertile, they have fewer navigators; though they are equally well fituated for the fishing business. refented by her brother Cobham, who hated (as he declared) the whole cloth, that he excluded her from his honours and eftates, and fettled them on his fecond fifter's male iffue, confining the little marks of his brotherly attentions for his eldest fifter, to her fon Gilbert Weft. Lord Cobham prefented Mr Weft, while at Oxford, with a cornetcy in his own regiment. He was then reading di E 4. vinity a vinity, that being the bent of his inclination, and beft adapted to his ferious turn of mind. Being thus called into the military line, he was naturally led to make frequent vifits from Oxford to Stowe, to gain knowledge of his uncle in his new profeffion, whom he looked up to with the greatest admiration; his lordship being poffeffed of brilliant talents, and a perfect knowledge of the world. To his lordfhip's captivating ftandard, many of the first genius repaired, which gave rife to animated converfations and the difplay of wit on various fubjects. Among other topics, revealed religion had its turn for animadverfion; and was reprefented as a work of impofition, which a wife man must reject; and that the whole derived its fource from prieft-craft. This caught the honeft mind of Mr. Weft; and then not being able to anfwer the deluding arguments brought in fupport of thofe fatal errors, he imbibed this on principle, that there was no real foundation for the great truths fet forth in the holy feriptures; but he never was brought to lofe fight of the Supreme Being in all his glorious works, to whom he ever paid the devoutest adoration. His love of virtue in its fullest extent, was fo great, that his actions throughout were confidered by thofe who knew him well, to be fo upright, as never to border upon vice. He was one of the ftudents of Christ Church, Oxford, and from thence had his introduction into the Secretary of State's office, being nominated by that univerfitý to answer the plan of government in fending fuch a given number of them to be initiated into the bu finefs of the ftate, in order to qualify them for foreign embaffies. Lord Townfhend, then Secretary of State, received Mr. Weft with great marks of friendly regard, and honoured him with confidential bufinefs at his own houfe; and when his lordship attended King George the First to Hanover, Mr. Weft accompanied him. This gave a fair profpect for Mr. Weft's advancement; and certainly it must have taken place, had not his uncle Lord Cobbam become a violent oppofer of administration. Lord Townfhend, in confequence of it, told Mr. Weft very fairly, that he could no longer give fupport to his acknowledged merit, as his uncle ftood in the way of his promotion; and any favour done to him, would be conftrued as a fervile court paid to Lord Cobham. Mr. Gilbert Weft, feeing that he muft fall a facrifice to his alliance with Lord Cobham, quitted the fcene of public bufinefs, foon after married, and fixed at Peckham in Kent; where his tranquil life was rendered truly pleafing by books, and a chofen few who frequently came there, and by their rational and unreftrained converfe, `enjoyed a fe licity they could not find in the bufy world. His near relation, and long tried valuable friend, George Lyttelton, reprefented Mr. Weft in fo advantageous a light to Frederick, Prince of Wales, in whose service he then was, that his royal highnefs, on Mr Lyttel ton's recommendation, authorised him to acquaint Mr. Weft, that he intended to give him the edu cation of the young prince, his prefent |