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AT PORTLAND POINT.
203

to be unprofitable, and to send the schooner Polly to be employed on the River St. John in place of the sloop Bachelor. The schooner Betsy, after she had done fishing, was ordered to the same place to take in the proceeds of the fall hunts and carry them to Newburyport, where, if opportunity afforded, she was to be sold. The two schooners had taken 353 quintles of fish at Passamaquoddy, only about 120 of which were merchantable. The fishermen as soon as the season was over returned to the westward. The fishing season usually lasted from April to October, five months or a little longer. The Company evidently were alive to the importance of everything connected with the fishery. On one occasion they bought a whale from an Indian and tried out the oil; but Mr. Simonds, in response to a query, wrote his partners, "With respect to whaling, don't think the sort of whales that are in Passamaquada bay can be caught." In a letter, dated at St. John's River; November 25, 1765, he writes:—

"We shall try a new method of catching fish[1] here and flatter myself we shall make a better hand of it. . . The banks you speak of, where the Marblehead schooners catch their fares, is too great a distance for boats to go from Passamaquada."

A list of vessels owned or chartered by Hazen, Simonds & White was given in a former number of the Magazine,[2] a few additional particulars may, however, be added in order to give a clearer idea of the commerce of St. John in the days of its infancy.

For several years the Company paid insurance at 3 per cent. on their vessels and cargoes, but the insuring was attended with difficulty and in the opinion of Hazen & Jarvis the business would not bear the premiums demanded. In consequence insurance was discontinued until the year 1772, when it was resumed as

  1. ↑ Probably by weirs.
  2. ↑ See Vol. 1, p. 69.
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