Shakespeare's reference--"The sovereign'st thing on earth was
parmaceti for an inward bruise"--will be familiar to most
people, as well as Milton's mention of the delicacies at Satan's
feast--"Grisamber steamed"--not to carry quotation any further.

But in the year 1690 the brave and hardy fishermen of the north-
east coasts of North America established that systematic pursuit
of the cachalot which has thriven so wonderfully ever since,
although it must be confessed that the last few years have
witnessed a serious decline in this great branch of trade.

For many years the American colonists completely engrossed this
branch of the whale fishery, contentedly leaving to Great
Britain and the continental nations the monopoly of the northern
or Arctic fisheries, while they cruised the stormy, if milder,
seas around their own shores.

For the resultant products, their best customer was the mother
country, and a lucrative commerce steadily grew up between the
two countries. But when the march of events brought the
unfortunate and wholly unnecessary War of Independence, this
flourishing trade was the first to suffer, and many of the
daring fishermen became our fiercest foes on board their own
men-of-war.

The total stoppage of the importation of sperm oil and
spermaceti was naturally severely felt in England, for time had
not permitted the invention of substitutes. In consequence of
this, ten ships were equipped and sent out to the sperm whale
fishery from England in 1776, most of them owned by one London