If I should go abroad, cannot you lend me twenty or thirty complete sets of the journals? They are much wanted in Europe. A set of them is a genteel present, and perhaps would do me and the public more service than you are aware of. If Congress, or some Committee would order it, I should be very glad.
I am, &c.
JOHN ADAMS.
TO SAMUEL HUNTINGTON, PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS.
Braintree, October 19th, 1779.
Sir,
I had in Paris an opportunity of procuring information concerning the British whale fishery on the coast of Brazil, which it is proper to communicate to Congress, that if any advantage can be made of it the opportunity may not be lost.
The last year and the year before the English carried on this fishery to very great advantage, off the river Plate in South America, in the latitude of 35° south, and from thence to 40°, just on the edge of soundings, off and on, as the sailors express it, and about longitude 65° from London. They had about seventeen vessels in this fishery, which all sailed from London in the months of September and October. All the officers and men Americans from Nantucket and Cape Cod, two or three from Rhode Island, and one from Long Island. Four or five of these vessels went to Greenland, to which place they sail yearly, the last of February or the beginning of March.