Captain Smith, the adventurous founder and deliverer of the colony of Virginia, when appealing to Englishmen at home in behalf of the feeble New England settlements, especially dwells upon the fisheries. “Therefore,” he concludes, “honourable and worthy Country men, let not the meannesse of the word fish distaste you, for it will afford as good gold as the Mines of _Guiana_ or _Potassie_, with lesse hazard and charge, and more certainty and facility.”[223] Doubtless for a long time the neighboring fish-banks were the gold-mines of New England. I have grouped these allusions that you may see how the fisheries of that day, though comparatively small, enlisted the energies of our fathers. Tradition confirms the record. The sculptured image of a cod pendent from the ceiling in the hall of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, where it was placed during the last century, constantly recalls this industrial and commercial staple, with the great part it performed. And now it is my duty to remind you that these fisheries, guarded so watchfully and vindicated with such conquering zeal, had a value prospective rather than present, or at least small compared with what it is now. Exact figures, covering the ten years between 1765 and 1775, show that during this period Massachusetts employed annually in the fisheries 665 vessels, measuring 25,630 tons, with only 4,405 men.[224] In contrast with this interest, which seems so small, although at the time considerable, are the present fisheries of our country; and here again we have exact figures. The number of vessels in the cod fishery alone, in 1861, just before the blight of war reached this business, was 2,753, measuring 137,665 tons, with 19,271 men,--being more than four times as many vessels and men, and more than five times as much tonnage, as for ten years preceding the Revolution were employed annually by Massachusetts, representing at that time the fishing interest of the country. Small beginnings, therefore, are no discouragement; I turn with confidence to the future. Already the local fisheries on this coast have developed among the generations of natives a singular gift in building and managing their small craft so as to excite the frequent admiration of voyagers. The larger fisheries there will naturally exercise a corresponding influence on the population destined to build and manage the larger craft. The beautiful baidar will give way to the fishing-smack, the clipper, and the steamer. All things will be changed in form and proportion; but the original aptitude for the sea will remain. A practical race of intrepid navigators will swarm the coast, ready for any enterprise of business or patriotism. Commerce will find new arms, the country new defenders, the national flag new hands to bear it aloft. SUMMARY.