Chapter 24

"Welter upon the waters, mighty one--
And stretch thee in the ocean's trough of brine;
Turn thy wet scales up to the wind and sun,
And toss the billow from thy flashing fin;
Heave thy deep breathing to the ocean's din,
And bound upon its ridges in thy pride,
Or dive down to its lowest depths, and in
The caverns where its unknown monsters hide
Measure thy length beneath the gulf-stream's tide."

Brainard's _Sea-Serpent._

The colony had now reached a point when its policy must have an eye to
its future destinies. If it were intended to push it, like a new
settlement, a very different course ought to be pursued from the one
hitherto adopted. But the governor and council entertained more moderate
views. They understood their real position better. It was true that the
Peak, in one sense, or in that which related to soil and products, was
now in a condition to receive immigrants as fast as they could come; but
the Peak had its limits, and it could hold but a very circumscribed
number. As to the group, land had to be formed for the reception of the
husbandman, little more than the elements of soil existing over so much
of its surface. Then, in the way of trade, there could not be any very
great inducement for adventurers to come, since the sandal-wood was the
only article possessed which would command a price in a foreign market.
This sandal-wood, moreover, did not belong to the colony, but to a
people who might, at any moment, become hostile, and who already began
to complain that the article was getting to be very scarce. Under all
the circumstances therefore, it was not deemed desirable to add to the
population of the place faster than would now be done by natural means.

The cargoes of the two vessels just arrived were divided between the
state and the governor, by a very just process. The governor had
one-half the proceeds for his own private use, as owner of the Rancocus,
without which vessel nothing could have been done; while the state
received the other moiety, in virtue of the labour of its citizens as
well as in that of its right to impose duties on imports and exports. Of
the portion which went to the state, certain parts were equally divided
between the colonists, for immediate use, while other parts of the cargo
were placed in store, and held as a stock, to be drawn upon as occasion
might arise.

The voyage, like most adventures in sandal-wood, teas, &c., in that day,
had been exceedingly advantageous, and produced a most beneficent
influence on the fortunes and comforts of the settlement. A
well-selected cargo of the coarse, low-priced articles most needed in
such a colony, could easily have been purchased with far less than the
proceeds of the cargo of