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A Visit to Nantucket in 1826 JARED SPARKS, WHO served as President of Harvard University from 1849 to 1853, visited Nantucket as a young man. In his Diary, under date of Oct. 10,1826, he described some of his experiences during that visit: "Nantucket. Have been absent 8 days on a visit to Nantucket. Went through Providence to New Bedford. Passed near Mount Hope, and over the country which was the scene of the renowned King Philip's exploits. "At New Bedford spent an evening very pleasantly with Mr. Dewey, and sailed next morning in a packet for Nantucket. Calm nearly all the day; three ladies on board, and nothing to cheer the dull hours, as they flew by on murkey wings, but a song now and then from one of them who had a sweet voice. At twilight we found ourselves in Holmes' Hole, an chored for the night, waiting for a tide. I went on shore with the Captain to buy hay for a horse that was a fellow passenger on deck. The next morning at sunrise we entered the harbor of Nantucket. Whale ships on every side and hardly a man to be seen on the wharves who had not circumnavigated the globe, and chased a whale, if not slain his victim, in the broad Pacific. "In Nantucket everything has an air of novelty to one unaccustomed to the manners and habits of islanders. I crossed the island on horseback to Siasconset, a little fishing village on the eastern margin of the island. The road lay through a wide common, over which were scattered thousands of sheep and a few horned cattle grazing. On my return to town by another way of 9 miles, I passed several farm houses, around which cultivation is prosecuted with considerable success. There are 10,000 sheep on the island which run in common. The sheep shearing in June is a great holiday for all the inhabitants, and indeed the only festival during the year. I saw Walter Folger's clock, which is a specimen of curious and successful mechanism. "But the absorbing business of Nantucket is the whale fishery. Many have made themselves rich by it, and it gives life to all. I conversed much on this subject with Mr. Jenks, editor of the Nantucket Inquirer, who is a gentleman of intelligence and acquirement. I pressed him to collect as many facts as possible on the history and present state of the Whale Fishery, and combine them into an article for the North American Review. He agreed to make the attempt, and immediately advertised in his paper for such facts as could be supplied from records, or by those who had been long engaged in the business. "On my return from the island, I sailed in the New Bedford packet, but was stopped by head winds at Wood's Hole, where I left the packet and walked to Falmouth, 5 miles, and took the stage for Boston, through Sandwich and Plymouth."
