ed to their homes in
New England. It was the custom for a year or two for one of the
partners, Simonds or White, to attend at Passamaquoddy during the
fishing season. From 1765 to 1770 Isaac Marble of Newburyport was
their principal "shoresman." The partners had a keen eye to
business; on one occasion they purchased a whale from the Indians
and tried out the oil, but this seems to have been merely a stray
monster of the deep for, in answer to the query of Hazen & Jarvis,
James Simonds writes, "With respect to whaling, don't think the sort
of whales that are in Passamaquada bay can be caught."

It was from Passamaquoddy that the first business letter extant of the
company's correspondence was written by James Simonds to William Hazen
on the 18th August, 1764. The business was then in an experimental
stage, and Mr. Simonds in this letter writes, "If you & Mr. Blodget
think it will be best to carry on business largely at St. John's we
must have another house with a cellar; the latter is now dug and
stoned & will keep apples, potatoes & other things that will not bear
the frost, for a large trade; this building will serve as a house and
store, the old store for a Cooper's shop. If the lime answers well we
shall want 150 hogsheads with hoops and boards for heads; also boards
for a house, some glass, etc., bricks for chimney and hinges for two
doors. I think the business at St. John's may be advantageous, if not
too much entangled with the other. We can work at burning Lime,
catching fish in a large weir we have built for bass up the river at
the place where we trade with the Indians, trade with the Soldiers and
Inhabitants, etc. Next winter we can employ the oxen at sleding wood
and lime stone, Mr. Middleton at making casks; don't think it best to
keep any men at Passamaquada [for the winter]."

It was the intention of Simonds & White to bring the hands employed at
Passamaquoddy to St. John in a sloop expected in the fall with goods
and stores, but on the 16th December we find Mr. Simonds writing to
Blodget & Hazen, "Have long waited with impatience for the arrival of
the sloop; have now given her over for lost. All the hopes I have is
that the winds were contrary in New England as they were here all the
fall; that detained her until too late and you concluded not to send
her. We had a fine prospect of a good trade last fall, and had the
goods come in season should by this time have disposed of them to
great advantage; but