The establishment of saw mills rendered it necessary to have vessels to carry lumber to market; these vessels were generally sloops. This was about the beginning of the coasting trade for which Ocean county has since been so noted. After a time these first vessels found additional employment in carrying cedar rails to market; after a time this trade began to fail but about the time it failed the invention of steamboats caused a demand for pine wood. Since then a large number of vessels owned and manned by citizens of this county have been steadily engaged in the wood trade; when the supply of pine wood failed in the county, larger vessels were built and proceeded to Maryland and Virginia to obtain it.

When the largest of the timber---such as was fit for marketable wood, was cut off, the charcoal trade next furnished employment for many of the smaller class coasting vessels. The charcoal trade was commenced about forty years ago.

At the present time most of the coasting vessels (generally schooners---two or three masted) are too large to enter our bay loaded; they are engaged in the coasting trade from New York to Southern and Eastern ports. A large amount of capital is invested by our citizens in these vessels, much larger than Custom House records would show, as most of them take out papers at New York, Perth Amboy, Little Egg Harbor and other places out of the county or out of the Custom House district. It is difficult now to give the precise amount of capital invested, but it is probable that between half a million and a million dollars is now invested in vessel property by Ocean county citizens. Most of these vessels are built in the county, but some have been built on the North River, at Allowaystown, N. J., and other places.

(As there is no Custom House in Ocean county, my impression is that much of the vessel property owned here is credited to other places; for instance, if three- fourths of a vessel is owned here and one-fourth in New York, the vessel will be enrolled in New York, as it is convenient to renew papers there.)

The first Europeans who ever landed within the limits of our county, it is probable, were Capt. Hendrickson and his companions in the celebrated yacht "Onrest" (Restless), although we have no positive information to settle the point. The evidence, though circumstantial, is strong. It will be remembered that Mr. Brodhead, the Historian of N. Y., discovered a map in Holland supposed to have been published or made about October, 1614. This map gives so correct a representation of Barnegat Bay and the various streams running into it that it bears upon its face evidence of having been made from actual exploration. In regard to the authorship of this map of 1614, I am unaware of its being attributed to any one; but it will be remembered that the little "Onrest," after returning from her cruise in the Spring of that year under Adrien Block (from the Eastward), was taken in charge by Capt. Hendrickson who sailed out of Sandy Hook southerly for the express purpose of making discoveries and exploring the coast. Most maps made during the succeeding fifty or seventy-five years give so incorrect representations of Barnegat Bay and the streams emptying into it that they doubtlessly were made by persons who never entered the bay at all, but only sailed along outside the beach. Navigators in vessels outside could easily determine the length. and quite accurately the width, also, but could see no streams. It is true that in the noted "Figurative" map of 1616, of Capt. Hendrickson's, we find nothing to justify the supposition that he entered this bay, but that map does not appear to have been made to give exact particulars of discoveries, but only to give general outlines of the coast for an especial and different purpose, viz: to illustrate and explain his demands for certain special trading privileges. From the object he had in view in cruising along our coast in 1614; from the size of his little vessels so well adapted for coming in our inlet which the larger Dutch vessels could not do; from the improbability of any other navigator cruising along here that year; from the date of the map corresponding so nearly to the time of his trip; from the probabilities that he must have made a more minute map of the coast than his figurative one- from all these circumstances combined, it seems reasonable to suppose that the "Onrest," the first vessel ever built in America, was the first that ever entered Barnegat Bay. *

The fishing privileges afforded in the vicinity of Barnegat Bay were frequently enlarged upon by the Proprietors and others, to induce persons to settle along the bay and even whaling was expected to prove quite profitable. The celebrated navigator De Vries tells us that on the 15th of April, 1633, he was off "Barendegat, where in two hours he took upwards of eighty codfish better than those of New Foundland. Samuel Groome in order to effect the establishment of this branch of commerce was very anxious for a speedy arrangement with the Indians whereby lands near Barnegat might be secured."

The work of Scott, 1685, before alluded to, says: "Bornogate, or Burning Hole, is said to be a very good place for fishing and there are some desiring to take up land there who inform us that it is good land and abundance of meadow lying in it."

Though whaling turned out generally unprofitable, yet our first settlers found inducements enough to locate here in other fisheries, the abundance of oysters, wild fowl, etc.; these, together with the meadow and farm land adjacent to the bay, rendered the necessaries of life easily obtainable. These first settlers, locating themselves along the bay or upon streams near the bay, do not appear to have taken up land; the presumption is, that the Proprietors persuaded them to come and locate upon their lands or were anxious to have them do so as a means of drawing other settlers here. A few families appear to have been in the county scattered at various points as early as about 1700, and slowly increased in numbers until from 1735 to 1740, about which time (as far as I have been able to ascertain) settlers first began to take up land. Then (1735-40) we find the next inducement to locate here was the valuable sites for mills afforded by the numerous streams and the facilities for the lumber trade; some of the first mills established in Ocean county it may be proper to mention.