Autobiographical account of the years 1775-1794, written by a Quaker merchant in 1814. Contains a description of distressing economic conditions, seizure of vessels by English and American privateers, arrests, destruction of property, decline of whaling industry, and the plight of Nantucket in the Revolution. Rotch encountered hostility in England, 1785, in his efforts to reestablish the whaling industry; in France the government accepted his project to organize an American sperm oil and whaling industry in Dunkirk. Included in the volume is a copy of "The Respectful Petition of the Christian Society of Friends called Quakers, Presented to the National Assembly of France by William Rotch, 2nd month, 10th, 1791;" also extracts from letters of William Rotch, dated Dunkirk, 1792, presenting glimpses of the French Revolution.
