I.
EARLY RELATIONS BETWEEN AMERICA AND THE ORIENT:
1690-1783.
The first Americans to visit the Orient were certain hardy seafaring men from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New York, who during King William's war abandoned their lawful trades and embarked on a piratical career. Lured on by a love of gold
and a thirst for adventure, they left their familiar haunts in the Atlantic, crossed the equator, sailed down the African coast, doubled the Cape of Good Hope, and navigated the Indian Ocean ill prosecution of their lucrative calling. In the latter part of King William's war, it was no unusual sight to see these roistering freebooters, fresh from a cruise in the waters of the Orient, staggering through the streets of Boston, New York, Newport, Providence, Philadelphia, and Charleston—the ports most frequented by them. They wore a garb calculated to arouse the awe of the quiet citizens, "a broad crimson sash across the left shoulder, a laced cap, a fancy jacket, white knickerbockers, a heavy gold chain, and no less than three or four richly-mounted pistols in a gaudy belt.”1
Not a few references to voyages in the Eastern seas made by American pirates are to be found in the early colonial records.
Concerning a citizen of Massachusetts, a native of the seat of Harvard College, the Earl of Bellomont, governor of New York, Wrote as follows to the Lords of Trade in London, on May 3, 1699
Your Lordships I presume will have a full account from Boston of a parcell of pirates lately taken there with their ringleader, Joseph Bradish,
1 Ulmann, Albert. A Landmark History of New York, 59.
born at Cambridge near Boston. The Commander, Bradish, ran away with the ship called the Adventure of London, an interloper to the East Indies, leaving the true Commander, Captain Gulleck, on some island in the East Indies, together with some officers and men that belonged to the ship. They came to the east end of Nassau Island [Long Island] and sunk the ship between that and Block Island. The ship of about 400 tons.
I had no notice till a week after the ship was sunk, or if I had had notice I could have done nothing towards seizing or securing the ship or men without a man of Warr. 2
A document of the date 1697, to be found in the Rhode Island colonial records, affords a glimpse of the movements of Captain Want or Wanton, a member of a distinguished family of that colony, and of several other notorious Rhode Islanders. From this source the following note has been obtained:
William Mews, a pirate, fitted out at Rhode Island. Thomas Jones is concerned in the Old Bark, with Capen Want, and lives in Rhode Island. Want is gone into the Gulf of Persia, and in all probability is either at Rhode Island or Carolina by this time. Want's wife lives there [Rhode Island]. Want broke up there about three years ago, after a good voyage and spent his money there, and in Pennsylvania. 3
The varied career of Captain Thomas Tew, of Newport, is worthy of notice. He was a friend of Captain Missori, who founded a colony on the island of Madagascar. These two, with a third pirate, a Portuguese, named Caraccioli, established a democratic and representative government for the colony. They were elected by the people, for terms of three years, to the three principal offices. Misson was the "lord conservator " ; Tew, the "admiral"; and Caraccioli, the "secretary of state." Slavery was abolished. The coast of Madagascar was surveyed, and an exact chart made showing sands, shoals, and depths of water. A fort, batteries, wharves, and ships were constructed. One piece of land the pirates placed under cultivation, and another piece they enclosed for pasture, upon which at one time three hundred head of black cattle were grazed. With their settlement as a base, they made forays upon the shipping of the Indian Ocean, and especially upon that of the Red Sea. On one occasion they captured, off the coast of Arabia, a vessel belonging to the Grand Mogul, which had on board sixteen hundred souls, including some pilgrims to Mecca and some Moorish mariners. Many valuable
2 Colonial History of New York, IV, 512.
3 Rhode Island Colonial Records, III, 322.
prizes were taken and much wealth was accumulated, but finally owing to a series of misfortunes the colony was abandoned. Tew returned to Rhode Island. 4
The first merchandise direct from the Orient exposed for sale in America was brought to this country by pirates. Arabian gold, pearls from the Indian Ocean, and Oriental fabrics abounded in the chief Cities of the colonies. The treasure of Captain Kidd that was seized in Boston in 1699, contained a characteristic assortment Of piratical plunder: "an iron chest of gold, pearls, etc., 40 bails of East India goods, 13 hogsheads, chests and case, one negro, and Venture Resail, a Ceylon Indian." Resail was one of the first Asiatics to visit America. 5
By 1710 the piratical voyages of the colonists to the Eastern seas had ceased, and from this time to 1783 few or no Americans visited those waters. Certain articles of Oriental merchandise, however, continued to find their way to America. From the close
of Queen Anne's war until the outbreak of the Revolution, considerable quantities of Chinese tea and chinaware were used by the colonists, coming by way of England, to which country they were imported from Canton, China, by the British East India Company. It was these articles that brought America for the first time into relation with the Far East. Indeed Chinese tea has a direct connection with the American Revolution, as every one know—a connection that has led one historian, having in mind the resistance of the colonists to the British tax on tea and the Boston Tea Party, to assert that "in this little Chinese leaf was folded the germ which enlarged into American independence.” 6
At least one American product, ginseng, an article highly Prized by the Far Eastern peoples for its medicinal properties, was imported into China by the British East India Company. It is said that this company sent agents to the Northern colonies, who induced the Indians by gifts of money, whiskey, and trinkets to search the woods for ginseng. That illustrious divine, the Reverend Jonathan Edwards, who conducted an Indian school at
4 Johnson, Charles. A General History of the Pyrates, II, 81, no, 265; Sheffield, W. P. Privateersmen of Newport, 39; New Jersey Archives, 1st Ser., II, 277.
5 Weeden, W. B. Economic and Social History of New England, I, 345- 35 T .
6 Weeden, W. B. Economic and Social History of New England, II, 539.
Stockbridge, Massachusetts, was sorely grieved at the demoralization of his dusky pupils caused by the offer of the agents. 7
At the time of the American Revolution, the seagoing trade between the Occident and the Orient was in the hands of the chief commercial nations of Europe—Great Britain, the Netherlands, France, Spain, and Portugal. Each of these countries had colonies
Or trading posts in Southern or Eastern Asia. Great Britain was firmly intrenched in India, with Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay as her chief ports. After the Seven Years' War, France still retained a foothold on the Coromandel coast. Portugal held Goa in India, and Macao in China. Next to the English in the importance of their possessions were the Dutch, whose settlements in the East Indies were strategically located. Their capital was Batavia, situated on the island of Java. The Spanish were firmly established in the Philippines, with Manila as their chief city. In the Far East—China, Korea, and Japan—only three ports were open to the European trade, and one of these, Nagasaki, Japan, to the Dutch only, and to them in a limited way. The other two ports, Macao and Canton, China, carried on a considerable commerce with England, the Netherlands, France, and Portugal.
On the outbreak of the Revolution in 1775 the revolting colonies established a small navy, but owing to its weakness as compared with the powerful fleet of the mother country, it was forced to engage chiefly in the destruction of British commerce. Its ships visited every trade route of the North Atlantic, and not infrequently returned home richly laden with captured spoils. Casting about for a profitable employment of its navy, the Continental Congress was impressed with the promising field for commerce destroying presented by Great Britain's Oriental trade. In December, 1777, its Committee of Foreign Affairs formulated a plan for a naval expedition to the coast of India, which was set forth as follows in a letter of the committee to the American Commissioners at Paris:
As the Marine Committee have already sent some, and will order more, of the Continental ships of war to France, under your directions, permit us to suggest an expedition, which appears likely to benefit us and distress the enemy. We are informed that two or three well-manned frigates, dispatched early in February, so as to arrive at the island of Mauritius
7 Speer, William, The Oldest and the Newest Empire China and the United States, 410-411; Griffis, W. E., Corea the Hermit Nation, 388-389; Macpherson, David, Annals of Commerce, III, 497, 545, 572.
in June, being provided with letters of credence, and for such refreshments or aid of stores, etc., as may be necessary, from the minister to the French governor of that island, may go thence to cruise on the coast of Coromandel, twenty days' sail from the Island of Mauritius, where they will be in the way to intercept the China ships, besides distressing the internal trade of India. The prizes may be sold at Mauritius. Our vessels had better call at Goree, then at the Cape, to avoid the vigilance and the apprehension of the British cruisers.
Goree (on the west coast of Africa), the Cape of Good Hope, and Mauritius were important ports of call for vessels bound to the Indian Ocean. The "China ships" were the British merchantmen employed in the trade between Canton and British India, and the "internal trade" was the India coasting trade. The plan of the committee was not favorably regarded by the commissioners, as may be seen from the following extract from a letter of Commissioner Arthur Lee to the cominittee, dated Paris, July 29, 1778:
It has been forgotten, I believe, to mention, both in our joint and particular letters, that we have attended to the plan proposed by the committee of sending the frigates to cruise in the East Indies, and upon considering all things it seemed to us impracticable at present. Better order must be established in our marine, and the ships' companies better sorted, before it will be safe to attempt enterprises at such a distance, and which require a certain extent of ideas in the captain and entire obedience in the crew. 8
The Committee of Foreign Affairs did not urge its plan. The navy had already begun to decline, and by the close of 1779 it was not sufficiently strong to undertake a cruise to the East Indies had it desired to do so. It was left to the new navy established under the Constitution in 1794 to make the first voyage to that distant quarter of the globe.
II.
THE FIRST NAVAL VOYAGE TO THE EAST INDIES: 1800.
Before the Revolutionary War the longest voyages made by American merchantmen were those to the west coast of Africa, where slaves, ivory, and gold dust were to be had in exchange for New England rum. The acquiring of independence by the thirteen colonies opened up a new field for commerce. Scarcely was the ink dry on the Treaty of Paris of 1783 before several enter-
8 Wharton, Francis. The Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States, II, 440-44I, 673-674.
prising merchants of New York and Philadelphia purchased the ship Empress of China, of three hundred and sixty tons burden, loaded her with four hundred and forty piculs of ginseng and some other articles of commerce, and sent her to Canton for a load of tea and Chinese manufactures. Her captain was John Green, and she carried a "second captain" and a full complement of inferior officers, including two midshipmen. She also carried, as supercargo, a young and gallant Bostonian, fresh from the fields of war, Major Samuel Shaw, late of the Continental artillery, and now entering upon a mercantile career. She sailed from New York on her memorable voyage on February 22, 1784, the anniversary of Washington's birth; and, after touching at the Dutch settlements in Java and the Portuguese port Macao, arrived at
Canton on August 28, the only port in the Chinese empire open to foreign ships. Measured on the route sailed by the Empress of China, the distance from Canton to the Cape of Good Hope was about sixty-seven hundred miles, and to New York about thirteen thousand seven hundred miles. 9
Eager to increase their trade, the shrewd Chinese merchants welcomed their strange visitors. Major Shaw wrote:
Ours being the first American ship that had ever visited China, it was sometime before the Chinese could fully comprehend the distinction between Englishmen and us. They styled us the New People, and when by the map we conveyed to them an idea of the extent of our country, with its present and increasing population, they were not a little pleased at the prospect of so considerable a market for the productions of their own empire. 10
The Empress of China arrived home at New York on May 11, 1785, after an absence of almost a year and three months. The next ship to visit the Orient was the Grand Turk, Captain Ebenezer West. She sailed from Salem, Massachusetts, for Canton in December, 1785, and arrived home in May, 1787, 65 days from the Cape of Good Hope. On her outward voyage she touched at several ports of' India, displaying there for the first time the stars and stripes. In 1786 eight vessels sailed for Eastern ports: the Leda, of Boston; Hope, Empress of China and Experiment, of New York; the Canton, of Philadelphia; the Chesapeake and Betsy, of
9 For information respecting the early American commerce in the Orient, see Samuel Shaw's Journals, the Journals of the Continental Congress for 1786-1788, and the American newspapers for the period 1786-1790.
10 Shaw, Samuel. Journals, 183.
Baltimore; and the Hope of Norfolk. Major Shaw, who in January, 1786, was chosen by Congress to be consul at Canton, the first consular position established in the Orient, gives in his journal the following list of shipping at Canton "for the present season, down to the 27th of January, 1787 ": English ships for Europe, 29; English country ships for India, 23; Dutch ships, five; Portuguese from Macao, five; Danish, two; Spanish, two; French, one; Swedish, one; and American, five. In 1789, 15
American vessels visited Canton, four of which belonged to Elias Hasket Derby, the noted Salem shipmaster.
All the chief ports of New England and the Middle States became interested in the Eastern trade. Norfolk, Virginia, sent a ship to Canton as early as 1786. The Carolinas, however, displayed little fondness for exploring the new commercial routes. The wealthy city of Charleston fitted out but a single vessel for the Eastern seas. Of the northern cities, Philadelphia, New York, Boston, and Salem were in the lead. As considerable capital was needed even for a single venture, it was sometimes raised by subscription, as may be seen from the following advertisement, extracted from the Independent Chronicle of Boston for June 23, 1785:
Proposals for building and fitting out a ship for the East India trade have been approved of by a considerable number of citizens, who met at Mr. Walter Heyer's in King Street, on Thursday evening last. Several gentlemen are named to receive subscriptions, and this is to give notice that another meeting is appointed on Wedn. evening next, at the same house, when any citizen who wishes to become interested may have an opportunity. A single share is only $300.
Many noted American families laid the foundation of their wealth in the Eastern trade. Among those of Boston and Salem that owned numerous "India ships" were the following: Russell, Derby, Cabot, Thorndike, Barrett, Brown, Perkins, Bryant, Sturgis, Higginson, Shaw, Lloyd, Lee, Preble, Peabody, Mason, Jones, and Gray. In 1787, Providence, Rhode Island, sent out her first vessel, the General Washington, the property of Messrs. Brown, Francis, and Pintard. Soon Newport, Nantucket, New Bedford, New Haven, and Bristol were added to the list of New England ports trading with the East Indies and the Far East. In 1789 one of Elias Hasket Derby's ships brought home the first cargo of Bombay cotton imported to the United States. In the previous year a Baltimore vessel, the Chesapeake, showed the American colors in the Ganges for the first time. When this ship arrived at Bengal the local government was in doubt as to how the flag of the new American nation was to be received, and it applied by letter for instructions to the governor-general of the British possessions, Lord Cornwallis, who a few years before had surrendered his army to General Washington at Yorktown, and who on the arrival of the Chesapeake was in the interior of India. Cornwallis replied that the American flag was to be received in the same manner as the flags of the most favored nations, since it stood on the same footing with them. 11
The merchants of Philadelphia invested much capital in the new commerce, and several Revolutionary naval officers and privateersmen commanded East Indiamen—Truxtun, Read, Tingey, Dale, Josiah, and Barry. Read's ship was the Continental frigate Alliance, at one time commanded by John Paul Jones, and sold by the government in 1785 to Robert Morris, the famous financier of the Revolution. On her first voyage she did not let go an anchor between Philadelphia and Canton, passing to the eastward of the Dutch East Indies. There is another interesting connection between the Alliance and the Oriental trade. In 1789 her builder, William Haskett, built for that trade at Quincy, Massachusetts, the ship Massachusetts, of 820 tons burden, the largest vessel up to that time constructed in the United States. 12 In 1791 Stephen Girard, of Philadelphia, began the construction, for the Calcutta and China trades, of a class of beautiful vessels long the pride of that city. He named four of his ships, respectively, Montesquieu, Helvetius, Voltaire, and Rousseau, after the French free-thinkers, thus revealing his sympathy with their philosophical and religious dogmas and advertising it to the world. The first Philadelphia vessel to visit the Orient was the ship Canton, Captain Thomas Truxtun, who subsequently entered the navy and distinguished himself by fighting the only frigate fights of our naval war with France. On January 2, 1876, the Continental Congress granted Truxtun a sea-letter. Its quaint phraseology bears witness that our government had not yet declared its independence from the documentary forms of the old country.
11 Scharf, J. T., Chronicles of Baltimore, 248; Macpherson, David, Annals of Commerce, IV, 183.
12 Delano, Amasa. Narrative of Voyages and Travels, 21-25.
Most serene, serene, most puissant, puissant, high illustrious, noble, honorable, venerable, wise, and prudent emperors, kings, republics, princes, dukes, earls, barons, lords, burgomasters, counsellors, as also judges, officers, justiciaries, and regents, of all the good cities and places whether ecclesiastical or secular, who shall see these presents, or hear them read:
"We, the United States in Congress assembled, make known that Thomas Truxtun, captain of the ship called the Canton is a citizen of the United States of America, and that the ship which he commands belongs to citizens of the said United States, and as we wish to see the said Thomas Truxtun prosper in his lawful affairs, our prayer is to all the before-mentioned, and to each of them separately, where the said Thomas
Truxtun shall arrive with his vessel and cargo, that they may please to receive him with goodness and treat him in a becoming manner, permitting him upon the usual tolls and expenses in passing and repassing, to pass, navigate, and frequent the ports, passes, and territories, to the end to transact his business where and in what manner he shall judge proper, whereof we shall be willingly indebted.” 13
In the last decade of the eighteenth century our Eastern trade gradually increased, and by the time of our naval war with France it had become quite extensive. During this conflict it lay more or less at the mercy of the French ships of war that frequented the East India seas. To protect it from them, President Adams decided late in 1799 to send the frigates Congress, Captain James Sever, and Essex, Captain Edward Preble, to Batavia to convoy home the American merchantmen intending to sail from that port in May or June of the following year. As the Congress did not succeed in making the voyage, no notice of her and her commander need be here given. The Essex was a 32-gun frigate of 860 tons burden, carrying 300 men. She was built at Salem, Massachusetts, in 1799, by the patriotic citizens of that town for the use of the federal government. The subscription list for her construction was headed by William Gray and Elias Hasket Derby, each of whom gave $10,000. 14 Captain Richard Derby, a nephew of Elias, was appropriately chosen to command the new ship; but when she was ready to receive her commander young Derby was at sea, and consequently the secretary of the navy selected Captain Edward Preble to take charge of her. Preble was destined to win many laurels in the coming Tripolitan War and to achieve a standing beside Truxtun as one of the most distinguished officers of the early navy under the Constitution. He was born in Portland,
13 Journals of the Continental Congress, January 2, 1786.
14 Hunt's Merchant Magazine, XXXVI, 179.
Maine, in 1761, coming from excellent Yankee stock. During the Revolution he served first as midshipman and later as lieutenant in the Massachusetts navy; and after that war he entered the merchant service, which he left in 1798 to accept a lieutenancy on board the frigate Constitution. His first command was the brig Pickering, and his next the frigate Essex.
On January 7, 1800, the Congress and Essex sailed from Newport, with three outward-bound East Indiamen, under convoy, which proving to be dull sailers were soon left behind. On the 12th the two frigates parted company in a gale, and a little later the Congress, having been dismasted, was forced to return to port. Unaware of Sever's misfortune, Preble continued the voyage alone. On February 7 he crossed the equator, and a little more than a month later cast anchor at the British settlement near the Cape of Good Hope to water his ship and await the arrival of the Congress. Here he found seven British men-of-war, under the command of Admiral Sir Roger Curtis, and six East Indiamen—three American ships, two English, and one Swedish. He was cordially received by the British officials at the Cape, with whom he exchanged courtesies. On different days he dined ashore with the admiral, the governor of the colony, the commander-in-chief of the local troops, and the director of East India affairs for the British East India Company. The captains of the British men-of-war, the United States consul, and General Vandalure, of the British Army, dined on board the Essex. On March 28 Preble weighed artchor and sailed for the Straits of Sunda, where he arrived on May 5. His movements for the next two months are best told in his own words, extracted from a letter to the Secretary of the Navy:
I have the honor to acquaint You that the U. S. Frigate Essex under my command arrived at the entrance of the straits of Sunda the 15th of May. I watered ship at Mew Island, and was employed in cruising until the 15th when I anchored at Batavia, and was received by the Governor in the most friendly and flattering manner. On the 20th of May I sailed from Batavia on a cruise, after having refreshed my ship's company, made the necessary arrangements respecting the provisions and stores for the frigates, and appointed the loth of June for the sailing of the fleet from Batavia for the United States. I cruised in the entrance of the Straits for a fortnight, in which time I boarded thirteen sail of American merchant ships richly loaded, the whole of which must have been captured had a single French Privateer of 16 guns been cruising in my stead, but fortunately for our trade it had met no interruption for two or three months; and there being no French cruisers in the Straits, I returned towards Batavia, where I arrived the 8th of June; and finding every vessel bound for the United States would be ready to sail by the 17th, I prolonged the time of sailing to that day. In the meantime I received on board provisions and stores for six months and appointed Jacobus Theodorus Reynst, Esq., agent for the sale of the provisions and stores designed for the Congress, with directions to have them sold if she should not arrive by the 15th of July.
On the 11th of June, I delivered signals and instructions to fifteen vessels, being all that were bound to the United States, and all except three at Batavia. The i6th I moved the Essex down to Onrust, and on the 19th weighed anchor and sailed with thirteen ships and brigs under convoy, the other two concluding to join me below. The 21st, a Dutch proa came alongside with the master, supercargo, and a part of the crew of the American Ship Altenamak, of and from Baltimore, bound to Batavia. She was captured at the entrance of the Straits the 15th by a French Corvette of 22 guns and 250 men, which arrived in the Straits on that day from the Isle of France. Four other privateers were to sail for the Straits after her, one of them a ship of 32 guns.
I continued to proceed down the Straits, making slow progress, with the wind constantly ahead. 22d, anchored the Fleet in Anjer Roads, wind directly contrary and very light breezes, the French Corvette in sight hovering about the Fleet. At 1 P. M. I gave chase to her, which was continued until dark, but the lightness of the wind enabled her to make use of her sweeps to such advantage as to escape, and I returned to the Fleet again. 24th, a Dutch proa came alongside, by which I received information of the arrival in the Straits of a French ship of 32 guns and much crowded with men. The Dutchman that commanded the proa had been on board her the day before, and I suppose she must have passed the convoy in the night, as she stood over towards the coast of Sumatra. This ship the Dutchman declared to be a frigate from France, and which had only touched at the Isle of France. At 10 A. M. the French Corvette in sight approaching the Fleet at anchor under Java shore between Anjer and Pepper Bay, very light winds, almost calm. At noon, the breeze increasing, I weighed anchor and gave chase, which I continued until 5 o'clock in the evening, at which time I had gained so much on her that nothing but its falling calm and the assistance the Frenchman received from his numerous sweeps saved him from capture; had there been only a moderate breeze I must have taken him. For want of wind I was not able to join the Fleet again until the next morning.
I proceeded down the Straits and on the 27th anchored with the Fleet in Mew Bay for the purpose of watering. The 30th one of the vessels left at Batavia joined me, the master of which informed me that the other ship, the Magnus of Philadelphia, would not be down to join the convoy as the Captain had anchored her at Bantam to wait for the recovery of a sick supercargo. The 1st of July, having completed their stock of water, I proceeded to sea with fourteen sail under convoy as per list enclosed.
It is singularly unfortunate for the American trade that the Congress did not arrive at Batavia, as in that case she could have convoyed the Fleet home, and I might have been left to clear the Straits of those pirates, but now they can do as they please as they have no force left to oppose them, the English squadron having left the station. I fear every merchant ship that attempts to pass the Straits will fall a sacrifice. The necessity of a constant protection of our trade in the Straits will, I presume, be sufficiently apparent.
I am in hopes to double the Cape of Good Hope in ten days with the Fleet; at present I have them all with me. I have granted permission to the Brig Lapwing to separate from the convoy and proceed alone, the master of which takes charge of my dispatches. My ship's company have been remarkably healthy; you will see by the Surgeon's daily report our present state. 15
Preble's fleet of 14 merchantmen were laden chiefly with coffee, sugar, and pepper. Exactly one-half of them were bound to Philadelphia. Two were bound to Boston, two to Baltimore, and one each to Salem, Newport, and New York. Their average burden was about 250 tons. The smallest vessel of the fleet was the brig Sally, of 113 tons burden, carrying six guns and eight men. The largest vessel was the ship China, of 1055 tons burden, carrying 151 men and 36 guns, and commanded by Captain James Josiah, a Revolutionary naval officer. The other vessels of the fleet carried from eight to 20 men, and from two to 10 guns. At this time all East Indiamen were armed with cannon, and their crews were trained to use them.
On August 11 Preble encountered a heavy gale off the bank of Agulhas, on the southeast coast of Africa, and the ships of the fleet were separated. He had previously given orders that the vessels if dispersed should meet at St. Helena. He arrived at that island on September 10. The succeeding events of his cruise may be followed by means of some extracts from the journal of the Essex.
Sept. 11. Brig Globe, one of the convoy, arrived.
Sept. 12. Ship Juno, one of the convoy, arrived. Saw plenty of whales and porpoises in the Roads.
Sept. 13. Hoisted the boats out in the morning, and in at night, as usual.
Sept. 14. The Ship Nancy and Brig Lydia of our convoy arrived.
Sept. 15. Ship Dominick Terry arrived. Has lost all her boats and had her quarter galleys stove in by bad weather off the Cape of Good Hope. Watering ship.
Sept. 16. Ship Globe sailed for home.
16 Preble, G. H. The First Cruise of the United States Frigate Essex, 95-97.
Sept. 17. Finished stripping the masts, and have replaced the rigging in good order. The Governor and officers of this place appear very friendly.
Sept. 18. Ship China, one of the convoy, arrived.
Sept. 20. Arrived the Ship John Bulkley, which spoke the Brig Lapwing on the 14th of August, which had lost both her masts at the deck.She was thrown on her beam ends by the wind and sea, and cut away her mast to right her. With both pumps freed her in six hours. Capt. Stockley of the John Bulkley supplied the Lapwing with every thing that was needed, such as spars and sails, and Captain Clap of the brig thought he should reach the Cape of Good Hope very well. He adds that Captain Gardner's Brig Globe passed him within half a mile while his signal of distress was hoisted, and did not come to him.
Sept. 22. Three English ships arrived.
Sept. 23. Sailed the Dominick Terry for Philadelphia.
Sept. 24. Snow. The Sally, one of our convoy, arrived, with Midshipman Brown, John Beard, Moses Harriman, and Ralph Wright, our men which we lent Captain Hall in the Straits of Sunda.
Sept. 25. Arrived the Brig Exchange, of the convoy.
Sept. 26. Fired a gun. Made signal one. Unmoored at 10 A. M. Hoisted in the boats. Sent Mr. Shed and two men to the Sally. Got under way, in company with seven of the convoy.
Oct. 2. Ascension Island in sight.
Oct. 4. Spoke the Brig Anna Maria, from Bordeaux bound to Tranquebar, under Swedish colors.
Oct. 6. All the Fleet in sight. Continue to keep the two brigs in tow.
Oct. 7. Whipped Andrew Knowland, the cook, for striking William Woodbury with an axe.
Oct. 10. Recrossed the line in Longitude about 280 50' W.
Oct. 11. All the Fleet continue in sight. Saw St. Paul's rocks.
Oct. 12. Charles Swede, who had been sick ever since he came on board at Batavia, died.
Oct. 20. Lost sight of the Brig Sally.
Oct. 31. A gale of wind.
Nov. 2. Sent the jolly boat on board the Ship Nancy with a supply of bread.
Nov. 13. Chased and brought to after two shots the Brig Eliza, Captain Bullock, from Rhode Island, bound to Turk's Island, 10 days out. Chased and spoke Brig Harriet, Capt. Babson, from Tortola bound for Boston.
Nov. 14. Capt. Hale and Capt. Stockley asked leave to quit the Fleet.
Nov. 17. Ship John Bulkley left the Fleet.
Nov. 27. At 8 P. M. sounded in 45 fathoms, black and white sand.
Nov. 29. At r P. M. Sandy Hook lighthouse bore N.W. 7 miles. At
8 came to anchor in 17 fathoms, the Battery bearing E.N.E., 1 mile. At 7 weighed and made sail for the East River. At 3 P. M. moored ship, Brooklyn Point, East. Unbent courses, staysails, and topgallant sails. 16
16 Preble, G. H. The First Cruise of the United States Frigate Essex, 82-85.
The first voyage of an American ship of war to the East Indies came to an end with the arrival of the Essex- at New York on November 29, 1800. Preble at once sent his dispatches to the Secretary of the Navy, who wrote to him congratulating him on his safe return. Preble had conducted the voyage with skill and good judgment, and had rendered an important service to our commerce in the East Indies.
III.
THE CRUISE OF THE " PEACOCK ": 1815.
The American trade with the East Indies and the Far East was almost suspended during the last two years of the War of 1812. Now and then, however, a vessel succeeded in evading the British blockading fleet on the coast of our Atlantic States, and made the long voyage to the Orient, perchance only to fall into the hands of some British ship of war in that quarter of the globe. The movements in the China seas of His Majesty's ship Doris give us a notion of the events that happened there during the war. In April, 1814, the Doris captured the American merchantman Hunter off the Ladrone Islands not far from Macao and brought her into the Canton river, which channel she then proceeded to blockade, in disregard of international law. In May her boats chased an American schooner from the neighborhood of Macao to Whampoa and captured it within 10 miles of Canton. Fortunately before the captors could carry their prize down the, river it was retaken by some American boats. 17
Toward the close of the war the government at Washington decided to send a small fleet of naval vessels to Asiatic waters to protect our commerce and to prey upon the enemy's China and India ships. The navy department chose Commodore Stephen Decatur to command the fleet, and instructed him to return by way of the Northwest Coast, provided it was found feasible, and to retake Astoria, which post the British had captured in 1813. Decatur's flagship was the 44-gun frigate President. The other vessels of his fleet were the sloops-of-war Peacock, 18, Captain Lewis Warrington, and Hornet, 18, Master Commandant James Biddle, and the storeship Tom Bowline, Lieutenant B. V. Hoffman. Early in January, 1815, these four vessels were at New
17 Brinkley, F., China, X, 2I0; Davis, J. F., China, I, 78.
York ready to undertake their distant mission. On January 14, the President, unaccompanied by her consorts, put to sea, but unfortunately she was captured on the following day by the British blockading squadron that lay off the coast.
The ranking officer of the three ships remaining in port, and on the capture of Decatur, the commander of the fleet, was Captain Lewis Warrington. He had served as a midshipman in the Tripolitan War, and was one of the officers to whom Congress gave a vote of thanks for their services in that conflict. He was promoted to be lieutenant in 1807, and master commandant in 1813. On his first cruise as commander of the Peacock he captured the British sloop Epervier, and for this highly creditable performance received a gold medal, the thanks of Congress, and a promotion to a captaincy. In the summer and fall of 1814 he made a successful cruise again British merchantmen off the coast of Ireland. Indeed, but few officers of the War of 1812 exhibited greater skill and proficiency in the naval profession than Warrington.
On January 23 the Peacock, Hornet, and Tom Bowline sailed from New York for the islands of Tristan da Cunha, which lie 1500 miles south-southwest of St. Helena. Three days out of port the Hornet parted company with her consorts, and being the faster sailer was the first to reach the appointed rendezvous. As she neared it on the morning of March 23 she fell in with the British Sloop-of-war Penguin, 18, and captured her after a brilliant fight lasting 22 minutes. The prize was so much injured that it was scuttled and sunk. Warrington, who arrived at the islands soon after the engagement, converted the Tom Bowline into a flag of truce, and, placing the officers and crew of the Penguin on board her, sent her to Brazil. 18
After waiting 20 days for Decatur, not knowing of his capture, Warrington and Biddle sailed for the second rendezvous, the islands of St. Paul and Amsterdam, situated in the Indian Ocean midway between the Cape of Good Hope and Australia. Nothing of importance happened until April 27, when, in latitude 38° 30' south and longitude 33° east, they made a strange sail in the northeast and stood towards it, taking it to be an Indiaman. By the afternoon of the 28th they had approached near enough to ascer-
18 For the movements of the fleet, see Captains' Letters, Archives of the U. S. Navy Department, XLII, 65; XLIII, 112; XLIV, 27, 32; XLV, 19; XLVII, 2, 17.
tam n that it was a ship of the line. On discovering its true character, they fled, steering different courses. The Hornet was pursued, and was soon widely separated from her consort. She was chased for almost two days, a part of which time her antagonist was within gunshot, but fortunately his fire did little damage. Finally she made her escape by throwing overboard her anchors, cables, spare spars, and all her guns except one. Being practically defenseless, she discontinued her voyage and returned to the United States.
Of the movements of the Peacock, after she parted company with the Hornet, Warrington wrote to the Secretary of the Navy as follows:
In May we reached the Isles of St. Paul and Amsterdam (our second rendezvous) where we found a letter for us, which had been left a few days before by the Macedonian brig, informing us of the President's action and probable capture. Here I had intended remaining some time to regain the Hornet; but being carried to leeward in chase of a strange sail, we were not able to regain them and were at last compelled by a severe gale to bear up, and on the 8th of June made the Island of Java. From that time until the 29th, we were cruising in the Straits of Sunda, where we made four captures, two of which were burnt, a third was given up to carry 150 prisoners into Batavia, and the fourth released, as from her we learned that a peace had been made.
From the different captures we obtained about fifteen thousand dollars in specie, and gold to the amount of four or five thousand dollars more. We have on board ten chests of opium. The first prize was loaded with pepper, and a few bales of coarse goods, for the Malay market; some of which (as he had no room to stow them away) we distributed amongst the crew, as they were much in want of thin clothes. Of the money, five thousand dollars were divided by me amongst the officers and men.
From Java we proceeded to the Island of Bourbon, where we procured bread and other articles, for which we were much in want, as we were on an allowance of half a pound of bread per man. From Bourbon, which we left in August, we made the best of our way to the United States, touching for a few days at St. Helena. 19
The vessels captured by Warrington were the East Indiamen Union, Venus, and Brio de Mar, carrying 161 men; and the British East India Company's cruiser Nautilus, carrying 14 guns and 130 men. The Nautilus was taken after an engagement, in which she suffered considerably, having 15 men killed or wounded.
Among the wounded was her commander, Lieutenant Boyce, who lost a leg. The Peacock was uninjured. All these captures were made after the conclusion of peace.
19 Niles' Register (Baltimore), IX, 188.
A question of veracity was raised by the varying accounts of the fight between the Nautilus and Peacock given by the British and the American commanders. The former said that Warrington was notified before the firing began by the master attendant at Anjer, Java, that peace had been concluded between the United States and Great Britain. Warrington denied this, as may be seen from his official account of the engagement:
As it is probable you will hereafter see or hear some other account of a rencontre which took place between the Peacock and the English East India company's brig Nautilus, on the 30th of June last, in the Straits of Sunda, I take the liberty of making known to you the particulars:
"In the afternoon of that day, when abreast of Anjier, as we closed with this brig, which appeared evidently to be a vessel of war, and completely prepared for action, her commander hailed and asked if I knew that there was a peace? I replied in the negative—directing him at the same time to haul his colors down, if it were the case, in token of it—adding that if he did not, I should fire into him. This being refused, one of the forward guns was fired at her, which was immediately returned by a broadside from the brig; our broadside was then discharged, and his colors were struck after having six Lascars killed, and seven or eight wounded. As we had not the most distant idea of peace, and this vessel was but a short distance from the fort of Anjier, I considered his assertion, coupled with his arrangements for action, a finesse on his part to amuse us, till he could place himself under the protection of the fort. A few minutes before coming into contact with brig, two boats containing the master attendant at Anjier, and an officer of the army came on board, and as we were in momentary expectation of firing, they were with their men passed below.
I concluded that they had been misled by the British colors, under which we had passed up the straits. No questions, in consequence, were put to them, and they very improperly omitted mentioning that peace existed. The next day, after receiving such intelligence as they had to communicate on this subject (no part of which was official), I gave up the vessel, first stopping her shot holes, and putting her rigging in order. 20
The Peacock was the only vessel of Decatur's squadron that reached the East Indies, and like the Essex, did not proceed farther than Java. She returned home by way of the Cape of Good Hope, arriving in New York on October 28, 1815, several months after the close of the war. No national vessel had as yet visited India, China, Japan, or the Philippines, and none had crossed the Pacific.
20 Niles' Register (Baltimore), X, 58.
IV.
THE FIRST NAVAL VOYAGE TO CHINA: 1818-1821.21
On the termination of the war with Great Britain in the spring of 1815, the Oriental trade rapidly revived. Within a year and a half 42 vessels had cleared from Salem for the ports of Asia, and 16 of them had returned home by way of various ports of Europe and America, at which they had discharged their cargoes of Eastern merchandise. In 1821 Salem had 58 vessels in the Oriental trade. During the eight years immediately preceding the War of 1812 the number of American vessels annually visiting Canton was 29, during the three years of the war six, and during the first five years after the war 39. By 1820 the commerce of America with China exceeded that of every other Occidental nation, with the exception of Great Britain. The chief products carried to China by American merchantmen were ginseng, opium, quicksilver, lead, iron, copper, steel, sea and land otter skins, seal, fox, and beaver skins, cotton, camlets, sandalwood, and broadcloths. The chief articles imported to America from China were teas, silks, cassia, camphor, rhubarb, sugar, vermillion, and chinaware. 22 On the establishment of the Pacific fur trade, about 1790, China became a great mart for peltries.
To protect our merchantmen from the pirates that frequented the East Indies and to afford our navy an opportunity to exercise and improve its officers and sailors in navigation and seamanship, the Navy Department in the fall of 1818 ordered the frigate Congress to be fitted out for a two years' cruise in the Eastern seas. The Congress was a 36-gun ship, of 1268 tons burden, carrying 350 officers and seamen. Her captain was John Dandridge Henley, a native of Virginia and a nephew of Mrs. Martha Washington. He entered the navy as a midshipman in 1799, and was made a lieutenant in 1807, a master commandant in 1813, and a captain in 1817. He was one of the officers of the sloop of war Peacock when in 1814 she captured the Epervier, and later he took part in the battle of New Orleans, receiving the commendation of General
21 This chapter is based chiefly upon Captains' Letters, U. S. Navy Dept. Arch., LXI, 110; LXII, 10, 48, 85; LXIII, 68; LXIV, 36; LXV, 7, 17, 30, 90; LXVI, 78, 82, 127; LXVII, 129; LXVIII, 15; LXIX, 70; LXX, 32, 40. 94; LXXI, 76, 94.
22 Giitzlaff, K. F. A. A Sketch of Chinese History. appendix.
Andrew Jackson for important services rendered in that fight. His last tour of sea duty was in the West Indies as commander-in-chief of the West India squadron, dying there in 1835.
Henley equipped the Congress at Norfolk, and early in 1819 sailed up the Chesapeake to Annapolis to receive on board his ship the newly-appointed American Minister to Brazil. While he was anchored there the Secretary of the Navy sent him his sailing orders, which were in part as follows:
You have been appointed to the command of the United States Frigate Congress to proceed upon important service for the protection of the commerce of the United States in the Indian and China Seas.
You will receive on board, off Annapolis, the Honorable John Graham and family, and embrace the first favorable wind after they shall embark to proceed to sea, and direct your course to Rio de Janeiro, the Capital of the Portuguese Government in Brazil, where Mr. Graham and family will be landed; on this occasion you will attend to the usual salutes and pay all respect to the Government and authorities of the place, and consistent with the occasion of your visit. Make as short stay as possible at Rio de Janeiro, and after filling up your water and taking on board such fresh supplies as the country may afford, particularly for the health of the crew, proceed from thence by the most direct route to Canton in China, report your ship there, and after paying respect to the Government of the place, inform yourself of all the American ships in port, and enter into engagement with their commanders and supercargoes to convoy them through the Straits safely, beyond the hostile attacks of the Islanders and pirates, who infest those seas; and then continue to cruise to and from Canton, and in the neighborhood of the Straits of Sunda for the general Protection of American ships and property, taking occasion at stated periods to notify the ships and vessels at any of the ports in those seas of your readiness to afford them protection to certain limits as shall appear to you to be necessary for their safety. 23
On May 16, 1819, Henley sailed from Hampton Roads for Rio Janeiro, where he arrived on July 3. After landing his passengers for this port and taking in refreshments, he proceeded on his voyage. On September 2 he made St. Paul's Island in the Indian Ocean, on the 20th he entered the Straits of Sunda, and on the following day he anchored at Anjer Road, Java, where the Dutch had erected a small fort. Here he remained three days to provision and water his ship. Of provisions, he was able to obtain only rice. Water, he said, could be procured in any quantity at Anjer, "but of the worst quality, and very high in consequence of the immense distance which it is conveyed by an aqueduct erected
23 Private Letters 1813-184o, U. S. Navy Dept. Arch., 262.
by the Dutch at considerable expense." From this port Henley proceeded through the Straits of Banca with several American merchantmen under convoy, and on November 3 arrived at Lintin Island, China.
Lintin, or Lintin Island, was some 60 or 70 miles from Canton, and lay at the mouth of Canton Bay, some 20 miles east-northeast of the Portuguese port Macao. All foreign vessels bound to Canton came to anchor at Lintin, where they remained until they procured from the Chinese custom-house near Macao a pilot and a permit to navigate the inner waters. Twenty-five miles from Lintin was the Bogue or Bocca Tigris, the mouth of the Canton (or Tigris) River. Near the Bocca Tigris was Chuenpe, the anchorage for foreign warships, and 30 miles from the Bocca Tigris, up the Canton River, was Whampoa, the anchorage for all foreign merchantmen. Here in the autumn and early winter months was to be seen one of the finest merchant fleets in the world, consisting of some 50 vessels and 3000 seamen. The foreign factories were some 10 or 12 miles farther up the river, just outside the walls of Canton. The foreign ships were unloaded at Whampoa, and their cargoes were transported to the factories by means of Chinese junks.
The chief official in Canton, the capital of the province of Kwang-tung, was the viceroy or governor, who was responsible to the Emperor of China, at Peking. Among the lesser officials were the hoppo or commissioner of customs and the poochingsze or treasurer and controller of the civil government. In accordance with the Chinese policy of commercial exclusion and national isolation, the officials at Canton held no direct intercourse with foreigners. A body of merchants, about 12 in number, called the hong or co-hong, acted as intermediaries between their government and the citizens and representatives of foreign governments. They were men of large means, owning extensive commercial establishments with numerous warehouses. They had a monopoly of the foreign trade, for which they paid their government large sums of money. They also gave security to their government for the payment of foreign duties and for the good conduct of the " barbarians " or "foreign devils" with whom they traded.
The factories at Canton in which the foreign merchants lived were owned by the hong. They occupied a space about a quarter of a mile square and consisted of a collection of substantial buildings, two stories high, constructed of either granite or brick, having verandas in front supported by pillars. Each factory consisted of five or more houses, separated by narrow courts. In front of the factories and between them and the river was an esplanade, so feet wide, allotted to the merchants for exercising, a recreation that was somewhat interfered with by the crowd of natives that choked up the esplanade—numerous barbers and fortune-tellers, venders of dogs, cats, quack medicines, and trinkets, and a host of sightseers come to gaze at the foreigners. Each factory displayed from a flagstaff erected in front of it on the esplanade the flag of the country of its occupants. Names intended to be more or less indicative of good fortune were given to the several factories. The American factory, for example, was called "the factory of the wide fountains." The foreigners were not permitted to enter the walls of Canton, a city of about a million inhabitants, nor could they reside the whole year at the factories, nor bring their wives there. As soon as the season of trade, lasting from September to March, was closed, they went to Macao, where their families lived.
Each foreign factory and each visiting ship was obliged to procure a compradore; that is a person qualified, according to Chinese customs, to furnish foreigners with provisions and other necessaries. The compradore charged extravagant prices, since to his own large profit he added a considerable sum for his government, which in this way derived an income from each ship, in addition to the regular duties. The transaction of business was often impeded by the officials, and the foreigners were subjected to numerous indignities. As the Occidental trade was highly profitable to the Chinese, they were pleased with the arrival of foreign merchantmen. They extended no welcome, however, to foreign ships of war, especialty since the year 1816, when the British frigate Alceste, on being denied permission to anchor at Whampoa, disregarded the orders of the Chinese government and passed up the river, silencing by a few shots a fort and some junks. 24
The arrival of the Congress at Lintin greatly alarmed the Chinese officials, and on learning of it they at once took measures
24 Shaw, Samuel, Journals, 174-175; Yeats. J., Growth and Vicissitudes of Commerce, III, 537; Rushenberger, W. S. W., A Voyage Round the World, 393-394; Medhurst, W. H., China, 285.
to cause her to depart. Ah, the hoppo of Canton, issued the following order to the hong merchants, who communicated it to the American consul, Benjamin C. Wilcocks, who forwarded it to Captain Henley at Lintin:
An official document has been received from the acting Vice Roy to the following effect:
"On the 21st day of the 9th Moon of the 21st Year of Hea-King, the Tso-tang of Macao, Chow-seiheung, reported that on the 17th instant the Pilot Wang-Mow-Chang stated that on the i6th at 6 o'clock in the evening an American Cruiser, Henley, anchored at Ling-ting. On examining the said Captain, he affirmed that a great many of the ships of his country came to Canton to trade; that of late in foreign seas there were crowds for foreign pirates at every port and every pass, waiting to rob merchant ships which went and came; and therefore he had been ordered by his country to cruise every where and collect information, and now having fair wind he had taken an opportunity to come hither to get information from the merchantmen of his own country, who had come to Canton. He now waited for the orders of the resident Chief Supercargo [Wilcocks], on receiving which he would take his departure. It is my duty to report these circumstances.
"The number of seamen on board is 350, great guns 50, muskets 300, swords 300, powder 800 cattas, balls 800 cattas.
"The affair being thus, I [the Tso-tang of Macao] (who hold a mean office) repaired in person in order to restrain and suppress the conduct of this vessel. I also wrote to the naval officer at Heang-Shan, and fled with the utmost expedition by a dispatch to inform the encampment at Cosa-branca and request them to select and appoint officers and men to go forth and keep guard with careful minds and not permit the said vessel to approach the inner waters. I (who hold a mean office) have examined and found out that the head of the soldiers on board the said vessel intends to enter the pass on board an English Company's ship (or an European ship). Since the said cruiser casting anchor at Ling-ting is a very different case from that of a merchantman and it is inexpedient to allow her to linger about and create disturbance, I therefore most respectfully request that an official communication be made to the Hoppoo that he may order the Hong Merchants to communicate authoritatively an order to the Chief Supercargo of the said country, urging him to give an order to the said cruiser to make haste and take her departure, that she may not linger about many days to create disturbance. The Tung-she of Macao and the Heang-Shan-heen have written to the same effect.
"On the above coming before me, the acting Vice Roy, it appears that as the said vessel is not a merchantman it is inexpedient to allow her to linger about and create disturbance. I therefore wrote to order the naval officer at Heang-Shan to send officers, men, and police runners to keep a strict watch on the said vessel and not allow her to approach the inner waters, and that she may make haste and take her departure, and go home to her own country; for she will not be allowed to linger about here and create disturbance without involving herself in great criminality; and let the day of her departure be reported. I also write to the Poo-Ching-sye of Canton, to despatch an order forthwith to all the civil and military officers in the districts concerned to keep (in obedience hereto) a strict watch and guard on the vessel and press her departure. Further, I desire the Hoppoo to examine what is going on and to command the Hong Merchants to transfer an order to the Chief Supercargo of the said nation, to order the said vessel to make haste and take her departure, for she is not permitted to linger about here and create disturbance."
On this coming before me, the Hoppoo, I find that the Wee-Yeun of Macao and the Tso-tang both reported to me and that I have already ordered the Hong Merchants to enjoin the said nation's Chief to hasten and order the said cruiser to take her departure as appears on record.
I now transfer the above order to the Hong Merchants that they may enjoin the Chief of the said nation to order and urge the said cruiser to take her departure speedily and not linger about here to make disturbance.
Let them moreover examine into the facts and report to me the appointed day for her departure.
Let them not oppose a special Edict.—Hea-King Ui Yein; 9th Moon 21st day. 25
Henley paid no attention to these elaborate orders, knowing that they were harmless formalities, and that similar orders were regularly issued to all ships of war that entered Chinese waters and were regularly disregarded by them. His first object was to obtain refreshments for his ship. The difficulties that he encountered are set forth in his letters from Lintin to the Secretary of the Navy, from which the following extracts have been made:
Mr. Wilcocks, to whom we are indebted for his indefatigable perseverance in endeavoring to obtain for us a friendly reception from the Chinese Government, informs me, thro Mr. Danagh [the purser of the Congress], who was despatched to Canton shortly after my arrival at this place for the purpose of procuring supplies, that after a negotiation of several days and mature deliberation on the part of the Chinese Government, they have in violation of all the laws of hospitality refused to grant the ships a Compradore, or person to supply her with provisions; neither will they, with their knowledge or approbation, allow us to obtain them in any other way except on the condition of my assuring them that I would immediately after leave their waters, which proposition the nature of my orders would not admit of my acceding to; nor would I, except under the most distressing circumstances, been willing to have gratified them. In my last I informed you that I was then weighing anchor for the purpose of going up to Cheun Pee, the usual anchorage for ships of war, but upon my being informed by Mr. Wilcocks that the Chinese Government does not acknowledge Cheim Pee as an anchoring place for national vessels, I thought it
25 Captains' Letters, U. S. Navy Dept. Arch., LXV, 90.
advisable to return to my former anchorage off Lintin Island with the hope of getting supplied with fresh beef and vegetables from these islands, as we have heretofore done in small quantities.
The Chinese, naturally of suspicious dispositions, and who from motives of policy have always entertained an aversion to ships of war coming within their territories, have been latterly roused to a greater aversion than formerly in consequence of Captain Maxwell of the British frigate Alceste having fired on their batteries and forced his way up the river to Whampoa, which has induced them to take such measures as to discourage all national vessels from coming within their territories. The British brig Bacchus having anchored at Cheun Pee with the expectation of getting supplies was surrounded by their armed junks, by which means they cut off all communication with her and would allow her no supplies whatever, in which situation she remained for several days, but getting very short of provisions was finally compelled to leave the country.
On the 20th of November I received a letter from Mr. Wilcocks (a copy of which I enclose marked No. 5), informing me that there were no hopes of getting the ship regularly supplied and advising my proceeding to Canton in an American merchant ship bound up. Altho I had at that time nearly completed my supply of bread, spirits, etc., I resolved to make another effort to have the Congress put on the same footing and to demand the same hospitality that had been heretofore extended to English armed ships previous to the affair of Alceste, and others. On the evening of the day that I received Mr. Wilcocks letter, I left my ship for Canton in the American ship General Hamilton, where I arrived on the morning of the 23d, and immediately had an interview with the head of the Hong Merchants, Hougua, who appeared extremely anxious to know our business here, the time of our intended departure, etc., etc., notwithstanding he had been repeatedly told by the Consul, and at the same time every assurance given him of the friendly disposition of the American Government, and that the protection of our immense trade was the only object that induced the President of the United States to send the frigate Congress to China.
I was tantalized with promises of being allowed a Compradore until the 2nd of December when I informed the Hong Merchants that I should address a letter direct to the Hoppoo in violation of their customs. To this they made some objections and requested that the communiCation might be made through the Consul, which was done on the 3rd of December, a copy of which (marked No. 4) together with copies of the different Chops, or orders, received by Mr. Wilcocks relative to the affair; for the translations of which I am indebted to Mr. Meneston, a gentleman' who translates for the English East India Company. Since the Consul's communication to the Hoppoo (previous to which I feel convinced there had been no correct information carried within the Walls) they have, without making a reply, relaxed so far in their inhospitable restrictions as to allow the ship a Compradore, for which a Chop was issued on the 7th of December, since which time our supplies have been very regular, and I am happy to observe that the commotion which my arrival in China excited has considerably abated, and I am in hopes to leave them impressed with such a knowledge of the pacific and friendly disposition of my Government towards them as to ensure to our armed vessels hereafter a more hospitable reception. 26
Having obtained the desired refreshments, Henley, about the middle of January, sailed for Manila, where he arrived after a week's voyage. As the Congress was the first American ship of war to visit our future possessions in the East Indies, the following extract from a letter of her captain to the Secretary of the Navy, dated Manila Bay, January 22, 1820, is not without interest:
I have met with a very hospitable reception at Manila, one indeed which has far exceeded my most sanguine expectations. The Governor himself [Mariano Fernandez de Folgueras] professes the greatest friendship for us, and has tendered his services to render any assistance which I might stand in need of. Under these circumstances I deemed it a fit season to effect the repairs of my mizzenmast, which I informed you in my last had been found to be very defective. After representing its situation to the Governor and having received his assurances that every facility which a well established navy-yard could afford towards expediting it should be afforded me, I proceeded immediately to set it out and entertain the most flattering expectations of having it stepped again in a very short time. 27
One of the subordinate officers of the Congress has also recorded his impressions of this visit to Manila:
Our reception here formed a striking and highly pleasing contrast to the very unfavorable one we had recently met with in the ancient, but uncivilized and inhospitable, country we had so lately left. The manner in which we were received by the Governor was peculiarly gratifying, not only to our national, but to our individual, feelings. The kindest offers of a public nature have been made to Capt. Henley, and the officers have been severally invited and welcomed to his house in the most hospitable manner. His example, however, has been followed by very few of the Spanish gentlemen; they, preserving in its fullest extent the proud and reserved character for which they are so noted, keep aloof and pay us little or no attention even in their own houses, where we often go to visit the ladies, whose polite attention amply compensates for the rudeness of the men. 28
In March Henley returned to Lintin for the purpose of offering convoy to the American merchantmen about to sail for home. In the latter part of April he sailed again, and for 70 days cruised in the China Sea and in the neighborhood of the Straits of Banca,
Gaspar, and Singapore, but saw nothing worthy of observation.
26 Captains' Letters, U. S. Navy Dept. Arch., LXV, 30, 90.
27 Captains' Letters, U. S. Navy Dept. Arch., LXX, 32.
28 National Intelligencer (Washington), July 29, 1820.
After calling at Manila, he again returned to Lintin, where he arrived on September 9. Renewing its acts of inhospitality, the Chinese government denied him the service of a compradore and refused to issue an order for the transportation to Lintin of stores purchased at Canton. The viceroy did not deign to reply to a letter from Henley demanding for the Congress the same privileges that were granted to British ships of war. Finally, deciding on bolder measures, Henley weighed anchor at Lintin and sailed up the bay to Chuenpe, near the Bocca Tigris. This movement had the desired effect. Greatly alarmed, the hong merchants at once sent down the stores of the ship, and Henley was soon able to complete the preparations for his return voyage. Before sailing he offered to convoy the American merchantmen in China through the Dutch possessions, but they one and all refused the proffered aid, fearing to incur the hostility of the Chinese government by taking advantage of it.
Some recent commotions at Manila caused Henley to decide to stop at that port on his way home. It appeared that early in October the Filipinos had attacked the foreign residents of Manila and had murdered upwards of 30 of them. One American was killed, and the American consul narrowly escaped -with his life. According to one account, the outrage was instigated by the priests, who induced the people to believe that the foreigners were the cause of the cholera then prevailing in the city. Another account traced the commotion to the native merchants, who, it was asserted, wished to evade their contracts with the foreigners to furnish sugar at certain specified rates, that article having appreciated in value after the contracts were made.
Henley found the city in great disorder, and business entirely suspended. Before he was able to render much assistance the cholera made its appearance on board his ship, and he was compelled to put to sea. After clearing the Straits of Sunda the disease was got under control, but not until 26 men had died with it. The crew suffered also from scurvy, the scourge of the sailing ships of the old navy. In a cruise of a little more than two years the Congress lost 68 men, almost 20 per cent of her complement. Among the dead was Lieutenant William Nicoll.
At Rio Janeiro Henley received on board his ship as a passenger to the United States, General Thomas Sumter, our former Minister to Brazil. A revolution was in progress at the Brazilian capital, a small fleet was waiting to carry the King to Portugal, and Don Pedro was to be left in charge of the government. The City was "filled with people shouting for a constitution apparently without understanding what they wanted." The Congress arrived at Hampton Roads on May 29, 1821.
V.
THE CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE BY THE "VINCENNES”: 1826-1830. 29
Four years after the Empress of China, in 1784 rounded the Cape of Good Hope on her memorable voyage to Canton, the ship Columbia, of 220 tons burden, Captain John Kendrick, and her consort. the sloop Lady of Washington, of 90 tons, Captain Robert Gray, rounded Cape Horn and passed into the Pacific—the first American vessels to enter that great ocean. They were from Boston and were bound to the Northwest Coast, carrying assorted cargoes, which were to be exchanged for the furs of the sea-otter.
After remaining on the coast for more than a year, they sailed separately in the latter part of 1789 for Canton by way of the Sandwich Islands. The Columbia arrived in China in November, and, after selling her furs and buying teas, she returned home by way of the Cape of Good Hope, reaching Boston on August 10, 1790— the first American vessel to circumnavigate the globe.
The first American merchantman to cross the Pacific from Asia to America was the little brig Eleonora of New York, Captain Metcalf. She sailed from Canton for the Northwest Coast about September, 1789, and arrived at Nootka Sound in November, being accompanied with a small schooner called the Fair American, which Metcalf had purchased in China and had placed under the command of his son, a youth of eighteen years. The voyage from our Atlantic ports, especially from Boston, around Cape Horn to the Northwest Coast and thence to China soon became a popular one, as it was exceedingly profitable. In September, 1790, the brig Hope sailed upon it, and she was soon followed by the Columbia, Hancock, Jefferson, and Margaret. Captain Cleaveland, in his journals, mentions four Boston vessels which he saw
29 The chief sources of information for this chapter are Captain Finch's proceedings during the cruise in the U. S. sloop-of-war Vincennes and Masters' Letters, 1829-1840 (U. S. Navy Dept. Arch.), and C. S. Stewart's visit to the South Seas.
on the Northwest Coast in 1799, and says that ten others were to be dispatched thence during the season. In the course of half a century our merchantmen visited every part of the coast of the North Pacific and all the adjacent islands in search of the skins of the sea-otter, the seal, and other fur-bearing animals.
American mechantmen did not long precede American whalemen in the Pacific. The first cruising-grounds of our whalemen lay off the coast of the thirteen colonies. When they had exhausted the whales there, they sought new fields in which to ply their trade, passing, in the course of several centuries, from their home coasts to the West Indies, thence to the Cape Verdes, thence to the coasts of Africa and Brazil, and thence to the Falkland Islands and the east coast of Patagonia. Finally in 1791 six whalers from Nantucket and New Bedford rounded Cape Horn and began operations off the coast of Chile. These were soon followed by others, and the cruising-grounds were extended northward to the equator. By 1812 the region of the Gallapagos Islands was much frequented. In 1820 the "off shore grounds," latitude 50-10° south, longitude 103°-125° west, were discovered, and about the same time the first American whalers made their appearance on the coast of Japan.
With the arrival of our merchantmen and whalemen in the Pacific, our trade with the ports on the west coast of South America began, and it gradually increased from year to year. In 1813-1814 Commodore David Porter, in the frigate Essex—the first American ship of war to round both the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Horn—protected our vessels in the Pacific and captured many British whalers. In 1821-1824 Commodore Charles Stewart established the Pacific naval station, with headquarters at Valparaiso and Callao, for the protection of our commercial and whaling interests in that ocean. Stewart was succeeded as commander-in-chief of the squadron by Commodore Isaac Hull, the illustrious commander of the Constitution and the captor of the Guerriere. In 1826 a new commander-in-chief was sent to the Pacific to relieve Hull, Commodore Jacob Jones, who sailed from the United States in September of that year with the frigate Brandywine and the sloop-of-war Vincennes. The latter vessel was making her
maiden voyage, having been but recently launched. She was rated as a i6-gun sloop, of 700 tons burden, and carried 190 officers and seamen. Her commander, William Bolton Finch, entered the navy as a midshipman in 1806, and became a lieutenant in 1813, a master commandant in 1820, and a captain in 1831. In 1819 he gained an unpleasant notoriety by killing Lieutenant Francis B. White, of the marine corps, in a duel fought on Castle Island,
Boston Harbor.
In January, 1829, when Finch's tour of duty in the Pacific was drawing to a close, the Secretary of the Navy ordered him to return home by way of the Cape of Good Hope, after visiting various islands in the Pacific and ports of Asia frequented by our merchantmen and whalers. An extract from his orders will show the objects of his voyage:
You will then proceed, after supplying your ship with the requisite funds in specie, provisions, and repairs, to the Society Islands touching at the Ports in them where it is probable you will find our merchant and whaling vessels, and render to them, all the assistance and protection of which they stand in need, or to which they may be lawfully entitled. You will make enquiry into the state, extent, value, and wants of our commerce, and cultivate with the Chiefs and authorities the best feelings towards our government, citizens, and interests. If you should find that our seamen are in the habit of deserting from their ships, you will use every effort consistent with a friendly deportment towards the natives to reclaim them and to persuade the Chiefs to discourage, by every means in their power, a practice injurious to our commerce and much calculated to impair the good understanding which we are desirous to maintain. It may be in your power to render important services to our maritime interests by removing a source of great annoyance and apprehension, if not evil and danger. Many inconveniences have been felt in some of the Islands from the presence of our fugitive sailors, and injury results to our shipping from the example held out for others to follow. It would be politic to adopt a conciliatory course towards them, should any be found, and by prevailing upon them to enter either on board the Vincennes or some merchant vessel, thus restore them to their country, to their friends, and to usefulness.
You will remain a short time, as circumstances shall require, and thence proceed to the Sandwich Islands, visiting the port of Honoruru and any others where it may be of service to exhibit your force. The purposes of your visit to the Sandwich will be similar to those for visiting the Society Islands, and the same instructions will apply to both. Chaplain Stewart has in his care and will deliver to you a letter to King Tamehameha and a few presents from our Government to the principal Chiefs of the Sandwich Islands. You. will deliver them to the persons for whom they are intended. Here you will remain from two to three weeks, or as long as shall be thought expedient, being careful during your stay to cultivate the most friendly relations and to procure from our consular and commercial agent and from other sources every information respecting our commercial and other interests which may be practicable.
After accomplishing these objects, you will resume your route to the United States, passing by the Cape of Good Hope, and stopping at the Islands of St. Helena or Ascension, or both, and at such other places as may be found convenient, [attending] constantly to the interests and wants of our countrymen, and procuring information which may be useful. After leaving the Sandwich Islands, if the wind and weather should permit, it will be useful for you to visit the port of Canton where our commerce is very valuable. As this will depend so much upon the state of the winds and weather, it must be left to your discretion. 30
On July 4. 1829, Finch sailed from Callao, Peru, for the Society Islands. On his way he stopped at Nukuhiva, Washington Islands (a part of the Marquesas Group), which had been discovered in 1791 by Captain Ingraham, of Boston, and had been visited in 1813 by Commodore Porter in the Essex. About the middle of August he reached the Society Islands—first visited in 1826 by an American warship, the Peacock, Captain T. A. C.
Jones—and remained there several weeks cultivating the friendship of the native chiefs. On October i he arrived at the Sandwich Islands. Here he delivered to the King the gifts and communication of the President and exchanged numerous civilities with him, the members of his family, and the officials of his government, winning the good will of all the residents, with the exception of the American merchants, who thought Finch partial to the missionaries. From some statistics collected by Finch we learn that 25 American merchantmen and ioo whalers, worth with their cargoes $5,270,000, visited the Sandwich Islands annually. The discovery of the whale fishery on the coast of Japan and the independence of the republics on the west coast of North and South America had greatly increased our commerce with these islands.
In the latter part of November the Vincennes sailed from Honolulu for China. She passed through the Ladrone Islands, but probably not near enough to Guam to give her crew a sight of that future possession of America. "On the evening of the 19 inst." (December), wrote Chaplain C. S. Stewart of the Vincennes, we passed the most northern of the Ladrone Islands, between Pagan and Agrigan, at a distance of 15 or 20 miles. Both lofty islands, the last so much so as frequently to be seen at a distance of sixty miles. It was near night when we descried them, and nothing but a dim outline was to be seen against the sky. 31 After
30 Letters to Officers of Ships of War, U. S. Navy Dept. Arch., XVIII, 219.
31 Stewart. C. S. A Visit to the South Seas, II, 289.
a tedious passage of 39 days the good ship anchored at Macao, Where Captain Finch was hospitably received by the acting consul of the United States, Mr. C. N. Talbot, and by Dr. Bradford, formerly of Philadelphia. Chaplain Stewart was entertained by Dr. Robert Morrison, for many years the only Protestant, English speaking missionary in China, and Chinese interpreter for the British and American residents. The officers of the ship received many kind attentions from the merchants, and especially from the chief representatives of the British East India Company. A party, consisting among others of Captain Finch, Chaplain Stewart and Midshipmen M. F. Maury and Stephen C. Rowan, visited Canton.
Soon after the arrival of the Vincennes at Macao, Finch addressed a letter to Consul Talbot and Messrs. J. P. Sturgis, Samuel Russell, J. R. Latimer, and W. H. Low, American merchants, asking for information respecting the trade between the United
States and China and the advisability of periodical visits by our warships to Chinese waters. Their reply gives in brief form a statement of our commercial relations with China in 1830:
We are fully aware of the kind intentions of the general government in permitting the present visit of your ship of these waters, and feel particularly obliged to you for the communication now under consideration, and for the interest it evinces for the prosperity and protection of our trade. Was time allowed previous to your departure to prepare the documents necessary to reply to your communication as we should wish to do, we have no doubt but what we could exhibit to the satisfaction of yourself and the general government the great advantages to our commerce which would be derived from occasional visits' by our vessels of war, attended, as they would be, by increased respect for our national character. We will however briefly observe that the commerce of the United States with China is at present on a favorable footing. We have many local grievances and impositions to complain of, practiced by the local Mandarins in contravention of the known laws of the Empire. These we suffer in common with other nations. [There are] other grievances, delays and impositions peculiar to our flag which are vexatious, but of so petty a nature that we have no doubt they would be promptly redressed on remonstrance at any time, if attended with the presence of a vessel of war. Hence we feel no hesitation in assuring you that it is not only our wish to have frequent visits by our national ships, attended as we believe they would be by benefit to the commerce of this port; but that our national character would be elevated in the estimation of the whole Chinese Empire and the neighboring governments, and that especial care would be observed by all not to encroach on our rights, knowing that the power to protect the very valuable commerce of our country was at hand to appeal to, and that the appeal would not be made in vain.
The American trade from all parts of the world centering in the port of Canton fluctuates in, value of imports from five to seven millions of dollars annually, with like exports. We have one year with another from forty to fifty ships in the port. And it is frequently a source of anxiety and disquietude to us to hear of armed vessels of doubtful character cruising in the tracts of our ships, which from their pacific character are without the means of defence themselves, nor any where to look for that protection so valuable a commerce demands.
The fact of your visit, brief as it is, will be known throughout China and the whole Indian Archipelago. Should it be followed by those of other armed vessels observing the same deference towards the customs of China and conciliatory disposition as exhibited by yourself, they will in our opinion increase the respect for our flag, enable us at all times to resist impositions with effect, and have a moral influence on all the inhabitants of the various coasts and islands in the route of our merchant ships.
The season for visiting China may be left at the pleasure of the general government. Our season of business extends from September to March, which would be the best for obtaining supplies, for the health of the crews, and of importance to the commercial interests. At all times provisions can be obtained by a short delay. And generally the shipping of various nations have an excess of provisions which might be had without any delay. The visits would be most influential if made annually, and of short stay in the water of China, visiting Manila and proceeding through the seas and straits usually frequented by our ships.
Men of war visiting China are precluded by law from entering the port: They should not come up higher than Lintin where there is perfectly good and safe anchorage. In a few days after their arrival is reported, licenses are granted and an abundant supply of provisions will be furnished by a licensed compradore. The well known character of American officers will preclude the supposition that any interruption to the trade can arise from their non-compliance with the customs of the country.
We are decidedly of opinion that the fostering care of the general government for the protection of commerce cannot be extended to one of more importance than the China trade, and that the occasional visits by vessels of war will be attended with the most beneficial results. 32
After a brief stay at Macao, Finch sailed for Manila, where he arrived on January 29, 1830. He was courteously received by Senor Mariano Ricafort, the captain-general and governor of the Philippines. The American merchants residing at Manila were of the opinion that occasional visits there by our warships were desirable. Some impressions of Chaplain Stewart, written during his stay at the Philippine capital, constitute one of the first descriptions of the city and its environs from an American pen.
32 Captain Finch's Proceedings during His Cruise in the U. S. Sloop-of-War Vincennes, January 14, 1830.
On the morning of the 26th inst., we descried the Island of Luconia, or Lucon, at a point fifty or sixty leagues north of the entrance of this bay; and for the two days following coasted its shore, under the alternate influence of a land and sea breeze, with the outline of a mountainous and finely variegated country in full view.
The bay of Manilla is very extensive, ninety leagues in circumference, and the city situated on its southern shore, some twenty or twenty-five miles from the sea. We dropt anchor in our present berth early yesterday morning; and are surrounded by varied and beautiful scenery. The circuit of the bay is too wide to allow of distinct views of most of its shores; but the outline of the lofty hills and mountains, sweeping round it, is traceable at most times against the sky—giving to it, as a whole, much the appearance of a noble lake.
The view of the city, however, its suburbs, and the adjoining country on either side, and far inland', is full and imposing. The city itself, in closed by walls of dark stone, and surrounded by a broad moat, lies on the north side of the river Pasig, which here flows into the bay, while the suburbs, containing a tenfold population, lie across the same stream on the north. The aspect of the two sections presents a striking contrast. The dark, moss-covered walls on the one side—screening every thing from sight except the red tile of the roofs of the houses, and the towers and domes of the cathedral and churches—stretch a half or three quarters of a mile along a green bank and carriage-drive by the water's edge; while on the other, in place of heavy walls, bastions, and embattled towers, nothing is to be seen, as far as the eye can reach, but a mass of huts of bamboo and reeds, of the slightest construction and rudest aspect, embowered in groves of the greatest luxuriance and verdure. The location both of the city and suburbs is very low—a characteristic of the surrounding country; but some miles inland it becomes more elevated and broken, and terminates at last on every side in lofty and beautiful mountains.
G. W. Hubbell, Esquire, consular agent of our government, waited early upon Captain Finch and his officers, with a tender of the hospitality of his house; and it is arranged that the captain, purser, surgeon, and myself, shall take up our quarters with him during our visit.
My friend Lieutenant Magruder accompanied me on shore at two o'clock to dine at the consulate and to take a first glance at the city. The landing is by the river, a narrow and rapid stream, with a lighthouse, small and of imperfect service, at its mouth on the suburb side. A long mole of granite, with a circular battery at the end, lines the river on the same side with the city; immediately on passing which we perceived a greater stir of business than is seen from the bay, the river being crowded on the side adjoining the suburbs with numbers of vessels of various burdens and covered with boats, plying rapidly in different directions. The walls of the city rise from the water, and extend more than half a mile up the stream to a fine stone bridge, affording the only communication by carriages with the suburbs. Besides Mr. Hubbell, we found at the consulate Mr. King, a young gentleman of intelligence and piety, attached to the establishment, and Captains Chever and Benjamin, the commanders of two American merchantmen, at present in port.
The support of an equipage here is attended comparatively with so little expense, that it is not customary to walk, either on business or for pleasure; and after dinner, at five o'clock, four carriages were in readiness for the whole party, with the addition of Mr. Stribling [Lieutenant C. K. Stribling], from the ship, to take an evening airing. The usual vehicle is a light, low phaeton, handsomely finished, drawn by two small, but fleet horses, under the management of a postillion on one of them.
The rides in the vicinity of the city are varied, and of a degree of beauty almost unrivaled; but that most resorted to in the evening is a broad road lined with a double row of trees, commencing at the bridge and following the course of the moat and glacis surrounding the city wall to the beach, and extending along it in front of the city, with an open view of the bay and shipping. Here all the rank and fashion of the place assemble for an hour or more every evening, presenting an animated and truly beautiful spectacle, as equipage after Equipage rolls along in a double line—one passing in one direction and the other in another—affording a full view, from the open carriages, of all the dress and beauty of the first circles of society. The ladies wear neither hats nor mantles; but, according to the Spanish custom on such occasions, appear in full evening costume.
This drive is called the Calzada. It is open entirely to the country on one side, and leads past the public parade ground, near the bay. The standing fcrces of the government consists of 12,000 troops, all natives of the islands, commanded by Spanish officers. Five thousand of these are quartered in the city, and the remainder in various parts of the group.
There is a regular evening drill; and about two thousand were now under arms. They made a fine appearance; are well dressed, well paid, and it is said, are loyal and firm in their attachment to the Spanish authority. Two full bands were performing, and I have no where heard finer martial music, though all the musicians, like the soldiers, are native indians of the country.
The airing and the drill usually terminate together—the carriages, when the troops begin to move, changing the rapid rate, at which for the hour previous they are whirled from one end of the Calzada to the other, to a walk, for the enjoyment of the music to which they march, till dispersed at the barracks near the bridge.
Two evenings in each week the military bands perform for an hour in the palace square within the city, in front of the residence of His Catholic Majesty's representative, the Captain General and governor of the Philippine Islands, at present the Senor Rocafuerte. This was one of the evenings; and we drove into the city to share in the entertainment. It is a well built, neat, and quiet town, containing a population of twenty thousand, principally Spanish, or of Spanish extraction; officers of government and of the military department; priests, soldiers, etc. The streets are regular, and well kept, and the whole style of building that which I have described as prevailing in Lima—the Moorish quadrangle of two stories, with covered balconies from the second story over the street and corridors within. Here the balconies, instead of lattice work of dark wood, consist of large sashes, to be thrown open at pleasure, set, in place of glass, with the inner shell of a large muscle, which, prepared for the purpose, IS translucent, transmitting the glare of a tropical sun, in a mellowness of light equal to that passing through ground glass.
The houses of the foreign residents, and of the more wealthy inhabitants of the suburbs, are in the same style of architecture; the first story being appropriated to storehouses, kitchens, offices, stables, etc.; while the second is occupied by spacious and lofty saloons, and sleeping and dressing apartments.33
On February 9 Finch sailed from Manila on his homeward voyage, and 56 days later anchored abreast of Cape Town, having stopped only in the Straits of Sunda, to water his ship. He was cordially received by the representatives of the British government in Africa, and later by the British officials at St. Helena, at which island he spent several days, giving his officers an opportunity to visit the tomb of Napoleon. On June 8, 1830, he arrived at New York, having circumnavigated the globe—the first commander of our navy to achieve this distinction, and the second to visit China.
33 Stewart, C. S. A Visit to the South Seas, II, 299-304.
(TO BE CONTINUED.)