Early Relations between the United States and China. 49 



bolder, so much so that vessels found it safe to go from Macao 

 to Whampoa only in fleets of four or five."'' Several attacks by 

 them are recorded. An entry of a ship's journal, Macao, Sep- 

 tember 17, 1809,^* says that an American brig had been captured 

 a short time before and that several others had been attacked. 

 In the same year the "Atahualpa" of Boston was attacked twice, 

 first"^ in Macao Roads and then^" while going up the river with 

 four other American ships. ^' 



More dangerous than the ladrones, however, were the French 

 and British privateers and men of war. In 1794, an American 

 ship sailed from Canton under the protection of the returning 

 Macartney embassy from fear of French privateers in the Straits 

 of Sunda.'*^ In 1800 Samuel Snow, the consul at Canton, officially 

 warned American ships of danger from them in the same local- 

 ity.^^ In the same year the ship "Ann and Hope" of Provi- 

 dence was attacked by a Frenchman and drove him off only 

 after a three cjuarters of an hour's fight. ^"^ 



The French, however, gave less trouble than the English. 

 Here as elsewhere in these years, British claims to the right of 

 search were annoying American commerce. Canton was visited 

 by more American ships than any other port in the Orient, and 

 was hence a convenient place to search them for "deserters." 

 The United States could send no ship of war to interfere, ^**^ and 



^Journal of the "Hunter" from Salem to Canton and Return, 1808-9, 

 September 17, 1809. 



"' Ibid. 



"^Hunter, Bits of Old China, p. 157. 



"" Charles G. Loring, Memoir of Wm. Sturgis, in Proc. of Mass. Hist. 

 Soc, 1863-1864, Boston, 1864, 7 : 420-433. 



"As late as 1817 there is the record of an attack by pirates on the ship 

 "Wabash" of Baltimore, although the worst nest must have been rooted 

 out some time before. Wilcocks to Secy, of State, Sept. 22, 1817. 

 Consular Letters, Canton, I. 



"* The journal of Mr. Samuel Holmes .... during his attend- 

 ance .... on Lord Macartney's Embassy to China and Tartary, 

 1792-3. London, 1798. p. 198. 



"^Weeden, Early Or. Trade of Prov., p. 253. 



^""George C. Mason, Reminiscences of Newport, Newport, 1884, p. 152, 

 Aug. 17, 1800. 



'" The "Essex" came out in 1800 to ward off French privateers, but 

 got only as far as the Straits of Sunda. Preble, First Cruise of the 

 Trans. Conn. Acad., Vol. XXH 4 1917 



