Early Relations bctxvccn the United States and China. 47 



those on English or European vessels, but were more orderly 

 and intelligent.*- They were for the most part American born 

 and from good New England stock. ''•■' Boys from the best 

 families would go to sea, and at a very early age would become 

 commanders of ships. William Sturgis, for example, began his 

 sailor's career at the age of sixteen. At seventeen he was chief 

 mate, and at twenty he was master of a ship in the Northwest 

 Coast Trade. The attraction was not the wages, for those were 

 not high,-* but was partly the chance for a career, for before the 

 days of New England factories no greater opportunities were 

 open to the young men of business ambition than the sea and 

 'commerce, and partly the privilege granted to the crews of many 

 of the ships, especially those to the Northwest Coast, of trading 

 on their private accounts. ''^' The China trade is an illustration 

 of what the American genius, to-day spending itself in manu- 

 factures and internal transportation and development, can 

 accomplish when diverted to the sea. 



*■ Evidence of J. Drummond, Pari. Papers, 1821, 7:210. Evidence of 

 Joshua Bates, Pari. Papers, 1830, 6:365-380. 



'*^' There were some exceptions to this rule. Log Book of the "Ann and 

 Hope," beginning Sept. 22, 1825, MS. in John Carter Brown Library. 

 In 1825 she got some seamen at Amsterdam, nine of whom had foreign 

 names. Journal of a voyage in the ship Herald from Salem to Rotter- 

 dam, Canton, and return, in 1804-1805, MS. in Essex Institute, says 

 that some foreigners had to be sjnpped. On the "Margaret" in 1791-2 

 on the Northwest Coast, all but five of the twenty-four were Americans. 

 Log of "Margaret," 1791-2. MS. 



** The account of the ship "John Jay" in 1798, MS. in John Garter 

 Brown Library, shows that the wages of a seaman were $15 a month, 

 of the steward and cabin cook $16, of the cook $15, of the boatswain 

 $24, of the cabin boy $6, of the carpenter ^23, of the third officer $16, 

 of the second officer $25, of the first officer $30, of the master $16 a 

 month and four tons trading privilege. Forbes, Personal Reminiscences, 

 p. 91, gives one captain's salary as $50 a month. 



^' Pari. Papers, 1821, p. 210, vol. 7, evidence of Drummond. A letter 

 of George Bancroft to C. C. Perkins, Jan. 4, 1879, says, "Young men 

 came from the best families in near and even remote country towns, and 

 entered the service before the mast with a prospect of promotion. The 

 permission given the sailor to take out a little venture of his own was 

 usually rewarded with more lucrative results." C. C. Perkins, Memoir of 

 James Perkins, p. 359. 



See also Pari. Papers, 1821, 7:217, evidence of Roberts. Thomas R. 



