14 Kenneth S. Latonrette, 



Samuel Shaw, a man of some education, who had seen honorable 

 service as an officer in the Continental army.^° The main part 

 of the cargo was ginseng. The ship sailed February 22, 1784, 

 protected by a sea letter granted by Congress. -° She stopped 

 at the Cape Verde Islands for water and repairs, rounded the 

 Cape of Good Hope, and then steered a straight course for the 

 Straits of Sunda.-^ Here she met a French ship and in com- 

 pany with her proceeded to China, anchoring at Whampoa, the 

 harbor of Canton, August 28th. The Chinese after a little 

 trouble learned to distinguish the Americans from the English, 

 calling them "the New People."-- The representatives of the 

 various European nations welcomed them, and even the English 

 were friendly and seemed anxious to forget the recent war. With 

 the assistance of more experienced traders, specially the French, 

 the Americans threaded their way safely through the unaccus- 

 tomed maze of the Canton trade regulations, disposed of their 

 ginseng and merchandise to advantage, and purchased a cargo 

 of teas and China goods of various kinds. Returning, "The 



^° He was successively adjutant, captain, brigade major of artillery, 

 and, finally, aide de camp to General Knox. Quincy's life of Shaw is 

 good. Delano says of Shaw, "He was a man of fine talents and con- 

 siderable cultivation." Amasa Delano, Narrative of Voyages and Travels 

 in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Boston, 1818. p. 21. 



^' The Journals of the United States in Congress assembled [Confedera- 

 tion], Philadelphia, . . . 10:47. Similar letters were frequently 

 granted later. For instance, to the "Canton," March 22, 1785 (10:97) 

 and Jan. 2, 1786 (11:14); to the "Hope," Jan. 26, 1786 (11:17); to 

 the "Columbia" and "Lady Washington," Sept. 24, 1787 (12:144, 145); 

 and to the "General Washington," Oct. 25, 1787 (12:217). 



■' Alost accounts of the voyage are taken from Shaw's Journal, but 

 garbled ones are given in Robert Wain, Jr., Life of Robert Morris, in 

 John Sanderson, Biography of the Signers of the Declaration of Inde- 

 pendence, Philadelphia, 1823, p. 368, which is quoted by Sumner, Financier 

 and Finances of the American Revolution, 2: 162. It calls the ship "The 

 Empress" and says that it was the first attempt to make an out of season 

 passage to China by going around the south cape of New Holland. A 

 cursory examination of Shaw's Journals will show that Wain was correct 

 only in the year of the voyage, both the name of the ship and the course 

 being wrong. He may have confused it with the voyage of the "Alliance." 



" For the first year, to avoid extra presents demanded of nations 

 opening trade, the Americans were reported to the Hoppo, or customs 

 collector, as English. 



