176 A. D. 1788. 



the nabob of Oude, of lofles and hardfhips proceeding from the heavy 

 duties and the mode of colleding them, a treaty was concluded between 

 Earl Cornwallis, governor-general of India, and the nabob, whereby it 

 was agreed, that all duties Ihould be paid agreeable to the tenor of cuf- 

 tom-houfe pafles, certifying the quantity or value, which Ihould be given 

 to all perfons conveying goods from the one territory to the other. The 

 rates of duties on the various fpecies of goods were condefcended upon ; 

 and penalties of double duties were denounced againft merchants at- 

 tempting to evade payment, and much more rigorous penalties againft 

 revenue officers guilty of oppreffion. 



September — Captain Read, the commander of an American fhip in 

 the Eaft-India trade, arrived at Philadelphia from a voyage to China, 

 wherein he had performed the outward paflage by ftretching from the 

 Cape of Good Hope to the fouth part of New Holland *, and along 

 the eaft fide of that vaft ifland. The officers of the European fhips at 

 Canton were much furprifed to fee a fhip arrive in December, and ex- 

 preffed great fatisfadlion, when he fhowed them the track of his new 

 route. 



About the fame time a filver mine was difcovered near Elbpus in the 

 flate of New York, and another at Conway in MafTachufet's bay. 



It is worthy .of obfervation that orders were fent from Paris to Mr. 

 Wilkinfon, a gentleman of great eminence in the iron manufadure, for 

 iron pipes to the extent of no lefs thanjbfty miksf to be ufed in fupply^ 

 jng that capital with water. 



The knowlege of the furs of the fea-otter, and of the great profits to 

 be made by them, obtained by means of Captain Cook's lafl voyage, 

 excited a fpirit for fending veflels to the north-weft coaft of America, 

 the country where thofe pretious furs are to be found. In the year 

 1781 Mr. Bolts, whom I have already had occafion to mention as the 

 condudor of an Auftrian projed of colonization on the eaft coaft of 

 Africa, fitted out the Cobenzel, an armed fhip of 700 tuns, for that 

 trade, to fail from Triefte under Imperial colours. This capital fhip 

 was to be accompanied by ?^ tender, and to carry out men of eminence 

 in every department of fcience : and the favour of the various maritime 

 powers of Europe was promiled to the navigators, who were to engage 

 in a voyage of fcientific, as well as commercial, purfuits. But the ex- 

 pedition, fo promifing in every refped, except perhaps in the too great 

 lize of the fhip, was fruftrated by means of fome interefted manoeuvres 

 at the court of Vienna. 



After this abortive attempt, the firft veflel, that adually accompliflied 

 a voyage in that trade, was a fmall brig, fitted out from Canton by the 



* The land, which was then called the fouth tween it and the main land, which, from the name 

 part of New Holland, is now (1800) known to of the gentleman ^vho fi'.r7eycd it, is called Baffc's 

 fee -a confiderable ifland with a roomy channel be* ftraits. 



