176 THE RETROSPECT OF THE YEAR. 



cess of industrious young men. He knew of old what 

 struggles and sacrifices business success costs and, since he 

 had no family dependent on his means, felt himself at lib- 

 erty to indulge in the luxurious bounty of helping on his 

 juniors with well-considered loans of capital and credit. 



The keen commercial instincts of John Bertram and 

 Michael Shepard seem to have made them the first to dis- 

 cover in Mr. Waters the promise of a career, at a time when 

 they with Capt. Wm. B. Smith of the Brig "Cherokee," 

 and others, were enlisted in the undertaking to develop 

 trade and build up an extensive business at Zanzibar. 1 With 

 warm encouragement from them and the cordial endorse- 

 ment of Ex-Senator Silsbee, Mr. Waters visited the Na- 

 tional Capital in February, 1836, and was there presented 

 in person, by our representative, Stephen C. Phillips, to 

 the President of the United States. He returned in March 

 with a commission signed by General Jackson, the first 

 commission ever issued to an American or any other Con- 

 sul at Zanzibar. He could hardly have succeeded in secur- 

 ing this but for a fortunate coincidence. He was already 

 known as a pronounced, outspoken and unconditional abo- 

 litionist, and on that ground was of course much disparaged 

 amongst influential people. Certainly this was not the 

 sort of reputation likely to commend him to the favorable 

 notice of General Jackson's second administration, but it 

 was his fortune to have for an intimate friend the Rev. 

 James Trask Woodbury of Acton, a man of marked en- 

 ergy of character and mind, a thorough-going abolitionist 

 like himself, and a brother of Levi Woodbury, at that 

 time Secretary of the Treasury. 2 



1 Salem ships, belonging to the Rogers Brothers and other owners, had been 

 touching and trading at Zanzibar since the opening years of the century. 



'April 1, 1836, he passed the day at the Topsfield Stage House with the County 

 Committee of the Essex County Anti Slavery Society of which he was a member; 



