1796 1814.] AMERICAN COMMERCE IN THE PACIFIC. 267 



preserve the shells ; at Valparaiso, they raise a few dollars in ex- 

 change for European articles ; at Nootka, and other parts of the 

 north-west coasts, they traffic with the natives for furs, which, when 

 winter commences, they carry to the Sandwich Islands, to dry and 

 preserve from vermin ; here they leave their own people to take 

 care of them, and, in the spring, embark, in lieu, the natives 

 of the islands, to assist in navigating to the north-west coast, in 

 search of more skins. The remainder of the cargo is then made 

 up of sandal, which grows abundantly in the woods of Atooi and 

 Owyhee, of tortoise shells, sharks' fins, and pearls of an inferior 

 kind, [meaning, probably, mother-of-pearl shells,] all of which are 

 acceptable in the China market ; and with these and their dollars 

 they purchase cargoes of tea, silks, and nankins, and thus complete 

 their voyage in the course of two or three years." 



This account appears to be, in most respects, correct, with regard 

 to many of the American vessels engaged in the Pacific trade at the 

 period to which it relates; and it serves only to prove the industry, 

 energy, courage, and skill, of those who embarked in such difficult 

 and perilous enterprises, and conducted them so successfully. It 

 would, however, be easy to show, from custom-house returns and 

 other authentic evidence, that the greater number of the vessels sent 

 from the United States to the north-west coasts were fine ships 

 or brigs, laden with valuable cargoes of West India productions, 

 British manufactured articles, and French, Italian, and Spanish 

 wines and spirits ; and that the owners were men of large capital 

 and high reputation in the commercial world, some of whom were 

 able to compete with the British companies, and even occasionally 

 to control their movements. 



The American traders in the Pacific have also been accused, by 

 British writers, of practising every species of fraud and violence in 

 their dealings with the natives of the coasts of that sea : yet the 

 acts cited in support of these general accusations are only such as 

 have been, and ever will be, committed by people of civilized 

 nations, — and by none more frequently than the British, — when 

 unrestrained by laws, in their intercourse with ignorant, brutal, and 

 treacherous savages, always ready to rob or murder upon the 

 slightest prospect of gain, or in revenge for the slightest affront. 

 Seldom did an American ship complete a voyage through the 

 Pacific without the loss of some of her men, by the treachery or 

 the ferocity of the natives of the coasts which she visited; and 



