Aug.] 



NECESSARY EQUIPMENTS. 



433 



pearl and tortoise-shell, sandal-wood, biche-de-mer, and other valuables, 

 under the conduct of a careful and able commander, would obtain 

 two or three cargoes for the Canton market without having any trouble 

 with the natives, provided they are treated with kindness, and dealt 

 with honourably. For such an enterprise, the necessary articles of 

 traffic are, beads, looking-glasses, tinder-works, axes, hatchets, adzes, 

 saws, planes, chisels, gouges, gimlets, files, rasps, spoke-shaves, 

 hammers, knives, scissors, razors, needles, thread, different kinds of 

 crockery-ware, cheap chintz, and calicoes of bright gaudy colours, 

 and all sorts of trinkets. These articles should all be selected by a 

 man who has a thorough knowledge of the trade. 



A ship intended for this trade should be from three hundred to 

 three hundred and fifty tons burthen ; built of good materials, of a 

 light draught of water, and a fast sailer. She should also be built on 

 a different construction from any other vessel, and rigged into a barque. 

 She should be well armed, with at least ten double fortified twelve- 

 pound carronades ; and two long twelves, and manned with an effect- 

 ive crew of forty or fifty able-bodied men, with a select first-rate set 

 of officers, besides several medical and scientific men. She should 

 also be provided with four brass blunderbusses for each top, with 

 water-tight arm-chests, for the same purpose. Her anchors and cables 

 should be of more than double the usual weight and strength of those 

 intended for any other trade. She should be amply supplied with all 

 kinds of nautical instruments, for ascertaining the exact situation of 

 all the islands and places she might visit, in order that the same may 

 be accurately laid down, for the benefit of others. Above all, she 

 should be placed under the command of a man who is qualified for the 

 business ; one who is familiarly acquainted with the peculiar naviga- 

 tions of those seas, and who will study the health and comfort of his 

 men, and the permanent welfare of the natives. 



Such a ship, thus prepared for a two years' voyage, and navigated 

 by such a commander, would return an immense profit to the owners. 

 I do not entertain the shadow of a doubt, that an investment of thirty- 

 five or forty thousand dollars, thus employed, would yield a return of 

 at least two hundred thousand dollars. The discovery of these islands 

 has laid open a field for the exercise of commercial enterprise of vast 

 importance, not only to individuals, but to our country at large. The 

 soil is rich, and capable of producing, under proper cultivation, all 

 the vegetable wealth of a tropical climate. 



In giving these islands the name of Bergh's Group, I was actuated 

 solely by the desire of adding to the well-earned celebrity of a name 

 which is universally respected by all who have the happiness of 

 knowing the family which it designates. My friend Edwin Bergh is 

 the son of Christian Bergh, Esq., a ship-builder of no inconsiderable 

 eminence, in the city of New-York ; and is justly entitled to 

 the honour of having his name engraved in characters that time can 

 never obliterate, on the coral parapet that surrounds the loveliest group 

 of islands in the Pacific Ocean. I claim to be the first discoverer of 

 these islands, and I know their worth. Independent of my own ob- 

 servations, the natives were very communicative to me on the subject 



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