202' 
VOYAGE OF THE POTOMAC. 
[February, 
without accident on his passage, great excitement and curiosity 
were produced, to learn in what part of the eastern world he had 
been so successful in loading his vessel in so short a time with 
pepper. 
There had never been so much of this article brought in one 
vessel to the United States ; and we have heard it amusingly re- 
lated, that there were not wanting, at that time, very intelligent 
persons, who went into minute calculations to show that the amount 
of stock on hand would be found greatly beyond the immediate 
demand. It is worthy of remark, also, that at this period a 
vessel of one hundred and fifty tons was deemed quite large 
enough to bring the whole crop raised on the west coast of Su- 
matra ! The cost of that cargo was about eighteen thousand 
dollars, and sold at a profit of seven hundred per cent. At this 
early period of our commercial history, while our merchants, with 
little else than true enterprise for capital, were extending their' 
trade to remote parts of the world, and opening new channels 
through which so much individual and national prosperity was to 
flow into our country in after years, it is easy to imagine the 
new feelings of competition called into existenc-e by so extraordi- 
nary a voyage as that of the Rajah, which had now just returned 
with so much profit to her owners. But still the matter was a 
secret. No one had been able to penetrate the mystery ; while 
evident preparations for another voyage showed the owners had 
confidence that the new stream of their prosperity might still flow 
on. It was known, however, that Captain Carnes had received 
his first knowledge of the trade while at the port of Bencoolen. 
What he had accomplished, others felt themselves able to do ; so 
that in a very short time vessels were fitted out from Salem and 
Beverly, directed to Bencoolen, witli instructions to find out, if 
possible, the directions which had been given to Captain Carnes. 
In this they were not successful. The jealousy of the European 
colonists became awakened, though little did they dream of the 
young Hercules who had just set foot upon their shore, whose 
youthful vigour was so soon to gain an entire and undisputed 
ascendency in the pepper trade of that coast ! Of the west coast, 
north of Padang, nothing was known ; no charts, no sailing direc- 
tions were to be found ; while the most unfavourable accounts 
of the danger of the navigation were pointed out, and were exag- 
