ni zed as in ev irab le, rhe Brirish came to see rh ar a srrongAmerica was in Brirain 's interesr. So Brirain marked our far more rerri tory for rhe Unired Srates in th e peace settlement rh an either the French or Spanish wanted the US to have, as discussed earli er in rh is tal e.
Ledyard's Visionary Legacy Senr back to America when rhe wa r had been effectivel y reduced to an arm ed rruce pending rh e signing of rhe peace treary in 1783, Ledyard crossed to th e American lin es and found a printer in H arrford, Co nn ecricur, to publish his acco unr of Capra in Coo k's lasr voyage . T hi s acco unr, rhe first to ap pear in print, was widely nored in the whole Western world . The literate, intellectually curious publi c was growing, and of course merchants in these countries paid special attention to rhe adva ntages of rhe rich fur trade, whi ch gave Westerners a product-aparr from Spa nish silver from th eir min es in So uth America-wh ich theycould exchangewirh C hinese merchants to acquire the silks, po rcelains and other fine products of rhe C hin ese civilizatio n. Ledyard, in pursuit of his dream of opening an Ameri can trade wirh China, crossed the ocean to Paris afrer the wa r. T here he enlisted rhe supporr of T hom as Jefferso n and J ohn Paul J ones for a visionary proj ect to walk across Russia to the Bering Srrair, where he hoped to ge t a ship to Vanco uver's Nootka Sound. T hen he wou ld walk across North Am eri ca ri ll he arrived on rhe doorsteps of rhe wealthy merchants of Boston and New York who might be led to embark on this impo rtant, lucra tive trade. H ere it is nor fancifu l to see a concept of the Am erican Republic srrerching from the Atlantic to the Pacific, which one can see adumbrated in Ledyard's writing and eve n in Cook's crack about "an American ind eed ." This vital concept clearly took root in J efferso n's mind, butwouldhave srarrled mosr Americans, who tho ught of the Mississ ippi Ri ve r as a splendid western border to their new nation . Ledyard actually embarked on this grear adve nture, but Ca therine rhe Great had him intercepted ar Irkutsk, near Lake Baikal. A few years later Ledyard managed to ger himsel f appointed in London as age nt for a proj ecr to discover rhe so urces of
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Afri ca's N ile River, srill fo llowin g his explorer's benr. In Cairo, Egypt, in January 178 9, he died, aged 38. In his limited span of yea rs Ledyard, rh e visio nary, had devo red himself to a distincrive American idea l of relations with nar ive peoples, and a concern w ith developin g mankind's knowledge ofirs wo rld, wi th a stro ng admixture of new co ncepts of oceanic trade which people better equipped for th e tas k were to take up for America. And, freed of the British imperial yoke, which had severely Ii mi red A merican rradi ng ventures, there were indeed Americans ready to take up rhe charge of opening the C hina marker by bringin g in sea o tter pelts from rhe Pacific Norrhwesr.
Boston: "The Hub" A di srincti ve seafari ng civilizarion had grown up in rhe C iry of Boston and irs nearby outporrs of Salem, Marblehead and G loucester, on th e rock-bound New England coast facing out o n Cape Cod Bay, where rhe Pilgrims had firsr encounrered America 150 years earlier. T he eco nomic base for this rema rkab le com monwealrh was rhe Bosto n vessels rhar fi shed rhe Grand Banks which ftrsr drew E uropea n ships across the Arl anr ic. H o me-builr ocean-going ships maintained a health y trade wirh England-a rrade in furs , agricultural products and lumber, exchanged for the manufactured goods that susrain civilizarion , from plowshares and books to prinring presses. And rhey rraded wirh rhe resourcepoor Brirish Westindian planrations, whose slave labor sys rems needed w hear, beef and lumber, for whi ch rh ey excha nged sugar and rum. Samuel Eliot Morison , in h is classic and salry Maritime History of Massachusetts, reco rds th e tradin g spiri r rhat produced wealrh from the sea, rhrough trade and the fisheries when the land co uld not provide much above subsisrence levels. In ano ther half century rh e New E ngland indusrri al revolu rion, led by these same enterprisin g merchants and shippers, would provide anorher kind of wealrh servi ng the huge and rapidly growingAmerican markerwirh manufac tured goods from books to clo rhinga nd machine goods, with vigoro us bankin g and insurance indusrri es. T he capital
Cape Horn seas swept easily across the Low decks ofthe 90-ton sloop Lady Washington, as can be seen in this cross-section looking forward drawn by Raymond E. Wa/Lace, designer of the replica Lady Washington that sails the Pacific Coast today, rigged as the brig she became after the Cape Horn passage. for rhis larer age was accu mulated by rhe small , slow-rraveling bluff-bowed Bosto n ships rhar b roke o ur in to all corners of rh e ocean world , buildin g up rhe rese rves of energy required for the New England breakthrough by sagacio us dealings and bold sa ilin g o n distanr ve nrures . Bur initially Am erica n independence b ro ught its problems to these New Englanders. Trade wirh England co ntinued , of course, and was helped by British credit as the Ame ri can Repub li c resolved to ho nor irs war debrs, pushed by George Washington 's yo un g West Indian acolyre, Alexander Hami lto n. But rhere were bumps and jolrs alo ng the way. These bumps were co nsiderable to the peo ple who had to live throu gh them , while the New England econom y adjusred to its new rules of engagem ent with the world. T he great New England whaling fleet, crippl ed by British import duries, was on ly o ne third its pre-war size in 1789, six yea rs afte r the war ended . Independence m eant the do or was slamm ed shut on the immensely profitabl e export trade of food and lumber to Britain's Caribbean Islands, and o n the ca rgoes of suga r and rum that came back to be served on the dining tables of wea lrhy Bosro n merch ants. Backwoods far mers, fai ling to get a livable in co me from their produce until new markets were o pen, marched o n Boston in Shay's Rebellio n, as bankers and m erchants foreclosed their far ms. But rhose sam e m erchanrs found ways to force the door of imperi al prorecrion ajar and in an unconscio us re-
SEA HISTORY 86 AUTUMN 1998