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The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.

[1]

EMBASSY
TO THE
EASTERN COURTS
OF
COCHIN-CHINA, SIAM, AND MUSCAT;

IN THE
U. S. SLOOP-OF-WAR PEACOCK,
DAVID GEISINGER, COMMANDER,
DURING THE YEARS 1832-3-4.

BY
EDMUND ROBERTS.

NEW YORK:
HARPER & BROTHERS.
1837.

[2]

Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1837,
In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the Southern District of New York.

[3]

TO THE
HON. LEVI WOODBURY,
THIS VOLUME IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED,
BY
HIS FRIEND AND FELLOW-CITIZEN,
THE AUTHOR.

[4]

[5]

INTRODUCTION.

Having some years since become acquainted with the commerce of Asiaand Eastern Africa, the information produced on my mind a conviction thatconsiderable benefit would result from effecting treaties with some of thenative powers bordering on the Indian ocean.

With a view to effect an object apparently so important, I addressed aletter to the Hon. Levi Woodbury, then a Senator in Congress from thestate of New Hampshire, detailing the neglected state of our commercewith certain eastern princes, and showing that the difference between theduties paid on English and American commerce, in their dominions, constitutedof itself a very important item in profit, in favour of the former.

Subsequently to this period, Mr. Woodbury was appointed to the secretaryshipof the Navy, and consequently became more deeply interested inthe success of our floating commerce.

Scarcely had his appointment been confirmed before the melancholy newsarrived, that the ship Friendship, of Salem, Mass., had been plundered, anda great portion of her crew murdered, by the natives of Qualah Battu.

As an important branch of our commerce to the pepper ports on the westerncoast of Sumatra was endangered, by the successful and hostile act ofthese barbarians, it was deemed necessary that the piratical outrage shouldbe promptly noticed by a national demand for the surrender and punishmentof the aggressors.

About this period, the U. S. ship-of-war Potomac was nearly ready toproceed to her station on the western coast of South America, by way ofCape Horn, but her destination was immediately changed for the westerncoast of Sumatra, accompanied by instructions to carry into effect themeasures of government against the inhabitants of Qualah Battu.

As our government was anxious to guard against any casualty whichmight befall the Potomac in fulfilling her directions, it resolved to despatchthe United States’ sloop-of-war Peacock and schooner Boxer, to carry intoeffect, if necessary, the orders of the first-named vessel, and also to convey[6]to the courts of Cochin-China, Siam and Muscat, a mission charged toeffect, if practicable, treaties with those respective powers which wouldplace American commerce on a surer basis, and on an equality with thatof the most favoured nations trading to those kingdoms.

A special or confidential agent being necessary to carry into effect thenew measures of government, I had the honour to be selected for thatduty, at the particular

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