Master Mariner

THE LIFE AND VOYAGES OF

AMASA DELANO

Captain Amasa Delano, 1763-1823



BY
JAMES B. CONNOLLY

1943

[ Table of Contents ] [ Map ] [ Glossary ]

CHAPTER IX

Hove to in China

LIEUTENANT DELANO was ordered to lay the course for the Pelews, and shortly thereafter an entry in his log reads:

"Sailing east and south of Sooloo, a ship may go between that island and Tapool, in soundings from 25 to 50 fathoms. On this course there are two small islands five or six miles from Sooloo. As we passed them in the night I have no further description of them to give. Going southeast, soundings are lost, five or six miles from Sooloo, and are not found again till a vessel is clear of the group of islands, which lie northward of Celebes. Passing along this sea in the month of December, we had a strong southeast current all the way from Sooloo to Celebes. It then changed and ran east."

Commodore McCluer had great doings planned for himself and the English East India Company after he should arrive at the Pelews. It was to further those plans during his absence that he had left the man Blanchard behind. Blanchard was a bequeathment from Captain Wilson. He had been an officer under Captain Wilson of the wrecked ship, the Antelope; and Wilson had left Blanchard as a guard for English interests in the islands.

"Going to sea at the age of 14, Wilson captained his first ship, an East India Company pacquet Antelope, in 1782. During a secret voyage to China via Cape Horn in the hope of learning the fate of missing company ships, the Antelope was shipwrecked on reefs near the island of Oroolong (Ulong) on the night of 9 August 1783. Although the route around the Horn was occasionally used, it was unusual to sail to China in a westerly direction. The Antelope was also possibly on a mission of exploration. All on board survived the shipwreck, escaping to a nearby island. Sustained by the hospitality of Abba Thulle, the island chief, the crew built a new vessel, the Oroolong, from the wreck of the Antelope, setting sail on 12 November 1783. Arthur William Devis was a member of Captain Wilson's crew." Arthur William Devis, 1763-1822 Portrait of Captain Wilson of the Antelope c.1782 oil on canvas; 74 x 60.8 cm Rex Nan Kivell Collection; NK5375 T418 National Library of Australia "Keate, George. London, G. Nicol, 1789. Wilson, Capt Henry, 'An Account of the Pelew Islands, situated in the Western Part of the Pacific Ocean. Composed from the Journals and Communications of Captain Henry Wilson and some of His Officers, who, on August 9, 1783, were there Shipwrecked, in the Antelope, a Packet belonging to the Honourable East India Company': 'In 1783 the 'Antelope', commanded by Captain Henry Wilson, ran onto a reef near one of the Palau Islands, a previously unexplored group, and was wrecked. The entire crew managed to get safely ashore, where they were well treated by the natives and eventually managed to build a small vessel from the wreck in which they reached Macao. They took Prince Lee Boo, one of King Abba Thulle's sons, with them to England.'" "Although the Pelew Islands had been sighted by the Spaniards, the shipwreck of the East India Company's packet near one of the islands brought about the first exploration of the group by Europeans. The crew eventually managed to build a small vessel from the wreckage, in this they reached Macao, taking with them Prince Lee Boo, one of King Abba Thulle's sons, who made a good impression in London but soon died of smallpox."

As the representative of the powerful English government, King Abba allowed Blanchard great liberty and ordered his subjects to pay him honor second only to himself. Blanchard abused the king's favor. During McCluer's first visit to the Pelews, Amasa learned from the natives that Captain Wilson was hardly gone from the islands when Blanchard had been taking their food--arracacha root, yams, coconuts--for his own consumption. He had even taken their canoes, and when they complained he would contrive to have them beaten and disgraced. He even took their wives.

King Abba entertained a fear that if he did not stand behind Blanchard he would turn the English against him, and Abba depended on the English to retain his power in the islands. Commodore McCluer should have replaced Blanchard with a better-behaved representative. He should have, but he didn't, and there was Blanchard upsetting his plans.

After McCluer's departure from Pelew, Blanchard ran wild altogether. He induced a rupack (chief) favorite of King Abba's to go over to one of the small islands near by and make a night of it with a gang of their familiars. During the night Blanchard quarreled with one of the natives over one of the women, and the native stabbed him to death. That incident afforded King Abba's enemies a chance to say: "There is the kind of white man Abba Thulle favors."

Commodore McCluer had left King Abba a fresh supply of muskets and powder during his visit, meaning thereby to strengthen Abba's power and the English hold on the islands. The commodore had requested Amasa to make no mention of the muskets and powder in any ship's log he might be keeping, or of the part his forces had taken in the expedition against the Artingalls. After McCluer's departure a ship of the English East India Company had left a further stock of muskets and powder for King Abba.

Not long after that, King Abba died. Now by all Pelew law his son should have succeeded him; but Abba's brother, Raa Kook, had been waiting his chance to rule the islands. He first seized the muskets and powder. After that it was a routine matter to slaughter a few hundred of Abba Thulle's loyal warriors and take over the throne.

That was the situation in the Pelews when Commodore McCluer returned there for his second visit. A canoe load of islanders met him off the island of Onour with the news of Raa Kook's succession.

It was sad news for McCluer. Away back, three years back, before leaving Bombay for the islands, McCluer had been laying his plans for the Pelews. He had backed Abba Thulle, having in mind to return and succeed Abba Thulle himself and live out his days there. Quite a few adventurers of those old days nourished that same dream of ruling an island kingdom.

And now he was returned to the Pelews. He had visualized the great fleet of canoes racing out to meet the Panther and the Endeavour, and smiling natives swarming over the ship's rails to greet him. But now desolated natives were paddling out to greet him. And only a single canoe load of them! And their message? King Abba was dead, his son in captivity, and Abba's brother, Raa Kook, was in power.

The commodore abandoned his ambitious dreams for the Pelews. He ordered the Endeavour to Macao with dispatches. He would follow with the Panther, he said. The expedition was ended.

Amasa sailed on the Endeavour, and she arrived safely at Macao, although not until Amasa had given the officer in command of her a lesson in navigating the not too safe waters inside the island of Formosa in a hard wind on a foggy night.

Amasa never saw Commodore McCluer again; but he learned of his going ashore at Onour, making peace with Raa Kook, and settling down to live there with several male and female slaves he had picked up among the islands. Several months later McCluer sailed the Panther's launch to Macao with a crew of Malay slaves, purchased a ship, returned to Pelew, and sailed for somewhere in the South Sea Islands with his female slaves. Just where he sailed to the gossip did not say. By and by the word was passing along the China coast that McCluer was dead. Just where and under what circumstances he died Amasa never learned.

Amasa had only good words for McCluer. While in the Pelews, or elsewhere in the islands, he treated the natives with kindness. Toward Amasa he was always the considerate commander, subjecting him only to his own direct orders, and allowing him equal privileges with his English officers in the matter of carrying goods aboardship for trading purposes. His final act of good will to Amasa was to allow him to take passage on the Endeavour for Macao while the Panther remained at Pelew.

After thirty-five months with the McCluer expedition, Amasa considered himself capable of giving advice to intending traders in the Pacific Islands:

"A very profitable voyage could be made to these islands with a ship of 300 or 400 tons, properly armed, and under the command of a man qualified to transact business. Begin to voyage in America or Europe, and send the ship to Surat, Madras, or Calcutta. At these places, articles might be purchased, which would yield a profit in the future trade of the ship. Take a suitable portion of European or American manufactures for an eastern voyage."

For the guidance of sailing masters new to such a voyage he adds:

"The south west monsoon is most convenient for such a voyage, and the weather is better. The northeast monsoon, however, affords safe navigation, and it is not too disagreeable. Such a voyage should never be undertaken, but by a man who has been well acquainted with Malay customs and manners, and is familiar with their mode of doing business. No voyage requires better abilities, and higher qualifications in the commander. It can be made successful only by perseverance, enterprise, and promptitude. Canton should be taken in the route, and considered as a place to finish the sales and purchases. Many articles would find a better market there than in Europe or America, especially pearls, and the mother of pearl. With the last, a ship might almost be loaded in any of the islands."

That thirty-thousand-dollar pearl of the Sultan of Sooloo was in the front of Amasa's mind when he penned that. A pearl worth sixty thousand dollars in Europe! And these pearls came out of shells that fishermen were hauling from three or four fathoms of water and being paid a few pennies a day for the danger and fatigue of their calling!

At Macao the Endeavour joined the squadron in waiting on the English embassy to Pekin under Lord Macartney. From the first opening of the port of Canton to foreign ships, the teas and silks of China had been paying great dividends to the English East India ships. The trade in them was on the increase; and tremendous profits were in the offing in the opium trade.

Of such consequence was Lord Macartney's mission that a squadron of warships was detailed for escort duty. The Endeavour was included in the squadron. She hadn't been built for a man-o'-war, but she was an armed ship, and she would count as one more in the parade to impress Pekin.

Amasa's associations with English officers had been pleasant; he had shared perilous times with them and had found them to be good shipmates. He liked them all. When Lord Macartney's squadron sailed from Macao Amasa was shouting chin-chins after them. Chin-chin was Cantonese for best of luck.

By and by Amasa met some of his old Endeavour shipmates in Canton, they being back from Pekin. He asked what luck in Pekin. No luck was the answer. The damn Dutch! Everything looked good in the beginning. The emperor ordered his officials in the seaports to supply his lordship's squadron with every necessity and to see that they were furnished with competent pilots. That was while they were still at Macao. They sailed up the Yellow Sea and proceeded by way of rivers admitting large ships. They sailed as near to Pekin as river depths and draughts of their ships would allow, and then took native small boats for further travel.

Couriers went ahead of the ships to apprise the emperor of the coming of the English embassy, but when the embassy arrived in Pekin there was no emperor. The word was that he had gone outside the Great Wall into Tartary: an extraordinary proceeding for a ruler, his lordship thought, after being informed of the near approach of a foreign embassy. And this was no small-nation embassy. It was an English embassy.

The embassy craved permission to follow the emperor to Tartary. Permission arrived, and Lord Macartney's staff proceeded to Tartary. They were received with all the ritual of high respect. Magnificent gifts were exchanged. There was much kowtowing on one side and gracious well wishing on the other; but when it was all over the English were granted no trading or diplomatic privileges that were not already theirs.

Apart from that, said Amasa's English officer friends, they had a marvelous time. Make no mistake about it, those, Chinese mandarins and high court dignitaries do certainly know how to entertain visiting diplomats. Their ships were loaded down with all kinds of refreshments when they were first boarded by the Chinese officials; and the presents bestowed later were of immense value. It was a most interesting experience. The natives of the part of North China they visited were of different manners from those on and near the coast. They were more free and candid, were of larger stature and more athletic than the southern Chinese. They were also more sociable, and less particular respecting their women's being seen by the foreign men. They even received the English officers in their homes, when it could be done without the knowledge of the ever-officious mandarins.

The English embassy voyage was a diplomatic flop, but to the less responsible mission members who had been Amasa's old shipmates it was certainly a pleasant and instructive land cruise.

Now the Dutch of that day in Canton weren't allowing the English to stage a diplomatic visit to Pekin and not doing something about it. Amasa Delano, always the friendly soul, was on good terms with many Dutchmen in Canton, not to speak of the Dutch friends he had made in the islands expedition.

A Dutch embassy followed the English one to Pekin, and two Dutch friends of Amasa's were of that mission; and from them, when they returned to Canton, he got a full report of how the Dutch mission made out in Pekin.

The Dutch cortege was no warship display. The mission left Canton in beautiful boats and proceeded through the canals. Some of the party would go ashore and walk alongside the canal while the others would stay on the boats. When a canal wasn't on the direct route they would proceed on horseback. The mandarins who accompanied them indulged them in everything they asked and satisfied every curiosity that stirred them along the route. A great parade greeted the embassy in Pekin; and there was no end to the attention and politeness shown them while they remained in the city. Amasa recorded:

"Their accounts of the northern Chinese agreed with that given me by my English friends; though the Dutch were treated to great theatrical entertainment, possibly because it was the season for them, it being winter time. Parties were formed to skate on the ice, in which the Emperor always joined and seemed to be much amused by the diversion. The Dutch, who rated themselves the most expert skaters in the world, were amazed by the exploits of the Chinese ice champions."

Amasa's Canton friends, not all Dutch, had it that more attention had been paid the Dutch in Pekin because they had not made the English mistake of asking too many favors of the emperor. And neither did Pekin like the threat of England's increasing naval power. The Dutch had their warships in the East too. Oh yes, but they weren't for thrusting them so frequently to the front of the stage.

Amasa was done with the island commerce, but he wasn't leaving the islands without registering his judgment of the causes of the hatred of the white people by so many of the island natives.

"The causes of this hatred are, in a great measure, traceable to our own misconduct towards them. It was common for a ship captain to boast of having yard tackles hooked to the bow and stern of a crowded canoe alongside their ships, hoisting them on deck and making off with the canoe loads of natives and selling them for slaves. The natives knew also of the enormities committed by whites against each other--massacres at times--and all in the interest of trade. It is not therefore a matter of surprise that the natives should encourage and transmit this hatred toward Europeans. Is it surprising that natives make reprisals on us whenever they can and are inveterate against us in their hostility?"

Amasa also mustered a bawling out for ship captains who send out boat parties among those dangerous South Sea Islands without complete protection.

"The responsibility of commanders in this matter should be especially recognized. I have always inculcated this duty upon officers under my command. A man who is ordered to go ashore on duty attended by danger has no will of his own to employ. He must obey, presuming on the discernment and fidelity of his superiors that he will be aided and protected according to his wants and their abilities. If he be left for destruction through the sloth, neglect or timidity of his superiors, they are accountable for it as actually as though they bad deliberately shot him down."

When Amasa got off that blast he had in mind his own close call at Manouran and young White's dangerous day in the New Guineas.