The King Hastened On Board, Expecting To Find His
Sandal-Wood Converted Into Crapes And Damasks, And Other Rich
Stuffs
Of China, but found, to his astonishment, by the
legerdemain of traffic, his cargo had all disappeared, and, in
place
Of it, remained a bill of charges amounting to three
thousand dollars. It was some time before he could be made to
comprehend certain of the most important items of the bill, such
as pilotage, anchorage, and custom-house fees; but when he
discovered that maritime states in other countries derived large
revenues in this manner, to the great cost of the merchant,
"Well," cried he, "then I will have harbor fees also." He
established them accordingly. Pilotage a dollar a foot on the
draft of each vessel. Anchorage from sixty to seventy dollars. In
this way he greatly increased the royal revenue, and turned his
China speculation to account.
CHAPTER VII.
Departure From the Sandwich Islands.- Misunderstandings- Miseries
of a Suspicious Man.- Arrival at the Columbia - Dangerous
Service. - Gloomy Apprehensions- Bars and Breakers.- Perils of
the Ship. Disasters of a Boat's Crew.-Burial of a Sandwich
Islander.
IT was on the 28th of February that the Tonquin set sail from the
Sandwich Islands. For two days the wind was contrary, and the
vessel was detained in their neighborhood; at length a favorable
breeze sprang up, and in a little while the rich groves, green
hills, and snowy peaks of those happy islands one after another
sank from sight, or melted into the blue distance, and the
Tonquin ploughed her course towards the sterner regions of the
Pacific.
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