CHAPTER V.The United States And The Pacific.
Long before the westward march of Americans had brought their flag to the Pacific, that ocean was familiar to their mariners.

From Cape Horn to Canton and the ports of India, there ploughed the stately merchantmen of Salem, Providence, and Newburyport, exchanging furs and ginseng for teas, silks, the "Canton blue" which is today so cherished a link with the past, and for the lacquer cabinets and carved ivory which give distinction to many a New England home.

Meanwhile the sturdy whalers of New Bedford scoured the whole ocean for sperm oil and whalebone, and the incidents of their self-reliant three-year cruises acquainted them with nearly every coral and volcanic isle.

Early in the century missionaries also began to brave the languor of these oases of leisure and the appetite of their cannibalistic inhabitants.
The interest of the Government was bound to follow its adventurous citizens.

In 1820 the United States appointed a consular agent at Honolulu; in the thirties and forties it entered into treaty relations with Siam, Borneo, and China; and owing to circumstances which were by no means accidental it had the honor of persuading Japan to open her ports to the world.