Embassy to the Eastern Courts

In the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars, the U.S. found its merchants and traders locked out of their traditional markets in Europe and the Caribbean. Hoping for new and profitable American trade relationships, President Andrew Jackson dispatched an unemployed ship-owner and merchant with no diplomatic experience on a secret mission to negotiate with Eastern potentates in their courts. Edmund Roberts’ mission was to formalize American trade with these exotic places—Oman, Siam, Cochin China, and Japan—on a most favored nation basis, allowing for American consuls to openly advance and protect American interests and citizens in their host country. After sailing almost 70,000 miles in five years in the ill-fated USS Peacock, Roberts was successful in negotiating treaties with Oman and Siam, but he failed in Cochin China, and he died before setting sail to Japan. Peacock, first flagship of the Navy’s new East Indies Squadron, forerunner of the U.S. Seventh Fleet, outlived him by only a few years.

Some two centuries ago, during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, New England’s merchants and traders found themselves frozen out of their traditional markets in Europe and the Caribbean. Desperate for new business for their idled ships and crews, they asked President Andrew Jackson to explore opportunities for them on the other side of the globe. Prompted by the secretary of the navy, Jackson sent Edmund Roberts—an unemployed ship owner from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, with no diplomatic experience—on an “embassy” (mission) to the potentates of Oman, Siam, Cochin China, and Japan, to negotiate pioneering trade treaties. So began an unusual and ultimately fatal adventure that twice took Roberts to exotic and dangerous places on the other side of the globe. Because the British and the Dutch were deeply interested in these same new markets, Roberts’ mission was kept secret. Sailing in the ill-fated USSPeacock, first in company with USSBoxer, then with USSEnterprise, Roberts traveled almost 70,000 miles across the great expanses of two oceans to successfully negotiate treaties with Oman and Siam. Although he failed twice to win over the emperor of Cochin China and died miserably in Macao before departing for Japan, Roberts’ embassy was nonetheless instrumental in opening doors to new diplomatic realms and extending the commerce of the fledgling American nation. Kept secret at the time and largely forgotten today, Edmund Roberts’ fascinating and important story is recounted in this latest book by Andrew Jampoler—retired naval officer turned maritime historian—whose previous works includeSailors in the Holy Land and The Last Lincoln Conspirator.