Excerpt from American-Australian RelationsThe United States of America initiated its Far Eastern trade in February 1784, when the Empress of China under Captain Green left New York for Canton. Many other ships soon fol lowed in her wake, and in 1789 fifteen United States vessels were in Canton.1 They usually sailed by way of Cape Verde, the Cape of Good Hope, and the Strait of Sunda, but sailing conditions were such that this route could be used only dur ing the spring. This was a serious handicap to extensive and regular trade, and quite unsatisfactory to the owner of the Empress of China, Robert 'morris. He decided to try another route.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.