" The reason was
plain. Boston merchants won a reputation as first to act. It was they
who began a certain memorable "Boston Tea Party"; and before the rest
of the world had recovered the shock of that event, these same
merchants were planning to capture the trade of the Pacific Ocean, get
possession of all the Pacific coast not already preempted by Spain,
Russia, or England, and push American commerce across the Pacific to
Asia.
{211} What with slow printing-presses and slow travel, the account of
Cook's voyages on the Pacific did not become generally known in the
United States till 1785 or 1786. Sitting round the library of Dr.
Bulfinch's residence on Bowdoin Square in Boston one night in 1787,
were half a dozen adventurous spirits for whom Cook's account of the
fur trade on the Pacific had an irresistible fascination. There was
the doctor himself. There was his son, Charles, of Harvard, just back
from Europe and destined to become famous as an architect. There was
Joseph Barrell, a prosperous merchant. There was John Derby, a
shipmaster of Salem, a young man still, but who, nevertheless, had
carried news of Lexington to England.
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