His Grand Turk of three hundred tons was promptly fitted out for
a pioneering voyage as far as the Cape of Good Hope. Salem knew
her as "the great ship" and yet her hull was not quite one
hundred feet long. Safely Captain Jonathan Ingersoll took her out
over the long road, his navigating equipment consisting of a few
erroneous maps and charts, a sextant, and Guthrie's Geographical
Grammar. In Table Bay he sold his cargo of provisions and then
visited the coast of Guinea to dispose of his rum for ivory and
gold dust but brought not a single slave back, Mr. Derby having
declared that "he would rather sink the whole capital employed
than directly or indirectly be concerned in so infamous a
trade"--an unusual point of view for a shipping merchant of New
England in 1784!

Derby ships were first to go to Mauritius, then called the Isle
of France, first at Calcutta, and among the earliest to swing at
anchor off Canton. When Elias Hasket Derby decided to invade this
rich East India commerce, he sent his eldest son, Elias Hasket,
Jr., to England and the Continent after a course at Harvard. The
young man became a linguist and made a thorough study of English
and French methods of trade. Having laid this foundation for the
venture, the son was now sent to India, where he lived for three
years in the interests of his house, building up a trade almost
fabulously profitable.

How fortunes were won in those stirring days may be discerned
from the record of young Derby's ventures while in the Orient. In
1788 the proceeds of one cargo enabled him to buy a ship and a
brigantine in the Isle of France. These two vessels he sent to