which had put into that port as a merchantman with her guns and
munitions hidden beneath a cargo of West India produce.

The most that can be said of the commercial provisions of the
treaty is that they opened direct trade with the East Indies but
at the price of complete freedom of trade for British shipping in
American ports. It must be said, too, that although the treaty
failed to clear away the gravest cause of hostility--the right of
search and impressment--yet it served to postpone the actual
dash, and during the years in which it was in force American
shipping splendidly prospered, freed of most irksome handicaps.

The quarrel with France had been brewing at the same time and for
similar reasons. Neutral trade with England was under the ban,
and the Yankee shipmaster was in danger of losing his vessel if
he sailed to or from a port under the British flag. It was out of
the frying-pan into the fire, and French privateers welcomed the
excuse to go marauding in the Atlantic and the Caribbean. What it
meant to fight off these greedy cutthroats is told in a newspaper
account of the engagement of Captain Richard Wheatland, who was
homeward bound to Salem in the ship Perseverance in 1799. He was
in the Old Straits of Bahama when a fast schooner came up astern,
showing Spanish colors and carrying a tremendous press of canvas.
Unable to run away from her, Captain Wheatland reported to his
owners:

"We took in steering sails, wore ship, hauled up our courses,
piped all hands to quarters and prepared for action. The schooner
immediately took in sail, hoisted an English Union flag and
passed under our lee at a considerable distance. We wore ship,