Page 82 - Swann Galleries - Printed & Manuscript Americana - Sale 2310 - April 16, 2013

VERY EARLY RECORD OF TRADE BETWEEN
THE UNITED STATES AND CHINA
171 ● (MARITIME.) Donnison, Jonathan. Memoranda book of the ship General
Washington’s second voyage to China. 74 manuscript pages plus several additional
partial pages. Folio, contemporary calf, worn; hinges split, several leaves coming loose, several
pages partially or completely torn out. Vp, 1790-1806, bulk 1790-91 [2,000/3,000]
The ship General Washington made the first voyage from Rhode Island to China in 1787,
under master Jonathan Donnison (1752-1809). Owned by John Brown and several partners,
the General Washington launched what proved to be a very profitable trade over the coming
decades. A few months after the ship’s safe return to Providence, it was sent back to China and
India for another cargo. Much less is known about this second voyage, which extended from
December 1789 to July 1791. The present volume provides a wealth of detail on Donnison’s
important second voyage.
Captain Donnison apparently began this volume to record ventures outside the ship’s official
accounts. On the front pastedown, he notes that the blank book was a January 1791 gift from
one Thomas Coles of Whampoa, apparently an Englishman residing in China. On the first
page is recorded a letter from Coles describing articles he wanted sold in the West Indies. Other
interesting entries in this volume include: 6 pages of invoices of china bought in Canton, each
marked with Donnison’s initials “ID” * “A Manifest of Goods Belonging to Jona. Donnison”
* 6 pages of daily lists of “Cargo Landed at Bombay,” 9 June to 3 July 1790 * “Account of
Tho. Coles adventure sold at St. Eustitia, 1791 May 21” * 16 pages of lists of cargo received
aboard the General Washington in China, mostly tea and china, November 1790 to January
1791 * 12 pages of ledger accounts from circa July 1791, some apparently relating to dispersal
of the cargo and payment of his crew. One note toward the end of the volume demonstrates the
kinds of deals Donnison was arranging: “Bartered away a Hog’d of Tobaco for 100 gal. of New
England rum with Brown & Benson. Hogshead cost two dollars. Sold that hogshead of rum in
Canton for 60 dollars in teas. Could not sell it for cash or china.” Interspersed are a few later
mercantile accounts from 1793 to 1806, most apparently relating to the China trade.
Provenance: Gift from James W. Scribner of Providence to Harry Linkin, 1903 (inscription on
later page); acquired by the grandfather of the consignor circa 1940s.