Entered, according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1840,

BY CHARLES S. FRANCIS,

In the Clerk's Office of the Southern District of New-York.

INTRODUCTION.

A public ship is always an object of national interest wherever she goes; it therefore cannot be uninteresting for her republican parents to know of her wanderings. The frigate Columbia was built at Washington in the best skill of capitol architects. She was launched and fitted with exultant pride, and pronounced not only good, but the very best of her class in the service. Various were the destinations suggested and conned at Washington for this new champion of the nation. Where might she best display her powers and captivating charms, was a question of as much solicitude for awhile, as the bringing out of an heiress in London. The Mediterranean was like a public saloon, too crowded and common; the West Indies was too dull and vulgar; and, if sent to the new field in the East, it was feared that her beautiful proportions, her symmetry, grace and ease

of motion, might not be appreciated. But it was nevertheless deemed desirable to send one of the most favourable representatives to make a deep impression in the new field; and the East Indies was accordingly fixed upon for the Columbia and her noble consort, the John Adams.

The East Indies have been long known to be an important source of American commerce, where from eighty to one hundred and twenty ships are annually employed—many in the increasing spice trade about Sumatra, Java, and Ceylon; in the sugar trade of Siam; and in the vast tea trade of China-and till within a few years, without any protection. But the loss of the Friendship, by the barbarous treachery of the natives in Sumatra, seemed to startle our government from its drowsy indifference, and induced them to cast a glance to the East. The frigate Essex, the Congress frigate, and six years afterwards, the Vincennes, a small sloop, were the only American war-ships that had crossed the Indian seas previous to the outrage referred to; and although American traders were seen at nearly every port of the East, at all seasons, America was scarcely known there as a nation able to protect her commerce. The Potomac was despatched in 1832 to redress the grievance at Sumatra, and the sloop Peacock and schooner Boxer sent the same year to aid the form