“11th. When you enter the Cavalles, the Commissaries of the Chief will come on board and you must salute them with 9 guns; at the same time, if it is practicable, hoist some colors to the yards as a compliment to them; it is immaterial what colors you dress your ship with except Spanish or Portuguese—it is, however, necessary to recollect that the Dutch colors must be always in their proper place as if the ship was of that nation.
“12th. When the Commissaries return on shore, you must salute them with nine guns.
“13th. You must be very particular in letting the boats which are around the ship know when you are going to fire as if you were to hurt any of them the consequences would be very important.
“14th. After you have anchored and saluted the harbor, the officers examine the list of your people and compare them with the number on board. After having received them those who wish it can go on shore, but before the Japanese land, all the arms and ammunition must be sent on shore, and it will be proper that everything of the kind should be landed, as they search the ship after she is unloaded. On your departure they will return it all on board. If there should by any mistake be any powder or firearms left on board, you must be very careful that not so much as a pistol be fired until the return of the ammunition which was landed.
“The agents of the Company will instruct you respecting the other ceremonies to be observed.”
Captain Devereux’s log records that he burned the prodigious amount of powder required and successfully steered a course through the other complex ceremonies, nautical and commercial, without ruffling Japanese dignity in any way. The Franklin lay in Nagasaki harbor for almost four months after which she returned to Batavia, to the satisfaction of the East India Company. Thence she sailed for Boston with so large a cargo of coffee, sugar and spices that it overflowed the hold and filled the after cabin. The captain and officers berthed in a makeshift “coach-house” knocked together on deck, but made no complaint as their several “adventures” had been richly increased by the voyage and trading with the Japanese.
In more than one stout old Salem mansion are treasured souvenirs of the voyage of the Franklin. According to a memorandum of “a sale of sundries received by ship Franklin from Japan,” Captain Devereux brought home as part of his adventure, “cabinets, tea trays, boxes of birds, waiters, boxes of fans, nests of pans, camphor wood, mats, kuspidors, together with inlaid tables and carved screens.”
In 1801, or two years later, the Margaret of Salem lay in Nagasaki as a chartered trader. George Cleveland, of a famous family of Salem mariners, who sailed as the captain’s clerk, kept the log and journal of this voyage, and his narrative contains much of interest concerning the early relations between the Japanese and the people of other countries.
“In the autumn of 1800,” he wrote soon after his return, “the ship Margaret, built by Mr. Becket of this town, and owned by the late Col. Benj. Pickman, John Derby, Esq., and Captain Samuel Derby who was to command her, was launched. On the 25th November we left Salem harbor bound for the East Indies, and probably a finer, a better-fitted or better-manned ship never left this port before. We carried 6 guns and 20 men; most of the crew were fine young men in the bloom of youth. I will enumerate those who lived many years after, namely: S. G. Derby, captain; Thomas West, second mate; L. Stetson, carpenter; Samuel Ray, Joseph Preston, Israel Phippen, Anthony D. Caulfield and P. Dwyer, Thatcher and myself.
“We soon found on leaving port what a fast sailing ship the Margaret was. When we were out eleven days we fell in with the barque Two Brothers, Captain John Holman, who had left Salem some days before us, bound for Leghorn. We made him ahead in the afternoon steering the same course we were, and before night we were up alongside and spoke him. The next day we fell in with a fleet of merchantmen, convoyed by a frigate which was under very short sail, and kept all snug until she had got into our wake, when she set sail in chase, but we distanced her so much that in a very short time she gave it up and took in her sails and rejoined the fleet.