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Six

The first act of Adoniram and Samuel on reaching Calcutta was to report at the police station, a necessity when landing in East India Company territory.

On the way they tried to discover all they could about Burma, and they were disturbed to find that Michael Symes's book had not presented an altogether true picture.

He had failed to realize that the Burmese were not really treating him as the important visitor he considered himself.

They were in fact quietly laughing at him, for their King wished to have nothing to do with the Western world.

When Captain John Gibault of Salem had visited Burma in 1793 his ship, the Astra, had been promptly commandeered and taken by her captors up the Irrawaddy River.

Although after much trouble he did manage to get it back, he discovered there was no trade to be had.

All Captain Gibault took back to Salem were a few items for the town's East India Museum.

A year later another Salem ship returned from Burma with a cargo of gum lacquer which nobody wanted to buy.

After that Salem ships decided to bypass unfriendly Burma.