But though the American shipowners, as a body, and as would seem to be the case with the majority of shipowners of all countries, clung to protection, they were individually quite as daring, and even more energetic, than those of Great Britain. So early in their independence as 1785 a vessel from Baltimore in Maryland displayed, for the first time, the American flag in the Canton river, where she discharged a cargo of American produce, and loaded in return a cargo of teas, China ware, silk, and other produce for her own country. In September 1788, Captain Read, the commander of an American merchantman, arrived in Philadelphia from a voyage to China, wherein he had performed the outward passage by stretching from the Cape of Good Hope to the south of New Holland (Australia), and running northwards along the east side of that vast island, until he reached his port of destination. As we have seen, other American merchant vessels had reached the British possessions in India at a time while as yet prolonged voyages to the most distant regions of the globe were deemed such arduous efforts of nautical skill, as only to be performed in safety by a few experienced commanders in the service of Spain, Portugal, Holland, and England, who had been accustomed to the navigation of those distant seas, and were familiar with the routes, and the prevailing periodical winds. So rapid indeed was their progress, that out of the million tons of sea-going vessels owned in the United States at the commencement of this century, no less than seven hundred and twenty thousand were employed in their trade with foreign nations. Although some historians[320] attribute this prosperity in great measure to their protective laws, it will be found mainly due to the facilities which the United States afford for maritime pursuits, the abundance and cheapness of timber suitable for shipbuilding purposes, and especially, as we have just mentioned, to the energy of the people and the advantages they derived as a neutral nation. [Sidenote: War of 1803.] [Sidenote: Its effect on maritime pursuits.] When in May 1803, the war again broke out between France and England, the shipowners of the United States, with their characteristic energy, were prepared to avail themselves, to an even greater extent than they had hitherto done, of the numerous advantages which a European war conferred on them as neutrals. Hostilities between two great nations must ever be a most grievous calamity, but it was greatly aggravated in the present instance by the depredations of American privateers hoisting, as might suit their purpose, French or English colours, under men, too, who were almost as reckless and daring in their acts as the English and Dutch buccaneers of the early part of the eighteenth century, some of them frequently making capture of vessels belonging to their own countrymen.