It is pleasant to note that a voyage which was so full of advantage to the nation was profitable to the owners.
Thereafter an active trade was done with miscellaneous goods to the northwest Indians, skins and furs thence to the Chinese, and teas home.

A typical outbound cargo in this trade was that of the "Atakualpa" in 1800.
The vessel was of 218 tons, mounted eight guns, and was freighted with broadcloth, flannel, blankets, powder, muskets, watches, tools, beads, and looking-glasses.

How great were the proportions that this trade speedily assumed may be judged from the fact that between June, 1800, and January, 1803, there were imported into China, in American vessels, 34,357 sea-otter skins worth on an average $18 to $20 each.

Over a million sealskins were imported.

In this trade were employed 80 ships and 9 brigs and schooners, more than half of them from Boston.
[Illustration: THE SNOW, AN OBSOLETE TYPE] Indeed, by the last decade of the eighteenth century Boston had become the chief shipping port of the United States.