After taking in a very considerable quantity of sandal-wood, and procuring eight active assistants from Ooroony the Rancocus got under way for Canton.  By the Neshamony, which saw her into the offing, letters were sent back to the Reef, when the governor squared away for his port.  At the end of fifty days, the ship reached Canton, where speedy and excellent sale was made of her cargo.  So very lucrative did Mark make this transaction, that, finding himself with assets after filling up with teas, he thought himself justified in changing his course of proceeding.  A small American brig, which was not deemed fit to double the capes, and to come-on a stormy coast, was on sale.  She could run several years in a sea as mild as the Pacific, and Mark purchased her for a song.  He put as many useful things on board her as he could find, including several cows, &c.  Dry English cows were not difficult to find, the ships from Europe often bringing out the animals, and turning them off when useless.  Mark was enabled to purchase six, which, rightly enough, he thought would prove a great acquisition to the colony.  A plentiful supply of iron was also provided, as was ammunition, arms, and guns.  The whole outlay, including the cost of the vessel, was less than seven thousand dollars; which sum Mark knew he should receive in Philadelphia, on account of the personal property of Bridget, and with which he had made up his mind to replace the proceeds of the sandal-wood, thus used, did those interested exact it.  As for the vessel, she sailed like a witch, was coppered and copper-fastened, but was both old and weak.  She had quarters, having been used once as a privateer, and mounted ten sixes.  Her burthen was two hundred tons, and her name the Mermaid.  The papers were all American, and in perfect rule.

The governor might not have made this purchase, had it not been for the circumstance that he met an old acquaintance in Canton, who had got married in Calcutta to a pretty and very well-mannered English girl—­a step that lost him his berth, however/on board a Philadelphia ship.  Saunders was two or three years Mark’s senior, and of an excellent disposition and diameter.  When he heard the history of the colony, he professed a desire to join it, engaging to pick up a crew of Americans, who were in his own situation, or had no work on their hands, and to take the brig to the Reef.  “This arrangement was made and carried out; the Mermaid sailing for the crater” the day before the Rancocus left for Philadelphia, having Bigelow on board as pilot and first officer; while Woolston shipped an officer to supply his place.  The two vessels met in the China seas, and passed a week in company, when each steered her course; the governor quite happy in thinking that he had made this provision for the good of his people.  The arrival of the Mermaid would be an eventful day in the colony, on every account; and, the instructions of Saunders forbidding his quitting the islands until the end of the year, her presence would be a great additional means of security.