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AMERICAN DIPLOMACY IN THE ORIENT

respective countries, which shall be faithfully observed by myself and my successors, as long as the world endures."[1]

These treaties were submitted by the President to the Senate, and ratified by that body, and Mr. Roberts was sent out a second time in a man-of-war to exchange the ratifications. The ceremony attending the discharge of the duty in Siam was quite impressive. A procession was formed of the officers of the two naval vessels of the United States, which composed the expedition, headed by the envoy, and preceded by the ship's band, and in this pomp and display, the treaty was borne in a box by two officers to the bank of the river. An eye-witness of the ceremony continues the narrative: "Mr. Roberts took the treaty in his hand, and, after holding it up above his head in token of respect, delivered it to a Siamese officer. He also held it above his head, and then, shaded by a royal white silk umbrella borne by a slave, passed it into the boat, where it was received upon an ornamented stand, and, after covering it with a cone of gilt paper, it was placed beneath the canopy. At this moment our band ceased, and that of the Siamese began to play. The boat shoved off, and we turned our steps homeward to the merry tune of Yankee Doodle."[2]

From Siam the squadron went to Canton, where the vessels received a warning from the Chinese authorities,

  1. Roberts's Embassy, 360, 430.
  2. 3 Presidents' Messages, 53. A Voyage round the World, including an Embassy to Muscat and Siam, by Dr. Ruschenberger, Philadelphia, 1838, p. 319.