Captain Cooper, in the Rover, came back from China in April 1826. The voyage had been made under a contract of 1824 with the government,[1] which had entitled the schooner to $10,000 for freight out and back, and the privilege of introducing $10,000 in goods free of duties. Besides some trading done by Cooper on his own account, he sold at Canton 375 otter skins for $7,000, investing the proceeds in effects for the Californian troops. Most of these effects were delivered after some delay to the habilitado of San Diego. The delay, and much subsequent trouble, was caused by dissatisfaction on the part of the governor at the prices received and paid in China, and by personal difficulties in settling their accounts between Cooper and Luis Argüello, as master and owner of the vessel.[2] This last phase of the quarrel lasted until 1829, involving a lawsuit and various references to arbitrators. Argüello's side of the quarrel is not represented in the records; Cooper's letters are numerous, containing a great variety of uncomplimentary epithets for Don Luis. Arbitrators seem to have decided the case in Cooper's favor in the amount of $5,000, "which," writes the captain, "the damned rascal Argüello will never pay while California remains in its present condition."[3] To return to the Rover: the only incident of her voyage that is known was the throwing away of all Spanish papers on board, including invoices and the bill of sale to Argüello, and even of the Mexican flag, on account of revelations by a drunken sailor to the effect that the schooner was not American as pretended, but Mexican. This occurred at the Phil-
- ↑ See vol. ii. p. 520.
- ↑ Arrival of the Rover, and trouble about the landing of the cargo. Dept. St. Pap., Ben. Mil., MS., lxxxvii. 68; Id., Ben. Cust.-H., i. 18-20, 30; St. Pap., Ben., MS., i. 71; St. Pap., Sac., MS., xi. 1.
- ↑ Cooper's letters of 1826-9, in Vallejo, Doc., MS., xxix., nos. 54, 113, 108, 117, 128, 200, 210, 234, 235, 292, 334, 387, with many more in the same volume, relating to details of C.'s business in those years, being of no special importance. It appears that Kierolf & Co., in China, had sent some goods by C. to Cal. on sale, and that by reason of his troubles with Argüello, he was unable to settle with that firm for several years. J. P. Sturgis was Cooper's correspondent at Canton.
