ailor and shipowner of that day was placed, without some knowledge of the
navigation laws and belligerent orders by which the trade was vexed. In
1793 the Napoleonic wars began, to continue with slight interruptions
until 1815. France and England were the chief contestants, and between
them American shipping was sorely harried. The French at first seemed to
extend to the enterprising Americans a boon of incalculable value to the
maritime interest, for the National Convention promulgated a decree giving
to neutral ships--practically to American ships, for they were the bulk of
the neutral shipping--the rights of French ships. Overjoyed by this sudden
opening of a rich market long closed, the Yankee barks and brigs slipped
out of the New England harbors in schools, while the shipyards rung with
the blows of the hammers, and the forest resounded with the shouts of the
woodsmen getting out ship-timbers. The ocean pathway to the French West
Indies was flecked with sails, and the harbors of St. Kitts, Guadaloupe,
and Martinique were crowded. But this bustling trade was short-lived. The
argosies that set forth on their peaceful errand were shattered by enemies
more dreaded than wind or sea. Many a ship reached the port eagerly sought
only to rot there; many a merchant was beggared, nor knew what had
befallen his hopeful venture until some belated consular report told of
its condemnation in some French or English admiralty court.

[Illustration: EARLY TYPE OF SMACK]

For England met France's hospitality with a new stroke at American
interests. The trade was not neutral, she said. France had been forced to
her concession by war. Her people were starving because the vigilance of
British cruisers had driven French cruisers from the seas, and no food
could be imported. To permit Americans to purvey food for the French
colonies would clearly be to undo the good work of the British navy.
Obviously food was contraband of war. So all English men-of-war were
ordered to seize French goods on whatever ship found; to confiscate
cargoes of wheat, corn, or fish bound for French ports as contraband, and
particularly to board all American merchantmen and scrutinize the crews
for English-born sailors. The latter injunction was obeyed with peculiar
zeal, so that the State Department had evidence that at one time, in 1806,
there were as many as 6000 American seamen serving unwillingly in the
British navy.

France, meanwhile, sought retaliation u