Edmund Roberts

author

Edmund Roberts

1784–1836

An early American diplomat and merchant, he helped open formal relations between the United States and several Asian and Middle Eastern courts in the 1830s. His voyages to Siam and Muscat placed him at the center of some of the young republic's first treaty-making efforts in the region.

1 Audiobook

Embassy to the Eastern Courts of Cochin-China, Siam, and Muscat In the U. S. Sloop-of-war Peacock, David Geisinger, Commander, During the Years 1832-3-4

Embassy to the Eastern Courts of Cochin-China, Siam, and Muscat In the U. S. Sloop-of-war Peacock, David Geisinger, Commander, During the Years 1832-3-4

by Edmund Roberts

About the author

Born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in 1784, Edmund Roberts began his career in commerce before moving into diplomacy. President Andrew Jackson appointed him as a special agent, and he became known as the first U.S. envoy sent to the Far East on official missions.

Traveling aboard the USS Peacock, he negotiated early American treaties with Siam and Muscat in the 1830s, helping establish formal trade and diplomatic ties. Accounts of his life often describe him as a practical, determined representative of a country that was just beginning to project its presence overseas.

Roberts did not live long after these demanding voyages. He died in 1836 in Macau while still in service, but his work is remembered as an important part of the United States' first sustained diplomatic outreach in Asia and the Arabian Peninsula.