Valuable animal furs purchased and trapped in the region would then be shipped to China, where consumer demand was high for particular pelts.

Tonquin began its journey to the Columbia River in late 1810, departing New York City and heading south through the Atlantic Ocean.

[3][4] After passing Cape Horn into the Pacific Ocean, Tonquin visited the Kingdom of Hawaii in February 1811, where the ship restocked and hired 24 Native Hawaiian Kanakas after negotiations with Kamehameha I and Kalanimoku.

Work began in May 1811 on the sole trading post founded by Tonquin, Fort Astoria, on the present-day Oregon coast.

When the crew began bartering with Tla-o-qui-aht natives at Clayoquot Sound in June, a dispute arose due to Captain Thorn's poor treatment of an elder.

Joseachal, a Quinault interpreter previously hired by Thorn, was the sole crew member to survive the entire incident and return to Fort Astoria.

The following day, orders from Commodore Pellew arrived, detailing that Tonquin was to be freed immediately and sent Fanning "his apology for your detention, and his good wishes, that you may have a pleasant and safe passage.

From New York City, the vessel went south through the Atlantic Ocean and sailed past part of the Brazilian coast and later Gough Island.

After passing Cape Horn, the ship continued to sail west, landing at King George Sound in modern Western Australia on 8 October 1808.

American goods such as beads, metal buttons and knives were often exchanged in return for Noongar-manufactured stone tools and food supplies.

Tonquin left the sound on 21 October for Tongatapu, where local peoples sold the crew stockpiles of "hogs, bread-fruit, [and] yams" among other products.

Greeted by a group of iTaukei men bearing gifts of fruit, the Americans informed their hosts of the previous agreement made over sandalwood.

Shortly after sunrise the next day, iTaukei men gave fresh coconuts, breadfruit, hogs, and yams from their assembled canoes.

The tabu was formally absolved by Tynahoa, allowing the waiting British merchants to finally purchase their own supplies of sandalwood.

[15] Astor purchased the vessel to spearhead his plans for gaining a foothold in the ongoing maritime fur trade on the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America.

Astor was able to gain the services of United States Navy lieutenant Jonathan Thorn and put him in command of the 10-gun merchant vessel.

[16] Additionally there were 12 clerks and 13 Canadian voyageurs, plus four tradesmen: Augustus Roussel, a blacksmith; Johann Koaster, a carpenter; Job Aitkem, a boat builder; and George Bell, a cooper.

[23] The vessel landed at the Falkland Islands on 4 December to make repairs and take on water supplies, with a suitable source of freshwater located at Port Egmont.

[24] Captain Thorn set sail on 11 December without eight of the men, including partner David Stuart, Gabriel Franchère and Alexander Ross.

Company partners held talks in their ancestral Scottish Gaelic and hired PFC workers used Canadian French.

[26] Commercial transactions eventually began with the Hawaiians; the crew purchased cabbage, sugar cane, purple yams, taro, coconuts, watermelon, breadfruit, hogs, goats, two sheep,[27] and poultry for "glass beads, iron rings, needles, cotton cloth".

[26][25] A courier from government agent John Young ordered Tonquin to visit him for meat supplies and then to have an audience with King Kamehameha I who resided on Oʻahu.

[29] Besides his work in discussion between the Hawaiian Monarch and the PFC officers, Marín also acted as the pilot to guide the ship into port, for which he received five Spanish dollars.

Thorn offered an exchange rate found to be unsatisfactory by the elder, who wanted five blankets for every fur skin sold.

McDougall recounted that "A brisk trade was carried on untill all the Indians setting round on the decks of the Ship were supplied with a knife a piece.

Three crew members escaped in a rowboat during the confusion, and one badly wounded man, James Lewis, was left aboard the ship.

The only known survivor of the crew was Joseachal, who arrived back at Fort Astoria with the assistance of prominent Lower Chinookan noble Comcomly.