"This book traces the remarkable career of a Portsmouth, New Hampshire-born merchant and his efforts on behalf of early American diplomacy with key trading partners in both the Indian Ocean and Southeast Asia. The book recounts the diplomatic and commercial milieu in which Roberts labored, initially as commissioner and later as special agent on behalf of the United States, to pioneer diplomatic dialogue and negotiate commercial treaties with the ruler of Muscat and Oman and with the King of Siam."--P. [4] of cover.