On September 30, 1787, Robert Gray and Captain John Kendrick left Boston, to trade along the north Pacific coast. Captain Gray commanded and Captain Kendrick commanded . They were sent by Boston merchants including Charles Bulfinch. Bulfinch and the other financial backers came up with the idea of trading pelts from the northwest coast of North America and taking them directly to China after Bulfinch had read about Captain Cook's success doing the same. Bulfinch had read Cook's "Journals", published in 1784, that in part discussed his success selling sea otter pelts in Canton. Prior to this, other America traders, such as Robert Morris, had sent ships to trade with China, notably in 1784, but had had trouble finding goods for which the Chinese would trade. Bulfinch's learning of Cook's pelt-trading solved this problem, so New England sea merchants expected to trade with China profitably. It is uncertain whether Gray was the first American to visit the Northwest Coast, as Simon Metcalfe of may have arrived earlier, perhaps as much as a year earlier.