LATOURETTE 1917 - History of The Early Relations Between United States and China, 1784-1844
LATOURETTE 1917 - History of The Early Relations Between United States and China, 1784-1844
LATOURETTE 1917 - History of The Early Relations Between United States and China, 1784-1844
BY
19 17
THE TUTTLE, MOREHOUSE & TAYLOR COMPAN Y
CONTENTS.
PAGE
Foreword 5
Introduction 7
Chapter l. The Period of Beginnings, 1784-1790 IO
Bibliography 145-200
l. Bibliographies 145
2. Official Documents and Reports of Societies 146
3. Manuscripts, Logs, Ship Accounts, Bills of Lading,
and kindred documents 154
4. Journals, Diaries, Contemporary Descr_iptions, Cor-
respondence, and N arratives of Voyages 160
5. Contemporary Pamphlets, Sermons, Lectures, Dis-
cussions, and Treaties . 175
6. Newspapers and Periodicals 179
7. Secondary Authorities 183_
Index . 201
FOREWORD
1
Henry Yule, Cathay and the Way Thither, being a collection of
Medieval notices of China translated and edited by Colonel Henry Yule,
with a preliminary essay on the intercourse between China and the
Western Nations previous to the discovery of the Cape Route. London,
1866. This is the best single work on the period.
2
S. Wells Williams, A History of China. New York, r9or. pp. 75-uo.
8 Kenneth S. Latourette,
4
Charles E. Trow, Old Shipmasters of Salem, New York and London,
1905. p. 48.
Log books in the Essex Institute, Salem, for this period, show some-
thing of the extent of the trade. See also G. F. Chever, Sorne Remarks
on the Commerce o Salem, from 1626 to 1740, with a sketch of Philip
English, a merchant in Salem from about 1670 to about 1733-1734. Hist.
Cols. of Essex Instit. 1 : 67.
0
Gertrude Selwyn Kimball, The East India Trade of Providence,
Providence, 1896, p. 3, quotes the Governor of New York from the N . Y.
Col. Docs. Vol. 4, p. 306, to the effect, that "I find that those Pirates that
have given the greatest disturbance in the East Indies and the Red Sea,
have either been fitted from New York or Rhode Island, and manned
from New York." See also Paullin, Diplomatic Negotiations of American
Naval Officers. Baltimore, 1912, pp. 154-156.
7
T. South to the Lord Justices of Ireland, from Dublin, Aug. 15, 1696.
Calendar o State Papers, Colonial Series, America and W est Indies.
May 15, 1696--0ct. 31, 1697. J. W. Fortescue, ed., London, 1904.
8
A letter to the East India Company from Bombay, !bid. 1697-8, p. 363,
says of the same band, "There is a nest o rogues in the Isle of St. Mary's
[near Madagascar] . . . . where they are frequently supplied .
by ships from N ew York, N ew England, and the W est Indies.''
12 K enneth S . Latourette,
12
Fitzsimmons, in a speech on the tariff, Apr. 16, 1789, describes the
situation quite exactly. Thomas Hart Benton, Abridgment of the
Debates of Congress from 1769 to 1856, 1857-1861. N ew York. 1842.
13
Joseph B. Felt, Annals of Salem. 2 v. Salem. 1845-9. 2 : 285, 29I.
HWilliam B. Weeden, Economic and Social History of New England,
1620-1789. 2 v. Boston and N ew York. 18go. 2: 821. He quotes from
the Connecticut Archives, a manuscript collection at Hartford.
1
This was advertised for sale in July, 1784. Hamilton Andrews Hill,
The Trade and Commerce of Boston, 1630 to 1890, in Justin Winsor,
Memorial History of Boston, Boston. 1881. 4 : 203.
1
Nov. 27, 1783. The Correspondence and Public Papers of John Jay,
edited by Henry P. Johnston. New York and London. 1891. 3: 97. See
also Ellis Paxson Oberholtzer, Robert Morris, Patriot and Financier,
1903, p. 222, and William Graham Sumner, The Financier and Finances
of the American Revolution. 2 v. N ew York 1892. 2: 162.
17
This seems to have been universally believed at the time, and no one
has ever questioned it. There seems to be no evidence which would lead
one to doubt it.
18
The Journals of Major Samuel Shaw, the first American Consul at
Canton, edited, with a life of the author, by J osiah Quincy, Boston, 1847,
give a full account of this voyage, and are reliable, since the author was
the supercargo of the ship and wrote from his journals kept on the trip.
The account of the voyage, unless otherwise indicated, is taken from him.
14 K enneth S. Latourette,
19
He was successively adjutant, captain, brigade major of artillery,
and, finally, aide de camp to General Knox. Quincy's life of Shaw is
good. Delano says of Shaw, "He was a man of fine talents and con-
siderable cultivation.'' Amasa Delano, Narrative of Voyages and Travels
in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Boston, 1818. p. 21.
"'The Journals of the United States in Congress assembled [Confedera-
tion], Philadelphia, 10 : 47. Similar letters were frequently
granted' later. For instance, to the "Canton,'' March 22, 1785 ( 10: 97)
and Jan. 2, 1786 (II: 14); to the "Hope," Jan. 26, 1786 (II: 17); to
the "Columbia" and "Lady Washington," Sept. 24, 1787 (12: 144, 145);
and to the "General Washington," Oct. 25, 1787 (12: 217).
21
Most accounts o the voyage are taken from Shaw's Journal, but
garbled ones are given in Robert Waln, Jr., Life of Robert Morris, in
John Sanderson, Biography of the Signers o the Declaration of Inde-
pendence, Philadelphia, 1823, p. 368, which is quoted by Sumner, Financier
and Finances o the American Revolution, 2: 162. It calls the ship " The
Empress" and says that it was the first attempt to make an out of season
passage to China by going around the south cape of New Holland. A
cursory ex amination o Shaw's Journals will show that Waln was correct
only in the year o the voyage, both the name o the ship and the course
being wrong. He may have confused it w ith the voyage of the "Alliance."
22
For the first year, to avoid extra presents demanded of nations
opening trade, the Americans were reported to the Hoppo, or customs
collector, as E nglish.
Early Relations between the United States and China. 15
and Jay's reply (June 23, 1785) . The report of the committee is in the
Continental Congress Reports of Committees (Ms. in Library of Con-
gress) . lt was read J une 9, i785. It is also mentioned in the J ournal
labeled Reports of Coms. (Ms. in Library of Congress) .
25
A column and a quarter was given to it in the Providence Gazette,
May 28, i785.
2
Hill, Trade and Commerce o Boston, p. 81, quotes from the Indepen-
dent Chronicle for J une 23, 1785, to that effect.
27
Robert Morris to Jay, May 19, 1785. Jay's Corres. and Public Papers,
3: 143.
28
Shaw's J ournals, p. 218. Morris may have sent the "Empress" a
second time. A letter to which there is no author nor name o person
addressed, but with the date New York, Nov. 3, 1786, in Letters Written
to the British Government by agents from America, labeled America and
England, 1783-1791, Ms. transcripts in Lenox Library, mentions the
"Empress o China" as having arrived June 6, 1786, from Canton ater
a voyage o thirteen months. This leaves such a short time for her to
unload, load, and clear from New York after her :first voyage that it seems
more likely that the date is wrong. It should probably be 1785.
16 Kenneth S. Latourette,
29
For accounts and mention of this voyage see Letters of Phineas Bond,
Oct. 2, 1788, p. 578. Waln, Life of Robert Morris in Sanderson, Biog-
raphy of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence, Philadelphia,
1823, 5: 368. (He was copied with slight changes by Oberholtzer, Robert
Morris, p. 224.) Parliamentary Papers, 1821, 7 : 122; C. Dixon, Voyage
Round the World. More particularly to the Northwest Coast of America.
London, 1789. p. 298; Freeman Hunt, The Library of Commerce, Prac.:.
tical, Historical, and Theoretical. N ew York, 1845. 1 : n8; Abraham
Ritter, Philadelphia and her Merchants as constituted Fifty to Seventy
years ago. Philadelphia, 1860.
so Her course is certain.
81
Sumner, Financier and Firiances of the Am. Rev., 2: 227. He quotes
for his authority a letter of one of the English agents in the United
States to Lord Dorchester, 1788, given in Canadian Archives, 1890. 104.
2 Timothy Pitkin, A Statistical View of the Cmmerce o the United
Sta tes of America. N ew Haven, 1835. .p. 245.
Early Relations between the United States and China. 17
88
Shaw's Journals, pp. 218-222. Shaw held the office until 1794 His
successors were Samuel Snow (Quincy's Life of Shaw, p. 125), Edward
Carrington, B. C. Wilcocks, Richard R. Thompson, J ohn H . Grosvenor,
P. W. Snow, Paul S. Forbes (Consular letters, Canton). There were
frequent gaps, often of years, when the office was occupied by a vice
consul or a consular agent.
84
She sailed from Salem J anuary 3, 1786. Robert S. Rantoul, the Port
of Salem, in Hist'l Cols. of the Essex Instit., 10 : 55. Paullin, Diplomatic
Negotiations of American Naval Officers, p. l6I.
85
This course was probably taken because of the influence of an Eng-
lishman who had spent seven years in India and who went along on
the voyage. He is mentioned in a letter of J ohn Brown to his brother,
August, 1787. Moses Brown Papers, 6: u, quoted in Miss Kimball's notes.
86
The log book of the "General Washington'' is in the Brown arid I ves
Papers, in the J ohn Carter Brown Library of American History in
Providence, and is above the average manuscript log for fullness of detail.
William B. W eeden, Early Oriental Commerce in Providence, in Mass.
Hist'l Soc. Proceedings, 3d Series, 1 :236-278, Boston, 1908, pp. 236-240,
tells of it, and Gertrude Selwyn Kimball, The East India Trade of Provi-
dence, Providence, 1896, p. 4, gives an account of it. Shaw's J ournals,
p. 318, tells of the return voyage.
TRANS. CoNN. AcAn., Vol. XXII 2 1917
Kenneth S. Latourette,
37
- Shaw's Journals, pp. 295-296.
88
Ibid.
39
Ibid., p. 297.
40
Delano, Voyages, pp. 21-25.
"Journal of Brig "Astrea" to China. Ms. in Essex Institute, Salem.
e Edmund Roberts, Embassy to the Eastern Courts of Cochin-China,
Siam, and Muscat, in the U. S. Sloop of War Peacock . . . . during
the years 1832, 3, 4. New York, 1837, p. 126.
Early Relations between the United States and China. 19
east. Her people had not come into intimate contact with their
equals in civilization until the nineteenth century. Their foreign
relations had been almost exclusively with tri bes of inferior cul-
ture, a culture which at its best was a crude copy of a Chinese
original.
Although conquered at times, the sons of Han had always
assimilated their victors. The entire course of their history had
bred a profound contempt for all foreigners, and had led them
to apply to the latter the term "barbaran." It is not surprising;
therefore, that early modern relations with the Occident were
hampered by the conviction that foreigners were mercenary, inter-
ested only in trade, and beneath the contempt of the Chinese
gentry and literati; that the China trade was necessary to their
very existence43 ; that they did not have the ability to learn to
read or to speak Chinese; and that all embassies sent to Peking
carne merely to bear tribute. 44 This contempt was mingled with
an undercurrent of annoyance. The Manchus were not a naval
power; they were, in fact, utterly impotent on the sea, 45 and after
the piratical acts of many of the early European adventurers,
especially of the Portuguese, they f elt it wise to limit western
merchants to as f ew ports as possible and to police them care-
fully while there, "lest they come and make trouble." Only the
strong commercial interests of the Chinese prevented the entire
prohibition of trade.
The Chinese offi.cials were lovers of money, and where trade
was once permitted their greed led to the imposition of as many
duties and exactions as possihle, and to a venality so great that
by j udicious bribery these same duties could be evaded and many
port regulations disregarded with impunity.
43
An anonymous memorial to the Emperor said: "Inqtiiries have served
to show that the foreigners, if deprived for severa! days of the tea and
rhubarb of China, are affiicted with dimness of sight and constipation of
the bowels, to such a degree that life is endangered." The Chinese
Repository, Canton, 1822-185r. 7: 31r.
44
E. J. Eitel, Europe in China, The History of Hongkong from the
beginning to the year 1882, London and Hongkong, 1895, p. 12, gives a
good summary of the feeling as a whole. See too Chinese Repository,
passim, for official edicts on the China trade.
45
This their trouble with Koxinga in Formosa had shown them long
befo re.
20 K enneth S. Latourette,
52
Chinese Rep., 6: 292-296.
Hunter, Fan Kwae in Canton, p. 35. Also evidence of Abel Coffin,
Mar. 20, 1830, quoted in J ohn Phipps. A Practica! Treatise on the China
and Eastern Trade. Calcutta, 1835, p. 310.
54
Hunter, Fan Kwae in Canton, p. 36. Downing, The Stranger in
China, 2 : 123-133. .
"I never saw in this country such a high average of fair dealing as
there." Letters and Recollections of John Murray Forbes. Boston and
New York, 1899, 1 : 86. Hunter, Fan Kwae at Canton, p. 97, pays a high
tribute to the system and to the honesty of the merchants.
22 K enneth S. Latourette,
00
John Robert Morrison, A Chinese Commercial Guide, Consisting of a
Collection of Details respecting Foreign Trade in China, Canton, 1834.
Captain Benjamin Hodges in 1789 paid $15 for the pilot to Maca:o, $40 for
the pilot from Whampoa through the mouth of the river. Journal and Log
of the Brig William and Henry from Salem, Mass., to Canton, Isle of
France, and Salem. 1788-1790. Benjamin Hodges, Master. MS. T he
pilot expenses of the "Ann and Hope" in 1801 were; expenses at Macao,
$9.25, for pilot inwards, $44, for boat at Macao, $4, for boats to tow ships
over the second bar and boats stationed there, $14, for pilot outward,
$56, for the attendance of six boats at the second bar, $6, fo r cumshaw
(fee) to pilot outward, $2. Disbursements [of "Ann and Hope"] while
on their voyage to London and Canton, Christopher Bentley, Master. MS.
1
This custom fell into disuse in later years.
Early Relations between the United States and China. 23
118
The facts in this paragraph are to- be found in W. W. W ood, Sketches
of China with Illustrations from Original Drawings, Philadelphia, 1830,
pp. 213-217, Morrison, Chinese Commercial guide, pp. 9-18, Roberts,
Embassy to Eastern Courts, p. 126, Shaw, Journals, pp. 173-178, Hunter,
Fan Kwae at Canton, p. 51, and the East India Trader's Complete Guide,
London, 1825, p. 453. William Milburn, Oriental Commerce.
9
Consular Letters, Canton, III.
68
Hunter, Fan Kwae in Canton, p. 28.
"" Jacob Abbot, China and the English, New York, 1835, pp. 64-94, gives
a vivid, although not very accurate, description, claiming to be that of an
eye witness. Fitch W. Taylor, Flag Ship, or a Voyage Around the World
in the U. S. Frigate Columbia, 2 v., New York, 1840, 2 :170; W. S. W.
Ruschenberger, A Voyage Around the World, Philadelphia, 1838, pp.
94 ff. ; Richard J. Cleveland, A N arrative of V oyages and Commercial
Enterprises, 2 v., Cambridge, Mass., 1842, 1: 46, 47; J . W. Reynolds,
Voyage of the United States Frigate Potomac, during the circumnaviga-
tion of the Globe in the years 1831, 1832, 1833, and 1834, N ew York, 1835,
p. 336 et sqq.; Shaw's J ournals, pp. 178-184, 345; Hunter, Bits of Old
China, pp. 12-15; all contain descriptions of the factories by eye witnesses.
Ch. Rep. 14 : 347, has a map, but the best are in Hunter, Fan Kwae in
Canton, p. 25, and Morse, Internat. Rel. of Chin. Empire, p. 70.
7
Cleveland, Voyages, 1 : 46, 47.
Early Relations between the United Stat and China. 25
76
Nye, Morning of My Life in China, p. 73.
1
Ch. Rep., 8 :77-82.
CHAPTER II.
In the first flush of success Americans had f elt that their trade
with Canton was destined t expand indefinitely. It soon became
apparent, however, that a limit would speedily be reached. The
chief article of importation from China was tea, and its con-
sumption in America was lirnited. Restrictions placed on its
importation to Europe and the West Indies were practically
prohibitive, and any extensive attempts to evade them were not
to be thought of.1
Moreover, there was great difficulty in getting commo<lities
with which to purchase cargoes in Canton. Through the cen-
turies, Europeans had gone to China as to the rest of the East
in quest of its teas and silks, while but few Western products
could be found for which there was a return demand. The
balance of trade had been met by heavy shipments of specie, a
drain which had long been a cause of concern. Not until after
1825 or 1832 when China had cultivated her appetite for opium
was the current of silver stemmed.
From the very first the Americans had faced this difficulty.
F or a time they had hoped that in ginseng they had found a
product which would supply the need, 2 but before ..long it became
apparent that the demand for the root was limited, and that
specie must be exported 'e xtensively to make up the deficit. 3
1
Letters of Phineas Bond, p. 545, September 2, 1787.
Shaw's Journals, pp. 229-236, 301, sqq.
The following table, taken from Pitkin, Stat. View (1835 ed.) p. 303,
and taken by him from the Register of the Treas., Washington (except
for 1826-1832 which are from a Canton paper) show the proportion of
specie exported to Canton from 1805 on.
BlLLS ON
YEAR SPEClE MDSE. YEAR SPECIE ENGLAND MDSE.
1805 $2,902,000 $2,653,818 1819 $7.414,000 $ 200,000 $2,603,151
1806 4,176,000 l,150,358 1820 6,297,000 1,888,ooo
1807 2,895,000 982,362 1821 2,995,000 2,397,795
1808 3,032,000 908,090 1822 5,125,000 3,067,795
1809 70,000 409,850 1823 6,292,840 2,046,549
1810 4,723,000 1,020,600 1824 4,096,000 2,364,000
Kenneth S . Latourette,
Now, spec1e was of all commodities the one which the United
States could least spare .at that time. They had no silver or
gold mines of importance. What coin carne into the country was
lar gely smuggled in from the Spanish colonies an was greatly
needed to pay European bills. Specie was consequently hard to
obtain for such luxuries as China goods, and when secured, much
popular irritation was felt at its use for such a purpose. 4
Unless these conditions could be changed, American trade with
Cantan would be extremely limited. Indeed, by 1790, it had
already been overdone and had ceased to be as profitable as .at
the beginning. 5
At about this time, however, two widely separated groups of
events partially removed both of these hindrances and gave
Chinese-American commerce an mpetus which resulted in its
rapid expansion. One, the European wars following the French
Revolution, was still a few years off, the other, the opening of
new sources of supply of goods for the China market, had just
begun.
BlLLS ON
YEAR SPECIE MDSE. YEAR SPECIE ENGLAND M DSE.
18II $2,330,000 $ 568,800 1825 $6,524,500 $2,437,525
1812 l,875,000 l,257,810 1826 5,725,200 2,056,101
1813 616,000 837,000 1827 1,841,168 $ 400,000 2,032,449
1814-15 451,000 1828 2,640,300 300,000 2,454,617
1816 1,922,000 605,000 1829 740,900 657,000 2,667,770
1817 4,545,000 l,055,600 1830 l ,123,644 423,656 2,793,982
1818 5,601,000 l,475,828 . 1831 183,655 1,168,500 2,871,321
1832 2,480,871 667,252 2,383,684
1833 682,519 4,772,516 2,907,936
The continued existence of this feeling is shown by a clipping from a
Providence paper. In its issue of September 14, 1793, the U nited States
Chronicle of that city attempted to mollify public opinion by telling of
"fifty or sixty thousand dollars in specie," part of the proceeds of the
" President Washington" and her cargo which had been sold at Calcutta
in 1792, being deposited in the bank by Brown and Francis, "this sum
being more specie than they had ever shipped to the Indies, although for
six years past considerably eng~ged in the trade. It is expected it will
operate in the minds of thinking people to do away with a prejudice
against the trade, and convince them t hat it is our duty to encourage it,
as being much more advantageous. than for us to continue retailers of
India goods for European merchants."
Osgood and Batchelder, Salem, p. 138, say that the Salem-China trade
seems to have been abandoned from 1790 to 1798.
Early Relations between the United States and China. 29
act the cold of winter. Woolens were scarcely ever used, and
to provide the needed warmth the poor resorted to heavily padded
clothes and the better classes to garments lined with fur. 8 When
the "Empress of China" first reached Canton, sow f urs carne
through the Russians, and sorne from Europe and America
_through European traders. 9 The Americans were not long in
learning of the demand,1 and within a few years had opened
up three sources of supply: the N orthwest Coast of America,
where various pelts, chiefiy those from the sea otter, were
obtained by barter from the Indians; the Falkland Islands, the
islands off the W est coast of South America, and the South Seas,
where the fur seal was found; and the interior of N orth America,
where the great fur-trading companies collected the pelts and
shipped them from eastern ports, principally N ew York.
Of these sources, the first to acquire importance was the
N orthwest Coast of America. The pioneers were Russians, but
for sorne reason they were slow to take advantage of their
knowledge, and the secret did not penetrate to the rest of
Europe.11 A generation or so later, Captain Cook's sailors
picked up sorne sea otter skins while on the Northwest Coast and
on reaching Canton were surprised to have them sell for a sum
which seemed fabulous. J ohn Ledyard, an American who had
been with the expedition, returned to the United States fired
with the idea of taking advantage of the discovery. He
approached Robert Morris and merchants in Boston, in N ew
London, and in N ew York, but he failed to attain his obj ect.
8
Chinese Rep., 3 : 557.
9
Ibid., and Speer, Oldest and N ewest Empire, p. 412.
10
George Bancroft said in describing the fur trade on the Northwest
Coast : "At the time when the people of N ew England were the most
ready to devote themselves to navigation, the prohibitory laws of
many . . . . nations of Europe fettered commerce so much that they
found the whole earth not too large for their activity." Letter to C. C.
Perkins, Jan. 4, 1879, in C. C. Perkins, Memoir of James P erkins. In
Proceedings of the Mass. Hist'l Society, l : 353-368, p. 359.
11
In 1742 Berjng's shipwrecked roen killed the sea otter for food,
carried about a thousand skins to Asia, and were given a la_rge sum
for th em by Chinese merchants. A. C. Laut, Vikings of the Pacific.
N ew York, 1905, p. 62. Hubert Howe Bancroft, History of the N orth-
west Coast, 2 v., San Francisco, 1884, l : 345.
Early Relations between the United States and ehina. 3I
12
J ared Sparks, Travels and Adventures of J ohn Ledyard, London,
1834, p. 175 et sqq. Milet Murrans. A Voyage Round the World in the
. years 1785, 1786, 1787, 1788, by J . F. G. de La Perouse, 3 v., Lond6n, 1798.
2: 287. There are other secondary accounts in Hill, Trade and Commerce
of Boston, p. 82, and James Morton Callahan, American Relations in the
Pacific and the Far East, 1784-1900, Baltimore, 1901. There seem to be
no contemporary sources for this information, but the facts seem fairly
well established.
18
Washington Irving, Astoria, or Anecdotes of our Enterprise Beyond
the Rocky Mountains. 2 v., Philadelphia, 1836. 1 : 32.
u G. Dixon, Voyage Round the World. More Particularly to the
Northwest Coast of America. London, 1789, pp. x vii-x ix , 315. J ohn
Meares, Voyages Made in the' Years 1788 and 1789 from China to the
Northwest Coast of America. London, 1791, passim. Edward S. Meaney,
Vancouver's Discovery of Puget Sound. New York, 1907, p. 26.
15
Joseph Barrell, Samuel Brown, Charles Bulfinch, John Derby, Crowel
Hatch, and John M. Pintard. Letter of Charles Bulfinch to William
Cushing, December l, 1816. In Bureau of Rolls and Library, Department
of Sta te, Washington.
1
Bulfinch, Oreg. and Eldorado, p. 1. H e should know, as he was
related to the Charles Bulfinch of the company. Bancroft, Hist. of
N. W. Coast , 1 : 185, thinks tl:iere . is no evidence of their having any
knowledge of the operations of the English tra:ders and that they got their
ideas from Cook and Ledyard. Robert Greenhow, A History of Oregon
32 K enneth S. Latourette,
sent out two vessels, the "Columbia," Captain Kendrick, and the
"Lady Washington," Captain Gray. They were instructed to
stay on the coast two seasons, or longer if they thought best, and
to send the sloop to Canten at the end of each se415on with part
of the skins collected.17 The "Lady Washington" reached the
Northwest Coast in the summer of 1788 after touching at various
points on the coast, and at N ootka found the English Captains
Meares and Douglas. Here on September twenty-second the
"Columbia" joined her, and here the two ships passed the winter.
The spring and summer of 1789 were spent in trading along the
coast, and at the close of the season all the furs were put on
board the "Columbia,'' which then proceeded under Gray to
Cantan, sold its skins, took on a cargo of China goods, and
returned to Boston by way of the Cape of Good Hope, arriving
August, 1790, the first American vessel to circumnavigate the
globe. 1 8 The adventurers were received with great ovations,19
and although the profits <lid not come up to expectations, 20 the
"Columbia" was again sent out. On this second voyage she
made the discovery of the river that bears her name, 21 an event
the full significance of which did not become apparent until the rise
of the Oregon question in the next sentury. Captain Kendrick
had meanwhile made two trips to China, in 178922 and in 1791 or .
and California and the other Territories on the Northwest Coast of North
America, Boston, 1844, p. 179, seems to think there was sorne causal
connection between this and the earlier King George's Sound Company
of London ( the one which sent out Portlock and Dixon), but presents no
evidence to substantiate it.
17
Letter of Instruction of J oseph Barrell to the expedition, MS. in the
Bureau of Rolls and Library, Department of State. It ended with the
admonition, "We depend you will suffer insult and injury from none
without showing that spirit which ever becomes a free and independent
American.''
18
Bancroft, Hist. of N. W . Coast, 1: 185-209, gives an account of the
voyage. Up to June 14, 1789, he follows the diary of Robert Haswell,
the best source for the voyage that he was able to find. (p. 186.)
19
Meany, Vancouver's Discovery of Puget Sound, p. 34.
2
Letter of Charles Bulfinch to William Cushing, D ec. 1 , 1816.
21
This was in May, 1792. Bancroft, Hist. of N. W. Coast, .1: 260. He
cites her manuscript log for this date.
22
Ibid., 1 : 209.
Early Relations between the United States and China. 33
23
A letter from him dated Macao, March 28, 1792, Consular Letters,
Canton, I, shows that he was there at that date, and he probably arrived
in the latter part of 1791, or very early in 1792.
2
Bancroft, N. W. Coast, l: 253. He cites Hall J . Kelley, Disc. of
N. W. Coast, where the deeds are copied.
u Delano, Voyages, pp. 399, 400, says that he was killed accidentally by
a salute fired in his honor by an English commander. Foster, American
Diplomacy in the Orient, Boston and N ew York, 1904, p. 99, says that
he died in 1793, possibly copying from Robert Greenhow, A History of
Oregon and California and the other Territories on the N orthwest Coast
of America, Boston, 1844, p. 228, where the same statement is made.
Bancroft shows that this date is probably false (Hist. of N. W. Coast,
I : 297) placing it in 1796, a conjecture given color by the fact that Van-
couver found the "Washington" at Nootka Sept. 2, 1794 (George
Vancouver. A Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean and
Round the World. 3 vols. London, 1798. 3: 300.) His death was
probably late in 1795 or very early in 1796, as on May 28, 179, J ohn
Howell wrote from Manila in regard to settling up his estate. (MS.
letter in State Dept., Washington.) This letter, which shows his estate
$17,717 in debt to Howell, and his own report of March, 1792, which
shows him $10,000 in debt, bear out what has been said about his visionary
natu re.
26
Joseph Ingraham, Journal o the Voyage of the Brigantine Hope,
from Boston to the North West Coast of America. 1790-1792. MS. in
Library of Congress. Bancroft, Hist. of N . W. Coast, I: 252, says that
he was mate of the "Lady Washington." Either Bancroft is in error,
or Ingraham was mate on the latter vessel at an earlier date.
zr He sailed Sept. 16, 1790. Ingraham, Voyage cif Hope, Greenhow,
pp. 226-228, and Callahan, p. 18; the last two of whom take their accounts
from the manuscript journal, are where the accounts for the voyage are
found. The first is to be preferred as a source.
28
Cary (son-in-law of Perkins) m N. Eng. Hist. and Gen. Reg.,
ro: 201-211.
TRANS. CoNN. AcAD., Vol. XXII 3
34 K enneth S . Latourette,
20
Ibid., and Ingraham, Disc. of sorne Ids. in S. Pacific, Mass. Hist. Soc.
Cols., 2 :20-24. Sorne of these same islands were renamed and new ones
were discovered by ] oseph Roberts in the ship "J efferson" early in 1793
Disc. and Dese. of Marquesas, Mass. Hist. Soc. Cols., 4 : 241.
C. P. Claret Fleurier, Voyage Autour du Monde pendant les Annees
1790, 1791 et 1792, Paris, 6 vols., an. vi., 2: 368, mentions the same
suspension of the fur trade.
1 Providence Gazette, Jan. u , 1791, which cites Allen's New London
Marine List, June 8, 1791.
32
Ingraham, Voyage of Hope. The facts of the voyage are from the
log of the "Margaret." MS. copy in Essex Institute, Salem. The inspira-
tion of the voyage carne from the "Columbia," which he had found at
Canton in 1789 or 90. N. Eng. Hist. and Gen. Reg., IO: 201-211.
38
W illiam Tufts, Account of V essels in the Sea Otter Fur Trade on
the N orthwest Coast ( which seems to be correct as far as it goes). Witl
the addition of all such omissions as have been detected this shows two
vessels on the Coast in 1788, one in 1789, two in 1790, five in 1791, seven
in 1792, four in 1793, two in 1796, four in 1797, eight in 1799, six in 1800,
fourteen in 1801, nine in 1802, seven in 1803, fi.ve in 1804, six in 1805, five
in 1806, fi.ve in 1807, three in 1808. The list is probably very incomplete,
for in 1816 William Sturgis wrote that he had been on the Coast with
seventeen American ships. He does not say in what year he was there.
Letter to Charles Morris, Aug. 22, 1816.
Early Relations between the United States and China. 35
34
Bill of lading of the "Louisa" to the N. W. Coast, Oct. 5, 1826.
35
. Tufts' account of vessels in the sea otter trade gives the names
of these firms. William Sturgis, The N orthwest Fur Trade, in Hunt's
Merchant Magazine, 14 :532-537, gives the facts about the other ports.
He was himself connected with the trade.
30
Numerous examples of these accidents can be cited. The "Columbia"
suffered the loss of three men from the Indians in 1791 (Extracts from
the log of the ship "Margaret," commanded by Captain James Magee.
Voyage to the North West Coast, 1791-1792. Copy MS. in Essex Insti-
tute. This may be the incident of which Fleurier heard when in Canton
in November, 1791. Voyage Autour du Monde. 2: 377). Vancouver
found in Hawaii a survivor of the "Fair American," an American
schooner manned by the younger Metcalf, that had been captured and
had had its crew murdered by the natives in retaliation for punishment
infticted by the elder Metcalf for the murder of sorne of his men (Van-
Kenneth S. Latourette,
couver, Voyage, 2 :135). In 1803 the ship "Boston,'' J ohn Salter, Master,
was attacked by the natives at N ootka Sound . in revenge for a fancied
insult, his vessel was captured, and all but two of the crew were
murdered. (The Adventures o John Jewett, on)y survivor of the crew
of the ship Boston, during a captivity o nearly three y ears among the
Indians of Nootka Sound in Vancouver Island. Ed. by Robert Brown.
London, 1896. Secondary accounts are in Bancroft, Hist. of N. W. Coast,
1 : 312, and in Meany, Vancouver's Discovery of Puget Sound, pp. 39-43.)
In 1803 and 1804 the "Atahualpa'' of Boston, Adams master, lost sorne
men by an Indian attack (page 171 of Shaler [ ?] Journal of a Voyage
Between China and the Northwestern Coast of America, made in 1804.
In the American Register or General Repository, vol. 3 (1808) pp. 137-175).
87
Cleveland, Voyages of a Merchant Navigator, and Cleveland, Voyages,
l : 155-249
ss Herbert Howe Bancroft, History of California, 7 v., San Francisco,
1884-1890. 2: 15.
Shaler, Voyage between China and the N orthwest Coas t.
40
"The Mercury" was captured and condemned in 1813, Bancroft, Hist.
of Cali., 2: 268. He quotes Mercury, Expediente de investigacion sabre
Captura de la fragata American "Mercurio" 1813, MS. Severa! other
ships were similarly treated in 1816. Ibid., 2: 275.
., Bancrot, Hist. o N. W. Coast, 1 : 319. He quotes -Boston on the
N. W. Coast, MS., pp. II-12.
<2 John D'Wolf, A Voyage to the North Pacific and a Journey through
Siberia more than half a century ago, Cambridge, 1861 ; and Patterson,
Narra tive o f Adventures and Sufferings, are accounts o f the same voyage
by two men who were on it.
Early Relations between the United States and China. 37
43
Ibid. D'Wolf calls it "Okain" and Patterson calls it "Oca in," but
there is no reasonable doubt of its identity.
.. Bancroft, Hist. of Calif., 2: 93. He cites Albatross, Log Book "of
Voyage to N . W. Coast in 18o9-18I2, kept by William Gale, as authority.
Some of the vessels were under the Winships .
.. Archibald Campbell, A Voyage Round the World from 1806 to 1812.
N ew York, 1817. The ship mentioned in Erasmus Doolittle, Sketches
by a Traveller, Boston, 1830, in about 1809 or 1810 fraded provisions to
the Russians for skins.
46
Am. Fur Trade, Hunt's Mere. Mag., 3: 197-8. It is interesting to
note that much the same thing was done for severa! years after 1815
for the British Northwest Fur Company by J. and T . H. Perkins of
Boston to evade the monopoly of the East India Company. Reports of
Committees, No. 43, 2 Sess., 24 Cong.
47
American State Papers, Foreign Relations, Washington, 1858. 5: 455
Kenneth S. Latourette,
1
The Diary of Mr. Ebenezer Townsend, Jr., the supercargo of the
sealing ship "N eptune" on her voyage to the South Pacific and Canton ;
in papers of New Haven Colony Hist'l Society, vol. 4, New Haven, 1888.
pp. 1-IIS. p. 3. Shaw, Journals, pp. 295-6, rnentions her as in Macao
early in 1788.
2
Townsend, Diary, p. 3, et sqq.
08
These sold for only $16,000, a very low price.
Kenneth S. Latourette,
The third branch of the fur trade, that with its source in the
interior of North America, cannot be as fully described as can
the other two. Accurate statistics are wanting as to what pro-
expe.d ition to the South Seas the discovery of new sources of supply
for a trade that had formerly been so profitable. J . N. Reynolds,
Address on the Subject of a Surveying and Exploring Expedition to the
Pacific Ocean and the Sonth Seas, N ew York, 1836.
The sealing voyages differed from those to the N orthwest Coast in
not being in the hands of a few large firms and in not sailing from a
single port. They were sent out from Salem, Boston, Stonington,
Hartford, New London, New Haven, New York, and Philadelphia, and
as a rule were financed by quite a number of persons, each of whom
invested a relatively small sum. N ew Haven entered the trade in 1790,
but the best-known voyage from the port was that of the " N eptune" in
1796 to 1799, a venture owned by a number of persons in New Haven
and Hartfor.d . It brought to its owners what in those days was a large
profit (Townsend, Diary. Another account in Trowbridge, Hist. of
Ancient Maritime Interests of New Haven, says that Townsend, the
chief owner, made $100,000 and his son, the supercargo, $50,ouo) , and
its success led to quite a number of other voyages in which persons
"from Hartford, Wethersfield, Middletown, East Haddam, Farmington,
Derby, Litchfield, Milford, Branford, Stratford, Providence, and N ew
London, were interested. (Trowbridge, Ancient Maritime Interests of
New Haven, p. 76.) What was true of New Haven was probably true
of the source of the capital for many other voyages.
Rough experiences and dangers were common in the trade. The rival
ships' companies on the sealing islands must often have quarreled. (In
1802 there were 200 men on Massafuero, about 170 of whom beionged
to no ship. A Concise Extract from the Sea Journal of William Moulton
written on board the Onico, in a voyage from the Port of N ew London
in Connecticut to Staten Land in the South Seas, etc. Utica, 1804, p. 98.)
There were dangers, too, from the Spanish authorities, for sealing on His
Catholic Majesty's islands was contraband; and vessels sometimes even
tried smuggling into South American ports. (A journal of a Voyage
from Salem to Massafuero to Canton and back to Salem on
board the ship "Concord," Obed Myer, master, 1799-1802, MS. in
Essex Institute, tells how the Spanish carried off to Valparaiso sorne
of the men who were on the island. In 1803 Root was imprisoned for a
term at Conception. Sorne time later a Spanish frigate ordered all sealers
to leave the island in four months or be treated as prisoners of war.
Pp. 156, 164 of Joel Root. Narrative of a Sealing and Trading Voyage
in the Ship Huron from New Haven around the World. 1802-1806. In
New Haven Hist'l Soc. Papers, Vol. 5, pp. 149-17r. In November, 1805,
Delano took on board five Americans belonging to Root who had been
imprisoned by the Spanish for living on Spanish territory. Delano,
42 Kenneth S. Latourette,
Voyages, p. 509.) There was danger from shipwreck and danger from
lawless mutineers and still more from lawless natives. (As in the case
o the "Nautilus'' which attempted to go to the Northwest Coast about
1797. The ship was driven back, refitted in Kamchatka, w'ent to the Sand-
wich Islands, thence to Otaheite with the hope o going to Massafuero,
but was driven back again by storms and finally had to go to N ew South
W ales. William Smith, J ournal o a V oyage in the Missionary Ship
Duff . . . . l796-18o2. New York, 1813, pp. 110-124.)
00
Bancroft, Hist. of N. W. Coast, l: 521.
61
Ibid., and W alter Barrett, The Old Merchants of N ew York City,
N ew York, 1870, l : 417, seem to imply this, and James Parton, Life of
J ohn J acob Astor, N ew York, 1865, p. 49, distinctly says this, stating
that he sent his first ship there about 1800.
62
Letter of J. J. Astor to J. Q. Adams, Jan. 4, 1823, in Greenhow, Hist.
of Oreg. and Calif., p. 439. See also on this Astoria project, Irving,
Astoria, Bancroft, Hist. of N. W. Coast, 1 : 512 ff., and 2: 136 ff., and Am.
Fur Trade, in Hunt's Mere. Mag., 3: 197-198.
"" Edmund Fanning, Voyages to the South Seas, Indian and Pacific
Oceans, etc., etc., N ew York, 1838, pp. 137-151.
Early Relations between the United States and China. 43
quin" sailed from New York under the same captain June 15,
1808, having obtained special exemption from the embargo then
existing in the United States, and found that the contract made
with the "Hope" had been scrupulously observed. Earlier in
the same year another American ship had been at the islands on
the same mission and had been wrecked, for one of the sur-
vivors was picked ,up by the "Tonquin" and taken to Canton. 74
In May, 1810, the brig "Active" sailed from Salem for the Fiji
Islands,75 the first of a long series of similar voyages from that
port. 76 The most prosperous years of the South Sea trade were
after the War of 1812. It was then that beche de mer began to
form a part of the cargoes, and the supply of sandal wood was
not badly depleted before 1820. The two decades af ter I 790,
however, saw its beginning and the marking out of the main
lines for its development.
In addition to trips to the Northwest Coast of America and
to the South Seas, the Cantan ships took other roundabout
routes, many of them opened by the European wars. A map of
their voyages would make a network over most of the known
globe. The customary route from America was to touch at the
Cape Verde Islands, to round the Cape of Good Hope, and then
either to keep east until just south of the Straits of Sunda, or
to go north to Mauritius, which the French were making a great
entrepot for Oriental shipping, and thence to the Straits of Sunda
and Canton. 77 But this customary route was varied in many
ways. The ships often touched at Bombay and Calcutta, at
Batavia, at Manila, or went round "New Holland," stop.ping
at times at Botany Bay. Again, sorne vessels would stop at
Amsterdam, at Hamburg, at St. Petersburg, or at Leghorn,
either carrying freight there on their return voyage, or touching
Cols. of Essex Instit., 7: 2rr, also Osgood and Batchelder, Salem, pp.
169 et seq.
76
!bid.
77 Delano, Voyages, pp. 200-2n, and passim.
Cleveland, Voyages of a
Merchant N avigator, p. 34.
Kenneth S. Latourette,
78
Typical examples of these are as follows: The "John J ay" of
Providence, 1794-5, touched at :aomb_ay to try to get a cargo of cotton
for Canton. Kimball, E. India Trade of Providence, pp. 14-17. In
1797-8 the same ship touched at Batavia on its way out, and at Ham-
burg and St. Petersburg and Lisbon on its way back; and in 18oo it was
instructed to round N ew Holland and touch at Botany Bay. Weeden,
Early Oriental Commerce in Providence, pp. 242-253. There are manu-
script logs preserved of the voyage of the ship "Perseverance" of Salero,
N athaniel Hawthorne ( father of the author) master, to Batavia, Manila,
C~nton, and return in 1796-8; of the ship "Ann and Hope" of Provi-
dence, Benjamn Page, master, which rounded New Holland in 1799-
1800; of the "Indus" to Canton in 1802-3, touching at Batavia on the
way back; of the ship "Derby" of Salem, Dudley S. Pickman, master,
in 1804-5, to Leghorn and Can ton and return; of the ship "Eliza" of
Salero, William Richardson, master, in 1805-7, to the Isle of France, Port
Jackson (New Holland), Norfolk Island, New Zealand, Canton, and
return ; of the "Hunter" of Salem, 1809-10, to Sumatra and Canton.
In Weeden, Early Oriental Commerce in Providence, pp. 261-266, men-
tion is made of the voyage of the ship "Arthur'' of Providence, Septem-
ber 26, 1807, to June 3, 1809, to Ro Janeiro, Cape Town, Isle of France,
Canton and Providence.
1
Krusenstern, Voyage round the. World, 2: 332, 331.
8ll Loring, Memoir of Wm. Sturg is, in Proc. of Mass. Hist. Soc.,
7 : 420-433.
1 Cleveland's Voyages.
Early Relations between the United States and China. 47
8
~
Evidence of J. Drummond, Parl. Papers, 1821, 7: 210. Evidence of
Joshua Bates, Parl. Papers, 1830, 6: 365-38o.
83
There were sorne exceptions to this rule. Log Book of the "Ann and
Hope," beginning Sept. 22, 1825, MS. in John Carter Brown Library.
In 1825 she got sorne seamen at Amsterdam, nine of whom had foreign
names. Journal of a voyage in the ship Herald from Salem to Rotter-
dam, Canton, and return, in 1804-1805, MS. in Essex Institute, says
that sorne foreigners had to be shipped. On the "Margaret" in 1791-2
on the Northwest Coast, all but five of the twenty-four were Americans.
Log of "Margaret," 1791-2. MS.
s. The account of the ship "John Jay" in 1798, MS. in John Carter
Brown Library, shows that the wages of a seaman were $15 a month,
of the steward and cabin cook $16, of the cook $15, of the boatswain
$24', of the cabin boy $6, of the carpenter $23, of the third officer $16,
of the second officer $25, of the fir~t officer $JO, of the master $16 a
month and four tons trading privilege. Forbes, Personal Reminiscences,
p. 91, gives one captain's salary as $so a month.
es Parl. Papers, 1821, p. 210,, vol. 7, evidence of Drummond. A letter
of George Bancroft to . C. C. Perkins, Jan. 4, 1879, says, "Young men
carne from the best families in near and even remote country towns, and
entered the service before the mast with a prospect of promotion. The
permission given the sailor to take out a little venture of his own was
usually rewarded with more lucrative results." C. C. Perkins, Memoir of
James Perkins, p. 359.
See also Parl. Papers, 1821, 7 : 217, evidence of Roberts. Thomas R.
K enneth S. Latourette,
93
Journal of the "Hunter" from Salem to Canton and Return, 1808-9,
September. 17, 1809.
94
Ibid.
9
Hunter, Bits of Old China, p. 157.
0
Charles G. Loring, Memoir of Wm. Sturgis, in Proc. of Mass. Hist.
Soc., 1863-1864, Boston, 1864, 7: 420-433.
97
As late as 1817 there is the record of an attack by pirates on the ship
"Wabash" of Baltimore, although the worst nest must have been rooted
out sorne time befor~. Wilcocks to Secy. of Stat~, Sept. 22, 1817.
Consular Letters, Canton, l.
98
The journal of Mr. Samuel Holmes . . during his attend-
ance . on Lord Macartney's Embassy to China and Tartary,
1792-3. London, 1798. p. 198.
99
W eeden, Early Or. Trade of Prov., p. 253.
100
George C. Mason, Reminiscences of Newport, Newport, 1884, p. 152,
Aug. 17, 1800.
The "Essex" carne out in 1800 to ward off French privateers, but
1 1
got only as far as the Straits of Sunda. Preble, First Cruise of the
TRANS. CoNN. A cAD., Vol. XXII 4 1917
50 Kenneth S. Latourette,
108
Felix Renouard de Sainte Croix, Voyage Commercial et Politique
aux Indes Orientales . . . . a la chine . . . pendant les annes
1803-1807, 3 v. Paris, 1810, 3: 130, in a letter written from China, Nov.
17, 1807, tells of this affair, and his story receives corroboration and
additions from Fanning, Voyages to S. Seas, 99-n3. Both are by men
who were either in China at the time or a few months later.
100
Fanning, Voyages to S. Seas, pp. 99-IIJ.
11
J. B. Eames, The English in China. London~ 1909. p. 136.
Kenneth S. Latourette,
111
Sen. Doc. 31, l Sess., 19 Cong. Total exports and imports from the
United States to Canton, 1812-3, 1813-4, 1814-5 $J,096,500, for 18u-2,
$5 1903,810, for 1809-ro, $11,459,600.
112
Doolittle, Sketches, p. 41, says, "They lived together as brothers.''
He himself was there during the war.
113
Davis, China, ~ : 78-80.
114
Auber, China, pp. 242 ff., Wheeler, The Foreigner in China, p. 68.
It is interesting to note that the differences between the Chinese and the
English arising as a result of this incident, led to important concessions
by the former, and ultimately to the sending of the Amherst Embassy by
the latter. Williams, History of China, pp. 105, ro6.
115
The "Rambler," Captain George Lapham, in 18!4, the "Jacob Jones"
of Boston in 1815, are two American privateers mentioned by the American
consul. Consular Letters, Canton, I.
110
Ibid.
117
Niles Register, 7: 128, Oct. 29, 1814, tells of a N ew York vessel
which had arrived at N ewport from Canton with a cargo worth nearly
half a million dollars. Parton, Life of Astor, p. 58, says that during the
War o 1812 all of J ohn J. Astor's ships from Can ton arrived safely
when tea had nearly doubled in price. This statement, however, is not
strictly reliable.
118
Consular Letters, Canton, I.
CHAPTER III.
1
Sen. Ex. Doc. 31, 1 Sess., 19 Cong. In 1815-16, imports from Canton
were $2,527,500, and exports to Canton were $4,220,000; in 1816-17,
they were $5,6o9,600, and $5,703,000 respectively; in 1817-18, $7,076,828
and $6,777,000 respectively; in 1818-19, $9,867,208 and $9,057,000, respec-
tively; in 181.9-20, $8,185,800 and $8,173,107 respectively. The largest year
before the war was 1809-10 when the corresponding figures were $5,744,-
600 and $5,715,000.
54 K enneth S . Latourette,
and did not stand in such need of furs and sandal wood as a
substitute for silver as in 1790. Hence, in spite of the removal
of the principal causes of previous prosperity, the years between
1814 and 1834 were, on the whole, successful ones fothe Canton
trade. For the most part they were quiet and lacked the fever
and the romance of the two decades befare 1812. Several events
are important enough, however, to be chronicled in sorne detail-
the end of the fur and the South Sea trade, the Terranova affal.r,
a change in the American organization of the trade resulting in
its concentration in a few large ports and in the hands of a few
large firms, changes in the composition of exports and imports,
the effect of American trade on the British East India Company,
the full development of the communi_ty li~e.. at Can ton, the grow-
ing interest of the United States Government in the China com-
merce, and the beginnings of American Christian missions to the
Chinese.
The banner years of the N orthwest fur trade had been those
immediately befare 1808. After this date, in spite of the newer
field opened in California, a decline began. 2 The fundamental
weakness was not the trouble with England, although the trade
did not recover from the blow given it by the War of 1812, but
the difficulty of obtaining skins. This was due partly to Russian
competition and aggression, partly to the growing difficulty of
barter with the Indians, and partly, possibly, to the approaching
extinction of the sea otter. In 1816, Wiliiam Sturgis, a man
who had been intimately connected with the trade, said: "The
settlements of the Russians and English (particularly the former)
2
The best index o this decline 1s the importa-tion o sea otter and
seal skins, the principal pelts, to Canton. Seal skins carne mostly from
another branch of the fur trade.
Year . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1805 1806 1807 1808 1809 1818
Sea Otter Skins . . . . I 1 ,003 17.445 14,251 7,944 II,893
Seal Skins . . . . . . . . . 183,000 140,297 261,000 100,000 34,000
Yea r . .. ... . . ... . . . . 1811 1812 1813 1814-15 1816 1817
Sea Otter Skins .. . . 9,200 II,593 8,222 6,200 4,300 3,5e
Seal Skins . ... . . .. . 45,000 173,000 109,000 59,000 109,000 27,ee"
Year ........ . ..... . 1818 1819 1821 1822
Sea Otter Skins ... . 4,177 4,714 3,575 3,507
Seal Skins .... . ... . 47,290 91,500 13,887 Ill,924
Early Relations between the United States and China. 55
these was an agreement signed April l7th, 1824, which fixed the
southern boundary of Russian possessions at the parallel 54 4o'
north, and which forbade to Americans the sale of firearms, but
allowed them rights of fishing in bays and coast~not occupied
by Russian establishments. 8 A futile attempt of the Baron de
Tuyl to reopen the question the following summer ended the
incident and American vessels continued to come to Sitka at
'
the rate of from two to four a year. 9
The Americans had lost for a time all title to the territory
north of 54" 40', but the question of the ownership of the Oregon
country was not yet settled, and in its settlement the Northwest
Coast fur trade played an important part. It was through this
trade that Americans had first come to know the region, and
such claims as the discovery of the Columbia River and the
settlement at Astoria arose directly through it. Moreover, one
of the chief reasons urged for the occupation of Oregon was the
acquisition of a Pacific portas a base for the China trade. Floyd,
the early champion of the Oregon question, in his report of
1821 to the House, urged that "the Columbia [is] in a com-
mercial point of view, a position of the utmost importance. The
fisheries on the coast, its open sea, and its position in regard to
China, which offers the best market for the vast quantity of
furs taken in these regions, . . . seems to demand immediate
attention." 1 In the debate of December 17th, 1822, his relative
emphasis upon the China trade was still stronger. "Th~ settle-
ment of Oregon . . is to open a mine of wealth to the
shipping interests surpassing the hopes even of
avarice itself. It consists principally of things which will pur-
chase the manufactures and products of China at a better profit
than gold and silver; and if that attention is bestowed upon the
country to which its value and position entitle it, it will yield a
profit, producing more wealth to the nation than all the ship-
8
Eugene Schuyler, American Diplomacy and the Furtherance of Com-
merce, N ew York, 1886, pp. 292-299.
9
Frederic Lutke, Voyage autour du Monde, execute par ordre de sa
Majeste L'Empereur Nicolas . . . . dans les annees 1826, 1827, 1828,
et 1829 par Frederic Lutke, etc., Traduit par F. Boye. 2 v. Pars,
1835. 1 : 131.
10
Reports of Coms. 45, 2 Sess., 16 Cong.
Early Relations between the United States and China. 57
mnts which have ever in any one year been made to Canton
from the United States. . . . Were this trade cherished . . . .
we could purchase the whole supplies of the United States in
the Canton market without carrying one dollar out of the coun-
try."11 He went on to describe the value of the trade, and argued
that the grain fields of the Columbia valley could ultimately
supply the market of China. The importance of Oregon in the
Canton trade was, too, the argument used by the other supporters
of Oregon occupation. Baylies and Tucker used it. 1 2 Colden
of N ew York prophesied that within twenty or fif ty years the
nearest route to further Asia would be by way of rivers, canals,
and portages to Oregon, and thence across the Pacific. 13
In December, 1824, Floyd was again agtating the question,
backing his cause by the same arguments.H His bll passed the
House, only to be tabled in the Senate, but four years later he
renewed the struggle, urging the old reasons. 1 5 He was defeated
and the question was dropped in Congress for ten years. \Vhen
at last it carne up again the advantages of Oregon in the Canton
market, although still used incidentally, 1 6 were no longer the
prominertt arguments.
It can safely be said, however, that the Oregon Country was
preserved to the United States because of the importance it
was felt to have in the Canton commerce, and because of the
claims to it which the early fur trade had established.
The sandal wood trade <lid not decline as early as the fur trade
or the sealing voyages. In 1817 Kotzebue found it still in full
progress on the Hawaiian Islands.17 The native government
11
Floyd of Va., Speech, Dec. 17, 1822. Annals of Congress, 17 Cong.,
2 Sess., p. 398.
12
Annals of Cong., 17 Cong., 2 Sess., Dec. 18, 1822, pp. 418, 423.
1
Ibid., pp. 583-586. Jan. 13, 1823.
14
Register of Debates, I : 18-22.
lZ Ibid., 5: 149.
16
Woodbury of N ew Hampshire urged these advantages. Congressional
Globe, j Sess., 27 Cong., App., p. 93. Hunt foresaw the time when O regon
woul"d command the China trade and a railroad j oin the N orthwest Coast
to N ew York. Hunt's Mere. Mag., 12: 80.
17
Otto von Kotzebue, Voyage of Discovery in the South S eas, and to
Behring's Straits in Search of a Northwest Passage . . . in the
years 1815, 1816, 1817, 1818, etc., London, 1821, l : 189-192.
Kenneth S. Latourette,
18
Otto von Kotzebue, A N ew Voyage round the World, m the years
1823, 1824, 1825, 1826. 2 v. London. 1830. 2: 191-192.
19
Pitkin, Stat. View, ed. 1835, p. 304.
2
Charles Wilkes, in N arrative of the United States Exploring Expedi-
tion during the years 1838-1842, 5 v., Philadelphia, 1845, 3: 202, writing
of it in 1840 says, "It has for many years past been exhausted." Dix,
Wreck of Glide, pp. 30-36, in 1820 said, "Its scarcity hardly repays the
labor of searching for it."
21
M. Camille de Roquefeuil, A Voyage round the World between the
years 1816-1819. London, 1823, p. 3. He visited the islands in 1817 and
makes this statement.
22
Parl. Papers, 1830, No. I, App. 4, pp. 722-723.
23
Thomas W illiams and James Calvert, missionaries to the Fij is, in a
work published in London, 1856, said that the traffic on the island in
sandal wood, tortoise shell, and beche de mer "has been and still is
chiefly in the hands of Americans from the port of Salem." Osgood and
Batchelder, Salem, p. 170.
"This was to avoid the port charges in China. Journal of the Ship
"Emerald."
25
$15 to $25 a pecul (1337'J lbs.) . Wilkes, U. S. Exploring Expedition,
Early Relations between the United States and China.. 59
to the South Pacific Ocean, Henry Archer, Jr., master, 1829-1830. MS.
in Essex Institute.
28
Journal of a Voyage on Board the Barque Peru from Lintin to the
Fijis, etc., MS. in Essex Institute.
!!9 Voyage of the ship "Emerald" to the . Fijis, Tahiti, and Manila,
1833-1836. MS. in Essex Institute.
Felt, Annals of. Salem, 2: 559. Charles Erskine, Twenty Years before
the Mast, Boston, 1890, p. 153
1 MS. J ournals of the "Pallas'' and the "Eliza" in Essex Institute.
" Journal of a Voyage from Salem to New Zealand, the Society, Fegee,
2
Frien<lly, and other Islands in the Pacific, and home by way of Manila
and China, in the Brig "Mermaid," . 1836-1839. MS. in Essex
Institute.
83
Memorial of E . India Marine Society in Reynolds, Address, pp.
167-170.
' The accounts of these voyages are by participants. Morrell, V oyages.
Abby Jane Morrell, N arrative of a Voyage to the Ethiopic and South
Atlantic Ocean, Chinese Sea, N orth and South Pacific Ocean, in the years
60 Kenneth S. Latourette,
1829, 1830, 1831, etc., New York, 1833, and Thomas Jefferson Jacobs,
Scenes, Incidents, and Adventures in the Pacific Ocean . . . . <luring
the Cruise of the clipper "Margaret Oakley" under Captain Benjamin
Morrell, N ew York, 1844. T he first voyage was in 1828, the second in
1829, the third in 1830, and the fourth in 1834. The records of the last
are given by J acobs.
3
George Thomas Staunton, in Miscellaneous Notices Relating to China,
etc., London, 1822-1850, pp. 409-432, denies that there was a Chinese law
requiring a life for a life in case of accident, and says that even in case of
punishment, a death penalty was not necessarily inflicted. He assigns
the Chinese severity in the Terranova affair to the desire to "inspire
foreigners with awe.''
Early Relations between the United States and China. 61
80
The facts of the Terra nova case here given, unless otherwise stated,
are procured from the lengthy reports of the proceedings sent to the
Secretary of State by the Consul, Wilcocks, contained in Consular Letters,
Canton, I.
87
Execution of an American at Canton ; North American R eview,
40 : 58 : 68. It says that the obj ection to Morrison was on the ground
that he was British, and the officials did not wish to get into trouble
with more than one nation.
Kenneth S . Latourette,
88
The cohong knew that further bloodshed would mean more trouble
for them.
The account in the North American Review says Oct. 25th, but
Wilcocks' date is to be preferred.
40
Consular Letters, Canton, I. Other accounts of the affair may be
found in Staunton, Notices Relating to China, pp. 409-432, Davis, China,
I : 90, 91, and in Foster, Am. Dipl. in the Orient, pp. 40, 4i.
Early Relations between the United States and China. 63
for the United States Government and for the American mer-
chants, that until a treaty should specify otherwise, those who
traded in China were under obligation to hold themselves amen-
able to its laws. It is to be regretted, however, that the inevitable
issue between the Middle Kingdom and the Occident, free inter-
course between the two on a basis of mutual equality, could not
have been forced by the United States at this time, and over a
test case of this nature, rather than by England nineteen years
later over the opium traffic.
The years following the War of 1812, were, as we have seen,
rnarked by the rapid recovery and growth of the Canten-Ameri-
can cornmerce. A reaction, however, was inevitable. Over-
optirnistic rnerchants imported too largely on credit, to-o many
inexperienced men were drawn into the trade,41 the rnarket
becarne overstocked, and cornmercial failures followed.42 There
was a slight increase in trade irnrnediately after 1819, 43 perhaps
because of the general depression, but the real crisis carne in
1826. After that year, in sharp contrast to the previous pros-
perity, there was a sudden cessation in the importations of
Chinese goods to Providence, apparently attended with serious
losses. 44 Thomas H . Srnith, one of the rnost prorninent tea
rnerchants of N ew York, became insolvent, carrying rnany smaller
fi.rms with him, 45 and Tholpson, a prominent merchant of
Philadelphia, who was associated with Srnith, went into a dis-
graceful bankruptcy, owing the government a large sum for
duties. 46 Imports and exports to and frorn China fell off a third,
and did not recover until 1833.
41
Testimony of Joshua Bates of Baring Bros., before the Select Com.
on the E. India Co., Par!. Papers 1630, 5 : 218. He _had been connected
with the American trade with China for hyenty years.
2
Ibid., 6: 365-380.
43
The figures are in Pitkin Stat. View ( ed. 1835), p. 303, and in first
report of the Com. on E. India Co. Affairs, Par!. Papers, 1830, 5: 2 0 .
The losses fell especially on Edward Carrington and Co., and the
smaller dealers associated with them. N one entered again as extensively
into the trade. May 18, 1827, is the last entry of a China ship until
July 5, l83I. Providence Custom House, Impost Book, 1827, and Ibid.,
"D," p. 16. Mss. in Rhode Island Historical Society.
~ Barrett, Old Merchants of N. Y. City, p. 87.
e Ibid.
Kenneth S. Latourette,
41
Rantoul, The Port of Salem, Histl. Cols. of the Essex Instit., 10: 55.
<a Digest of Duties of the Salem Custom House, 1789-1852. MS. in
Salem Custom House.
4lJ Ibid.
0
By years the figures are as follows from the opening of the United
arrived from its first voyage to the Northwest Coast, arid learned
of the great possibilities of the fur trade. On his return he sent
out the "Hope," Ingraham, master, and later, the "Margaret"
under James Magee, a former captain of the "Astrea." In
1792 he formed with his brother the partnership of James and
Thomas H. Perkins, which in 1838, when dissolved, was the most
prominent of the American-_Chinese firms. At first they were
engaged only in the N orthwest Coast fur trade, but in 1798 they
began sending ships directly to Canton, and finally entirely
confined themselves to this. 57 A branch house was established
at Canton and another at Manila. 58 More or less closely allied
with James and Thomas Perkins by blood or business relations
were Samuel Cabot, the Lambs, John P. Cushing, Thomas T.,
John M ., and Robert B. Forbes, James P. Sturgis,59 and the firm
of Bryant and Sturgis,60 part of whom were in China and part
in the United States. Into the hands of these houses went most
of Boston's share in the China trade, and they furnish the best
example of the semi-monopoly which characterized the China
trade during this period. The nephews and cousins of the mem-:-
bers of the firm were trained in counting houses or on the ships
to take up the business as the older men laid it down. Other
Boston firms there were, such as the Lymans-great rivals of
the Perkins61- Dorr and Sons, J. Coolidge, Bass, J. Gray,
Thomas Parish, and Hoy and Thorn, 62 but unfortunately there
exist no easily accessible materials for their history. The
destruction of the early papers of the Boston Custom House,
too, prevents a sketch of the port's trade as a whole. From what
little survives of the original records, it can be saf ely asserted
that with the years, the relative importance of Boston in the
China trade increased, and that the Perkins family and its allied
57
Letter of Perkins to Bulfinch, Dec. 21, 1817. Ms.
08
Robert B. Forbes, Personal Reminiscences, Boston, 1878, p. 88. See
also "on the history of P erkins and Co., in addition to the authorities
mentioned thus far, C. C. Perkins, Memoir of James Perkins, and Letters
and Recollections of J. M. Forbes.
9
Forbes, Personal Reminiscences, pp. 39-64, and passim.
00
!bid., p. 131.
1 T. L. V. Wilson, Aristocracy of Boston, Boston, 1848, p. 26.
2 Tufts' Acct. of Vessels in Sea Otter and N. W. Trade.
Early Relations between the United States and China. 67
63
By the "Semiramis,'' Mason, Reminiscences of Newport, pp. 149, 153.
0
Tufts' Acct. of Vess.els in the Sea Otter and N. W . Trade.
00
Log book of the "General Washington," 1787-1790. MS. in John
Carter Brown Library. She went out in 1787.
06
They are as follows by years: 1789, 1; 1791, l; 1793, 3; 1795, 2;
1796, l ; 1797, 1; 1798, 2; 1799, l; 1800, 3; 1801, 1; 1802, 2; 1803, 6;
1804, 2; 1805, 3; 1806, 2; 1808, l; 1809, 1; 1810, 4; 1811, l; 1812, 1;
1816, 2; 1817, 2; 1818, 2; 1819, 5; 1820, 1; 1822, 3; 1823, 3; 1824, 1;
1825, 1; 1826, 2; 1827, 1; 1831, 1; 1832, 1; 1833, l; 1835, 1 ; 1838, 1;
1841 1; Total, 68. The years not mentioned had no voyages. Providence
1
tant. It almost monopolized the trade for a few years after the war, but
suffered heavily from the depression in 1826, and only entered again after
sorne years, and then as a minor investor. (For further information on
the part of Providence in the China trade, see W eeden, Early Oriental
Trade of Providence, Kimball, East India Trade of Providence, and the
files of die Providence newspapers, especially the Providence Gazette.
The Brown and Ives papers are in the custody of the John Carter Brown
Library in Providence, and contain a great mass of manuscript material,
of which the log books are the most easily accessible.)
es See Letters and Clearance Books of the New York Custom House,
Mss. in N ew York Custom House, passim. These are incorn~lete, but for
the years they cover, they show the following numbers of vessels clearing:
1799, 4; 1800, 7; 1801, 2; 1802, 7; 1805, 8; 1806, 9; 1807, 2; 1809, 7;
1818, 3; 1819, 3; 1829, 5; 1830, 5; 1831, 4; 1832, none; 1836, 5; 1844, 11;
Total for sixteen years, 82.
00
Ibid.
' Barrett, Old Meres. of N. Y. City, 1: 417-42i. Astor is there said
to have told the story as that of the begiiming of his fortune, but I
find no corroborative evidence. James Parton, Life of J ohn J acob
Astor, New York, 1865, p. 49, says that he sent out his first ship about
1800, and that he continued the commerce for twenty-seven years, "gen-
erally with profit and occasionally with splendid and bewildering success."
Early Relations between the United States and China. 69
1 Ibid., p. 199
82
Sen. Doc. 31, l Sess., 19 Cong.
as Barrett, Old Meres. of N. Y. City, pp. 45 and 97. Unfortunately
there is not enough information to give a more connected sketch of
Philadelphia's trade with China.
' Paullin, Diplom. Neg. of Am. Nav. Officers, p. 165.
85
B. Mayer, Histl. Sketch of Baltimore in F. A. Richardson and
W. A. Bennett, Baltimore Past and Present, with Biographical Sketches
o its Representative Men. Baltimore, 1871, pp. 53, 63.
One ship seems to have been sent from Charleston to the East Indies,
but it is not certain that it touched at Canton. David Ramsay, The
history of South Carolina from its first settlement in 1670 to the year
1808. 2 v. Charleston, 1809, 2 : 239. One ship went from N orfolk, Va.,
in 1786. Paullin, Diplom. Neg. of Am. Nav. Officers, p. 162.
Early Relations between the United States and China. . 71
87
A. H. Clark. The Clipper Ship Era, New York and London. 1911.
pp. 58-60.
88
For tables see footnote 3 on page 469.
89
In 1819 the imports of specie to Canton amounted to $7,414,000.
Pitkin, Stat. View, ed. 1835, p. 303.
00
The Columbian Centinel, Boston, on Feb. 13, 1802, and Oct. 20, 1802,
contained advertisements offering a {lremium on Spa~ish dollars for
ships about to sail to Canton.
91
Weeden, Early Oriental Commerce of Providence, pp. 274-276.
02
Letters and Recollections of J. M. Forbes, l: 70.
03
It required a special edict of the Hoppo to reduce this discount to a
just one. The Canton Register, Canton, 1827 et sqq. Vol. 8 : 91835.
No. 10.
9
See tables footnote 3, page 469.
72 Kenneth S. Latourette,
0
~ This is the reason given by Mr. Sturgis, a famous China merchant,
in a lecture reported in Niles Register, 68: 343, Aug. 2, 1845. See also
A. J. Sargent, Anglo-Chinese Commerce and Diplomacy (Mainly in the
Nineteenth Century). Oxford, 1907, p. 56. Rosea Ballou Morse, The
Trade and Administration of the Chinese Empire, New York, etc., 1908,
p. 330, takes C1 somewhat different view.
00
Ex. Doc. 35, 3 Sess., 27 Cong.
97
Niles Register, Jan. 20, 1844, 65: 332-333, quotes from the New Orleans
Bee to that effect. Tables in Chinese Rep. 16 :47, show no imports of
raw cotton before 1843. The first cargo seems to have been brought from
N ew Orleans in the "Delhi" in 1843. J ournal of a Voyage in the ship
Delhi from New York to New Orleans, New Orleans to Canton, etc.,
in 1843-4. MS. in Essex lnstitute.
98
Pitkin, Stat. View, ed. 1835, pp. 300, 304. See, too, Phipps, China
and E-uropean Trade, p. 313, and Sen. Doc. 31, 1 Sess., 19 Cong., "G."
99
The value was $866,367 in 1836-7. Ch. Rep., 6: 284-286.
loo Reports of Select. Com. on E. India Co., Parl. Papers, 1830, 5: 122,
Evidence of Abe] Coffin. In 1833-4 this was $3II ,315 (Murray, Hist. and
Dese. Acct. of China 3 :74), but two years before it was only $21,342.
Phipps, China and Eastern Trade, p. 313.
Early Relations between the United States and China. 73
101
Ch. Rep., 2 : 463. Letters and Recollections of J. M. Forbes, r : 70.
1 2
Q Chinese Repos., 2: 471.
0103
Phipps, China and Eastern Trade, p. 313.
m Pitkin, Stat. View., ed. 1835, p . 49.
105
Phipps, China and Eastern Trade, p. 313, and Chinese Rep. 6: 284-286.
106
Parl. Papers, 1820, 5: 183. Testimony of Charles Everett, an Ameri-
can Commission Merchant. He gave as the arnounts shipped in this way
through him, for 1818, 1,809 lbs. sterling, for 1819, 26,448 lbs. sterling,
for 1820, 139,639 lbs. sterling, 1821, 190,190 lbs. sterling, 1822, 28,468 lbs.
sterling, 1823, 67,048 lbs. sterling, 1824, 125,681 lbs. sterling, 1825, 7,408
lbs. sterling, 1826, 168,354 lbs. sterling, 1827, 45,696 lbs. sterling, 1828,
51,481 lbs. sterling. Joshua Bates, Ibid., 6: 365, testified that one firm
(probably Perkins and Company) had exported in 1826, 120,000 lbs.
sterling, in 1827, 82,000 lbs. sterling, in 1828, 98,000 lbs. sterling, in 1829,
147,000 lbs. ste.rling. The East India Company estimated the amount
for 1823 as 107,531 lbs. sterling, o which 32,614 lbs. sterling were in
cottons, and 73,083 lbs. sterling were woolens. Ibid., pp. 724-727. Parl.
Papers, 1833, E. India Co. Papers relating to trade with India and China,
from S. Cabell, Accountant General of E. India Co., give the figure
for 1829-30 as $u,122,066, for 1830-1 as $781,429, for 1831-2 as $637,822,
and of the E. India Co. for these years, as $2,675,371, $2,818,766, and
$2,956,209 r espectively.
74 Kenneth S. Latourette,
chiefl.y because of its effect upon the East India Company. The
importation of these goods began shortly after the War of 1812,
possibly in 1818.107 An absence of discriminating port charges
and duties, except a small one of two per cent i!IP London,18 the
fact that the American merchant while charging the same price
in China bought in England a quality of goods slightly inferior
to those of the East India Company, and the exclusion of all
English free traders from the market gave a rapid growth to
the trade. This was very disquieting for the English. They
had long watched American trade with China with growing
uneasiness and at its very beginning Phineas Bond and the other
British agents in the United States had kept the ministry
informed of its progress. At first the attitude of English
observers was one o security or indifference. Lord Sheffield,
in his " Observations on the Commerce of the American States,"
published first in 1783, entirely ignored the possibility of a direct
trade with China, and a London paper of March 16, 1785, said
that the Americans had "given up all thought o China
trade." 1 9 By 1813, however, English opponents of the East
India Company were beginning to point to the rapid growth o
the American-Cantan commerce, to contrast it with the slow
increase o the British trade under the monopoly, and to use it
as an argument fo.r making the English commerce with Canton
free.U In 1819, Assey pointed out in a pamphlet " the insecurity
of the present trade . from Great Britain and British India to
China i timely measures o precaution be not taken to meet the
progress of the Americans in China." 111 So strong was the
outcry on this score by the opponents o the monopoly112 that a
' 1
Charles Everett says that he was the first to ship English manu-
factures in this way, and that he began in 1818. Ibid., Papers, 1830, 6 : 361.
ios Testimony of Joshua Bates, Ibid., 6: 365-38o. Lindsey, History of
Merchant Shipping and Ancient Commerce. London, 1876, pp. IOS, rn6.
109
Hill, Trade and Commerce of Boston, p. 81.
11
"Additional Considerations upon the China Trade," written in 1813,
in defense of the East India Company, tries to answer this argument.
Staunton, Notices Relating to China , p. 178.
111
Charles A ssey, on the Trade to China and the Indian Archipelago,
etc., in the Pamphleteer, Vol. 4, London, 1819, p. 516.
112
Staunton, N otices Relating to China, p. 299, publishing part of a letter
Early Relations between the United States and China. 75
cited as a reason for ending the monopoly. The result was the
defeat of the company.118 Contrary to English expectations,
however, this shipment in American vessels did not cease with
the end of t he monopoly, but continued to 183 ~ at least119 and
possibly longer.
From a consideration of the imports to China in American
ships we naturally turn to the exports. Of these tea was pre-
eminent. Choosing representative years, in 1822, 6,639,434 lbs.
were imported into the United States, in 1828, 7,707,427
lbs.,1 2 121 in 1832, 9,9o6,606 lbs., in 1837, 16,581,467 lbs., in
1840, 19,333,597 lbs.122 In value the proportion of tea to the
total American imports from China during these years was for
1822, 36% , for 1828, 45 %, for 1832, 52%, for 1837, 65%, far
1840, 81 % .123 It can readily be seen from these figures that in
the years following 1814 the relative proportion of teas to other
Chinese imports constantly increased. 124 During these later
years, in fact, our Cantan commerce was mostly for the purpose
of obtaining them. The teas thus imported carne from nearly
all of the southeastern provinces and from sorne of the central
provinces of China.125 The many bewildering grades known to
trade were all subdivisions of the two main kinds, black and
green, grown on different varieties of the same species of shrub. 126
Black teas, the cheapest, included such grades as Souchong,
118
Hugh Murray, et alii, An Historical and Descriptive Account of
China. 3 v., Edinburgh, 1836. 3: 50.
119
Peter N. Snow, American Consul at Canton, wrote Feb. 15, 1836,
that it still continued. Consular Letters, Canton, II. The statistics for
1836-7 in the Chinese Repository, 6: 284-6, also show it to have been still
in_progress.
120
The figures befare 1816 were, for 1790, 3,047,252 lbs., for 1794,
2,460,914 lbs., for 1800, 3,797,634 lbs., for 1805, 5,119,441 lbs., for 1810,
7,839,457 lbs. Pitkin, Stat. View, ed. 1835, pp. 246, 247.
121
Pitkin, Sta t. View of U. S., ed. 1835, pp. 246, 247,. 301.
122
Chinese Repos., 9 : 191.
123
Ex. Doc. 35, 27 Cong., 3 Sess., p. 10.
m This proportional increase was largely due to the decline m the
importation of silks and cottons. Commerce of the U . S. with China,
Hunt's Mere. Mag., I I : 55.
L'lG These were Fuhkien, Nganhui, Kiangsu, Kwantung, Hunan, Hupeh,
127
Murray, Histl. and Descriptive Acct. of China, 3: 52.
128
Consular Letters, Canton, I (estima tes by the American Consul),
and Impost Books of the Providence Custom House, passim, are the best
authorities. The amounts are also shown by the tables in Pitkin, Stat.
View, ed. 1816, p. 209.
120
Ch. Rep., 9: 191.
1
Pitkin, Stat. View, ed. 1836, pp. 246-247.
m Ibid.
132
Pitkin, Stat. View, ed. 1816, p. 195.
lSJI Parl. Papers, 1821, 7 : 381-382. Table prepared by Trumbull Eros.
and Co., of imports to Marseilles. See British Relations with Chinese
Empire, p. 28, for French Atlantic Ports.
134
British Relations with Chinese Empire, p. 28.
m Ibid.
1
The amounts in 1826, rather a banner year, were, Holland, 230,137
78 K enneth S. Latourette,
106
Chinese Rep., S : 431.
m He arrived in 1809 and was in business in China for twenty-five years.
Bits of Old China, Hunter, pp. 1S7-16I.
158
Chinese Repository, S: 431.
uo Hunter, Fan Kwae at Cantan, pp. 1S6, 1S7, gives the history of Russell
and Company, which shows this statement to be true. Also see Cantan
Press, Jan. 2s, 1840, and Cantan Register, Jan. 3, 1831.
10
See as an exainple, sketch by Hunter of his own life there from
1824 to 1842 in his Fan K wae at Canton, p. I.
161
Anglo-Chinese Kalendar for 1838, Cantan, 1838. Eitel, Eur. in China,
p. 67, and Chinese Rep., 6: 44-47. The Chamber of Commerce comprised
representatives from all foreign nationalities doing business in Canton.
1 2
" See Bibliography.
1
"" Hunter, Bits of Old China, p. 276.
16
~ Occasional reerences to this society occur in various narratives, and
the journal o a Salero girl who spent four years there ( 1823-1833) gives
us an intimate picture o this gay Occidental lie in its Oriental setting:
My Mother's Journal, A Young Lady's Diary o Five Years Spent in
Manila, Macao, and the Cape of Good Hope, from 1829-1834, Katherine
Hillard, editor, Boston, 1900. See also on Macao, Letters and Recollec-
tions of J. M. Forbes, l: 82, and for a description o the place, Missionary
Herald (article by S. W. Williams) , 35: 52-55, Milburn, Oriental Com-
merce, p. 451, Shaw's Journals, pp. 236-241, La Perouse, Voyages,
2 : 280-285.
166
Am. State Papers, Commerce and Navigation, 2: 637.
167
Niles, Register, 19: 74. Paullin, Diplomatic Negotiations of American
Naval Officers, pp. 168-18r.
108
Reynolds, Voyage of the Potomac, pp. 343-344, Ch. Rep., l l : 9, ro.
Kenneth S. Latourette,
and the schooner "Boxer," was sent out by the United States
to secure treaties with eastern powers, and to protect the interests
of American seamen. Its immediate cause was the "Friendship"
affair, but it visited Manila, Canton, Cochin C!Wia, Siam, and
Muscat, and secured treaties with the last two. It touched at
Canton in November, 1832, but of course could not get into
communication with the government, and was ordered to leave
at the earliest possible moment. 169 Four years later Roberts
returned to the Far East in the "Peacock" to exchange ratifica~
tions. Again the expedition touched at Macao. It was watched
closely by cruisers and was ordered to leave as soon as its sick
were well. 170 In the interval between Roberts' two visits the
"Vincennes" had again been there and had met with the usual
peremptory order to leave.171 The Roberts embassy was a sign
of an awakening interest on the part of the government. Jack-
son himself mentioned the China and East India trade in his
annual message of December, r83r. 112 Under the same vigorous
administration an exploring expedition was sent out to the South
Seas under Commodore Wilkes, with . the revival of the beche
de mer, sandal wood, and sealing voyages prominent among its
objects. 1 73
1
The Christian Observer, 40: 309.
2
S. M. Worcester, Orig in of American Foreign Missions, p. 8, in H. W.
Pierson, American Missionary Memorial, N ew York, 1853.
86 Kenneth S. Latoitrette,
9
Original letters and a nearly contemporary account are in the Panoplist
and Missny. Mag., N. S., 4: 178-185.
10
It must not be thought, however, that British example was the only
cause of American missions. It was the immediate one, but it found a
ground ready for its seed. Much the same forces acted as in England.
Americans had ceased to turn .their eyes inward and had begun to have
a world view. Trade had an indirect effect by bringing a knowledge of
the peoples of distant lands, and the quckened relgious lfe produced by
the W esleyan and kindred movements of the eighteenth century had
prepared the churches for action.
11
Memoir of Morrison, r : 91 et sqq. Samuel W ells Williams, The
Middle Kingdom, N ew York, 1904, 2: 316-322. See too Carl Friedrch
August Gtzlaff, Geschchte des Chnesischen Reiches, von den altesten
Zeiten bis auf den Frieden von Nanking, Karl Friedrch Newmann.
editor, p. 785.
88 K enneth S. Latourette,
12
Robert Philip, The Life and Opinions of the Rev. William Milne, D.D.,
Missionary to China, Philadelphia, 1840. Williams, Mid. King., 2: 318-322.
13
The New Testament was completed in 1813 and the Old Testament in
1819. Philip, Life and Opinions of Milne. Foster, Christian Progress
in China, pp. 40-45.
"William Dean, The China Mission, New York, 1859, p. 85.
15
Morrison, Memoir, l: 91, 129, 131.
1
Ibid., p. 153. Williams, Mid. King., 2: 318-322.
17
Panoplist, 3: 381, 421, N. S., 3: 372; II: 37, 549; 17: 265; 19: 158;
20: 56; 21: 56.
18
Panoplist and Missny. Mag., N. S., 5: 168.
19
Proceedings of the first Ten Years of the American Tract Society,
Boston, 1824, p. 143
20
Memoirs of Morrison, 2: 83.
21
Memoirs of Morrison, 2: n6.
22
Philip, Life and Opinions of Milne, p. 128.
23
Extract from Milne's Retrospect of the first ten years of the Protestant
Early Relations between the United States and China. 89
Mission to China, in Missny. Herald, 17: 265. Abeel and Bridgman were
sent out as a direct result of Morrison's wish. 2d Annual Report ( 1830)
of American Seaman's Friend Society, N ew York.
24
Missny. Herald, 24 : 330 (Oct., 1828).
25
First Annal Rep. (1829) Am. Seaman's Friend Soc., p. 17.
2
Memoirs of Morrison, 2: 86.
27
Hunter, Bits of Old China, p . 166.
28
Abeel, Journal, pp. 31-32. Foster, Am. Dipl. in O rient, p. 137, foot-
0
note, is in error in saying: "U pon his [Olyphant's] invitation the first
Protesta:nt missionary, Robert Morrison, of England was brought to
China," but he is fairly correct in his other points.
20
Abeel, J ournal, pp. 31-33. Bridgman, Life of Bridgman, pp. l-37.
Williamson, Memoir of beel, pp. 49-67.
Ibid.
' First Annual Report of American Seaman's Friend Soc., May, 1830,
p. 36.
K enneth S. Latourette,
dence in China and the Nejghboring Countries, New York, 1836, pp. 61-74.
Correspondence of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign
Missions, Mss. in their Library in Boston. Letter of Bridgman to Jer'h
Evarts, Mar. 5, 1830. The date on the letter is Feb. 5, but other docu-
ments prove this to have been a slip of the pen.
' Abeel, Residence in China, p. ros.
85
Ibid., pp. 105-106, and 3d Annual R.ep. of Am. Seaman's Friend
Soc., p. 3.
36
Correspondence of the A. B. C. F. M., in China, Nos. 21, 35, 37, 4r.
(Letters and J ournal of Bridgman.) Abeel, Residence in China, p. l5I.
The Life and Labors o Elijah Coleman Bridgman, edited by Eliza J.
Gillett Bridgman with an introductory note by Asa D. Smith. N ew
york, 1864, pp. 43-57.
37
Corres. of A. B. C. F. M., China, 1831-7, No. 44. Bridgman to
Evarts, June 13, l83r.
38
Morrison had wished a press sent out with the American mission in
the first place. Letter from him in Missny. Herald, 26 : 366. Frederick
Wells Williams, The Life and Letters o Samuel Wells Williams, LL.D.,
Missionary, Diplomatist, Sinologue, New York, 1889. Letter o Wil-
liams, p. 78. The pre~s arrived in December, 1831, and the type carne
months later. Corres. of A. B. C. F. M., China, Nos. 53, 60, letters o
Bridgman, Dec. 30, 1831, and Apr. 18, 1832.
Corres. of A. B. C. F.- M., China, No. 60, and Bridgman, Life and
Letters of Bridgman, p. 74.
92 Kenneth S . Latourette,
Morrison, cast a gloom over the scanty force and retarded its
work. 54
While the after swells of this squall were dying down, there
arrived still another reenforcement, Peter Pat:er, the first
medical missionary to China. Bridgman had f elt the lack of
such a man for sorne time. 55 Morrison and T. R. Cooledge had
each begun dispensing medicines in 1827, 56 but something more
was needed, and to supply it, the American Board sent out
Parker. 57 He sailed June 3 58 in one of Olyphant's ships and
reached Canton October 26th.59 It was early decided that he
should go to Singapore to learn the language, and af ter a year
there he returned to Can ton. Here, N ovember 4, 1835, he opened
an Ophthalmic Hospital. 60 The suspicions of the Chinese were
soon disarmed, and after the first year, Howqua, the chief hong
merchant, gave him a building rent free. 61
Five days before this hospital was opened, Stevens returned
from a remarkable voyage with Medhurst along the coast of
China. In the closed condition of the Chinese Empire it was
possible to do little more than to distribute printed matter and
to trust to it for the work of evangelization. From June, 1831,
to May, 1832, Gtzlaff, a German missionary, had made three
08
Bridgman, Life of Bridgman, p. 100.
87
Corres. of A. B. C. F. M., China, 1831-7, No. 123, Bridgman to Ander-
son, Jan. 29, 1836.
88
!bid., No. 11, April 3, 1835, Williams and Bridgman to Anderson,
and No. 13, Sept. 8, 1836, the Mission to Anderson.
!bid., Letter of Abeel to Anderson, July 23, 1835, told of the difficulties
on this score.
1
Missions and Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church,
by J. M. Red, revised and extended by J. T. Gracey. 3 v., New York,
c. 1895. 1 : 4II; 412. The project for a mission to China rested until
after 1844.
71
Dean, China Mission, p. 95.
12
J. B. Jeter, Memoir of Mrs. Henrietta Shuck, The First American
Female Missionary to China, Boston, 1846, p. 221.
1
Ibid., p. 40.
Early Relations between the United States and China. 97
85
Four accounts of this voyage by men who shared in it are by C. W.
King, in the first volume of the Claims of J apan and Malaysia upon
Christendom, Exhibited in Notes of Voyages made .in 1837, 2 v., New
York, 1839,_by S. W ells Williams in the Chinese Rep., 6: 209-229, in a
letter by him to Anderson in Williams, Life and Letters of S . W . Wil-
liams, pp. 94-98, and in Stevens, Life of Parker, p. 141 et sqq. Among
the other accounts are brief ones in Callaban, Am. Rel. in the Pacific,
p. 74, and Foster, Am. Dip. in Orient, pp. 137-140.
80
See reports in Ch. R ep., 4: 461-473 and passim.
ff1 Williams, Mid. King., 2 : 363-364.
88
Missny. H erald, 34: 17, 339, 349.
89
Ibid., 35 : 212-214.
00
Corres. of the A. B. C. F. M., China, 1831-7, No. 37, Bridgman to
Evarts, Jan. 27, l83r.
100 Kenneth S. Latourette,
91
Corres. of the A. B. C. F. M., China, 1831-7, No. 37, Bridgman to
Evarts, Jan. 27, 1831. See also, Tracy, History of the Am. Bd., p. 201.
92
Corres. of A. B. C. F. M., China, l83r-7.
03
See Bridgman to Anderson, April S, 1833, Corres. of A. B. C. F. M.,
China, r83r-7, No. 73. Tracy says that if the work had been unsuccess-
ful, but a fourth part of the expense would have fallen on the American
Board, which implies that the Christian Union guaranteed only three-
fourths of the expenses (Hist. of Am. Bd., p. 224), but he <loes not quote
his authority. 1 am inclined to think that Tracy may be right, and that
Bridgman's statement was merely a general one.
Williams, Mid. King., 2: 340.
n Fourth Annual Report of the Society, Nov. 21, 1838, Ch. Rep.,
7: 399-410.
Early Relations 'between the United States and China. 101
98
Proceedings relative to the Formation of the Morrison Education
Society, Ch. Rep., 5: 373. See too, Williams, Mid. King., 2 : 341-345.
97
First Annual Rep., Sept. 27, 1837. Ch. Rep., 6: 229, and second
annual report, October, 1838, Ch. Rep., 7: 301-310. Yung Wing, My Life
in China and America, N ew York, 1909.
98
Chinese Rep., 5 : 378.
99
Second Annual Report of Morrison Educ. Soc., Oct., 1838, Ch. Rep.,
7: 301-310.
00
' Third Annual Rep. of same, Sept. 29, 1841, Ch. Rep., IO: 564-587.
See too, Trumbull, Old Time Student Volunteers, p. r 14, and Ch. Rep.,
7: 550. Griffis, A Maker of the New Orient, is a Biography of Brown.
102 Kenneth S. Latourette,
10
Ch. Rep., IO: 448-453. William Lockhart, The Medical Missionary
in China, A Narrative of Twenty Years' Experience, London, 1861,' p. 127.
11
Ch. Rep., 7 : 477-484.
m Quarterly Report of Seaman's Friend Assn. in China, July, 1839,
Ch. R ep., 8: 120-12 1.
104 Kenneth S. Latourette,
112
Abeel, Journal, p. 318. Dean, China Mission, pp. 176-192; G. R.
Williamson, Memoir o David Abeel, D.D., Late Missionary to China.
New York, 1848, pp. 100-rr9.
118
Notices . . . . o the Indian Arch., G. T . Lay, Ch. Rep., 6: 305
et sqq. Williams, Mid. King., 2: 330-33r. G. T. Lay, the second volume
o "The Claims o Japan and Malaysia on Christendom."
m Medhurst, China, p. 327.
110
Wylie, Memorials o Prot. Missionaries, p. 79.
Early Relations between the United States and China. 105
m Benham was drowned soon after his arrival. Dean, China Mis-
sion, p. 94.
138
Annual Rep. of the A. B. C. F. M., 1839, Missny. H erald, 35 : IO.
1
Dean, China Mission, p. 359.
140
!bid., p. 279, and Gammell, Hist. of Am. Bap. Missions, p. 193
w Dean, China Missions, p. l 15.
""'Annual Rep. of Bap. Missny. Soc., June, 1839. The Baptist Mis-
sionary Magazine, Boston, 1821 et sqq., 19: 143-4.
143
!bid., J une, 1840, Bap. Missny. Mag., 20: 143.
144
J ournal of Dean, Bap. Missny. Mag., 18: 30.
uG !bid. for June, 1841, Bap. Missny. Mag., 21 : 189.
ua Dean's J ournal, May 25, 1835, Bap. Missny. Mag., 16: 45.
ut Annual Rep. of Bap. General Convention, April, 1839. Bap. Missny.
Mag., 19: 143. .
148
Bapt. Missny. Mag., 19: 143; 16: 193.
108 K enneth S. Latourette,
A. C. Condit, but they do not seem to have been especially for the
Chinese. Annual Report of the A. B. C. F . M., Jan., 1839, Missny.
Herald, 35: 11.
168
William Cutter, Missionary Efforts of the Protestant Episcopal
Church in the United States. In History of American Missions to the
Heathen, Worcester, 1840, p. 590. Letter of Lockwood, Oct., 1836, in
Spirit of Missions, 4: 267 (Aug., 1839). Letter of Boone, Nov. 15, 1837,
Spirit of Missions, 3 : 210.
1 9
G Letter of Lockwood and Hanson, Oct., 1836, The Spirit of Missions,
1
Willams, Hist. of China, p. 12r.
2
Davis, China, I : n9.
8
Canton Register, September 23, 1834.
4
Foster, Am. Dip. in Orient, pp. 64-73. The real effectiveness of the
Early Relations between the United States and China. 111
prohibition dates from a second edict in 1800. Morse, Trade and Admin.
of Chinese Empire, p. 329.
The amounts were: 4,000 chests, 1790; 17,000 chests, 1830; 35,000
chests, 1838. Foster, Am. Dip. in Orient, pp. 64-75. See too, Murray,
Histl. and Descriptive Acct. of China, 3: 90.
6
In 1830, one cargo, probably belonging to Thos. H. Perkins and Co.,
mostly opium, amounted to 160,000 pounds sterling. Testimony of Joshua
Bates, Par!. Papers, 1830, 6 : 365.
7
Hong Merchants to Wilcocks, Nov. 12, r82i. Consular Letters,
Canton, L
a Sen. Doc. 31, I Sess., 19 Cong. "C."
Chin. Rep., 6: 284-6.
1
For the most part, the Americans imported the inferior Turkey
opium. In 1830-7, they imported of Benares opium, 5 chests, valued at
$3,415, and of Turkey opium, 446 peculs, valued at $272,506. Ch. R ep.,
6: 284-286.
11
They published a letter in the Canton Register, Aug. 21, 1838, against
the traffic, and were severely scored editorially in the same paper as a
result. Aug. 28, 1838. Four years later Commodore Kearney warned
opium ships against using the American flag. Sen. Doc. 139, l Sess.,
29 Cong., p. 14.
112 Kenneth S. Latourette,
12
Ch. R epos., 7: 437-456 gives a full account of this trouble.
18
Consular Letters, Canton, II.
"W. C. Hunter, J ournal of Occurrences during Cessation of Trade at
Canton. Ms. in the Boston Athenaeum. Gideon Nye, Peking the Goal,
Canton, 1873, p. 14. Letter of S. W . Williams, Apr. 3, 1839, Life and
Letters of S. W . Williams, p. u4.
Early Relations between the United States and China. 113
May 5th, i839, when the opium had been given up. Of the
surrendered drug i,540 chests belonged to Americans,1 5 but the
American consul declared them to be merely held in charge for
British subj ects, and they were surrendered to Captain Elliot,
the British superintendent of trade. 16
While the foreigners were still confined to their hongs, Com-
missioner Lin attempted (April 5t h) to get them to give
bond to introduce no more of the drug. The co-hong tried to
induce the American consul, Mr. Wetmore, and Mr. King, to
sign such a paper on behalf of the United States. But the
penalties were heavy-death for all on board a ship bringing the
drug, and personp.l responsibility of the guarantors for all smug-
gling, the evidence of two coolies being sufficient to condemn-
and the request was very naturally refused. Snow objected
that it would call down on him the "severest censure and pun-
ishment from his superiors," 17 but gladly agreed to the request
that he solicit his government to allow no more opium ships to
come. 18 The controversy dragged on for severa! months.
Finally on July third a number of American merchants and ship-
masters signed the bond in a milder form. 19
The English refused to give the bond, and on May 21st, Elliot
warned all British subj ects to leave Canton. They <lid so, going
to Macao, and when the Chinese troubled them there, to Hong-
kong. The Americans now carried on not only their own, but
15
Foster, Am. Dip. in Orient, pp. 64-73.
16
Consular Letters, Canton, II, Mar. 28, 1839, Snow to Lin.
17
Snow to Secy. of State, Apr. 19, 1839. Consular Letters, Canton, II.
On April 27th, Commodore Read anchored off Macao with the United
States frigate "Columbia," and May 21st, the "J ohn Adams,'' the other
member of the East India squadron, arrived. (J. Sidney Henshaw,
Around the World, N ew York, 1840, 2: 192, says the "Columbia" arrived
Apr. 28, but William Me.acharo Murrell, Cruise of the Frigate Columbia
around the World, etc., Boston, 1840, says April 27. This latter date
is probably correct.) Their presence gave the Americans confidence
( Snow to Sec. of State, May 13, 1839, Consular Letters, Canton, III),
and they remained on the coast until August sixth, in spite o a protest
from the Hoppo. (Murrell, p. 148. Henshaw, p. 294.) See also Paullin,
Diplom. Negot. of Am. Nav. Officers, p. 188.
18
Snow to Sec. of State, Apr. 19, 1839, Consular Letters, Canton, II.
19
J ohn Slade, N arrative of the Late Proceedings and Events in China.
China, 1839, p. 124.
TRANS. CoNN. AcAn., Vol. XXII 8 1917
114 K nneth S. Latourette,
2
Slade, Narrative of Late Proceedings and Events in China, p. rr7.
21
Niles Register, 57: 418.
22
Consular Letters, Canton, III.
23
Ch. Rep., 8 : 433.
2
Comm'r and viceroy, order, Dec. 29, 1839, Consular Letters, Canton, II.
25
Ch. Rep., 8: 453, 462, 463. ] an., 1840.
26
Snow to Smith, Jan. 13, 1840, Cons. Letters, Canton, III.
27
Lord Palmerston to Stevenson, Nov. 19, 1840. Ms. in State Dep.
28
Snow to Sec. of State, June 10, 1840, Cons. Letters, Cantan, III.
2
Ch. Rep., 9: 328.
Early Relations between the United States and China. l 15
trade was for the most part stagnant. Sorne was still carried
on, for the British agreed to make reprisals on none but Chinese
vessels, unless caught in attempting to run the blockade, but
many of the merchants had l~ft China, and by the fall of 1840
imports of Chinese goods to the United States had fallen off
over one half. 1
When the Chinese authorities took stringent measures to
abolish the opium traffic, missionaries as well as merchants suf-
fered. They were detained .in the factories along with the
others, their Chinese teachers left Hiem, the distribution of books
ceased,3 2 and Parker's hospital was closed.33 To add to their
troubles, the American financia} stringency of 1837 and 1839
seemed for a time to make retrenchments necessary. 3 4 But the
work did not entirely cease. As Americans the missionaries
were looked upon favorably by the Chinese, and were allowed
to remain in Canton and Macao af ter the English had been com-
pelled to leave. 35 Lin, the Chinese commissioner, was favorable
to the medical work, 36 and patients continued to come to Parker
unmolested by the government. An assistant to Parker, Dr.
William B. Diver was sent out in May, 1839, 3 7 and arrived
September 23, 1839. Williams continued his studies in Chinese
and Japanese, and his printing, and Bridgman with his assistance
80
Lord Palmerston to Stevenson, June 25, 1840. Ex. Doc., 34, 2 Sess.,
26 Cong.
' Exports from the U. S . to China. Imports from China to the U. S.
for the year ending Sept. 30.
1839 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $1,533,601 $3,678,509
1840 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,009,966 6,640,829
1841 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . l ,200,816 3,095,388
1842 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,444,397 4,934,645
843 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,418,858 4,385,566
J. Smith Homans, An Historical and Statistical Account of the Foreign
Commerce of the United States, New York, 1857, p. 18!.
82
Missny. Herald, 35: 463, letter from Williams, May 17, 1839.
83
Ibid., 36: 81, letter from China Mission, July 14, 1839.
84
Corres. of A. B. C. F. M., Foreign, 2: 263, Anderson to the China
Mission, Nov. 16, 1839.
36
Missny. Herald, 36 : 107, letter of Parker, Sept. 6, 1839.
86
Missny. Herald, 36: 74, letter of Parker, July 24, _1839, and 36: 81 ,
letter of mission, J uly 14, 1839.
87
Ibid., 35: 365. Corres. of A. B. C. F. M., Foreign, Vol. 2, p. 43,
Anderson to China Mission, Feb. 15, 1839, and p. 92, same to same.
116 Kenneth S. Latourette,
July, 1841.
Early Relations between the United States and China. 117
that the boat's crew had not hoisted the American flag, that it
had been released as soon as the error was discovered,44 that no
mention had been made at the time of the death of Sherry, and
that it had been impossible to give protection while hostilities
were in progress. Kearney admitted the difficulty of finding
the offenders at that late hour and waived his claims for punish-
ment, but he demanded $7,8oo for damages. This sum was
promptly paid by the. hong merchants, who offered to give Miller
an additional $2,200 if he would acknowledge full satisfaction for
his injuries. Olyphant and Company, who were the chief suf-
ferers, were not entirely pleased with Kearney's arrangement.
They took the money, however, and Kearney used their accept-
ance of it to restrain them from further action. The affair, so
far as the claims for damages was concerned, was closed August
19th of that year, when Miller gave a receipt in full for his
m1unes.
This visit of the East India squadron under Commodore
Kearney was a remarkable illustration of the change which the
war had brought about in the attitude of Chinese officials towards
foreigners. The squadron had come to protect the interests of
American citizens and to obtain redress for any injuries they
had suffered.4 5 To do this more effectively the frigate "Con-
stellation" went up the river to Whampoa, the first American
ship of war to invade these inner waters. 46 This intrusion, which
four years before would not have been tolerated, met with only
the mildest protest, and communications were opened, not through
the hong merchants, as had always been the custom, but directly
with the governor. Moreover, a Chinese admira! visited the
"Constellation," a most unprecedented action, and inspected it
carefully.47 Severa! other officers later followed his example. 48
Only one incident marred the visit. A boat's crew, while making
soundings preliminary to moving the frigate upstream, was
M Ibid., p. 35.
00
Sen. Doc. 139, 29 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 24-29. The correspondence lastcd
from January to March, 1843.
1111
Ibid., p. 37.
07
Sen. Doc. 139, 29 Cong., l Sess., p. 38.
09
See too, Niles Register, 65: 100, which contains a letter from Canton
published in the Boston Advertiser, describing the last few months of
Kearney's visit. See also Paullin, Diplom. Negot. of Am. Naval Officers,
pp. 109-201.
9
Exports from the U. S. to China. Exports from China to U. S.
Year ending Sept. 30:
1840 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $1,009,966 $6,640,829
1850 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,605,217 6,593,462
1 1
120 K enneth S. Latourette,
65
Correspondence of the A. B. M. U.
60
Missny. Herald, 39: 257.
67
Stevens, Life of Parker, p. 188 et sqq. See too, Papers Relative to
hospitals in China, Boston, 1841, which contain an appeal for Parker's
work by a committee of the Boston Medical Assocaton.
08
When the opening of the five ports seemed imminent, Roberts wrote
to his society, urgng that they ether incorporate and plan to send out
more missonaries, or else become auxiliary to the Baptist G~neral Con-
venton. (Corres. of A. B. M . U ., Roberts to Roberts Fund Society, Feb.
18, 1841.) The latter plan was adopted, perhaps before his letter reached
hs constituents, and he became a regular missonary of the Baptist Board.
(Ibd., Roberts to Baptist Board, Aprl 19, 1841.) Later, in a period which
does not h ere concern us, he played a rather questionable part in the
T 'ai Ping Rebellion, his sanguine temperament leading him for a time
to put too high an estim'!te on the religious nature of the movement.
69
July 4, 1842, Corres. of A. B. M . U.
10
Missny. Mag., 23: 315.
71
July 31, 1843, Missny. Herald, 40 : 32.
122 Kenneth S. Latourette,
12
Memoirs of the Rev. Walter M. Lowrie, Missionary to China, edited
by his Father. New York, 1850. Cummings went out under no society,
although he bore a letter of warm recommendation from the American
Board to its missionaries. Corres. of A. B. C.. F. M., Foreign, Vol. 4,
p. 244. Anderson to China Mission, Dec. 22 1 l84r.
1
Ch. Rep., 16: 12, 13.
7
lbid.
75
Spirit of Missions, 9: 334, 502; ro: 28. See too, Ibid., 8 : II4, 142.
76
Annual report of Morrison Educ. Soc. for year ending Oct. l, 1843.
Ch. Rep., 12: 617-630. Williams, Mid. King., 2 : 341-345.
77
Reports of Med. Missny. Soc. in China for 1840-1, Ch. Rep., ro: 448-
453, and for 1841-2. Ch. Rep., 12: r9r. Ch. Rep., 13: 369-377. McLavol-
Early Relations between the United States and China. 1 23
past fifty or sixty years, but at best was still imperfect. China
was a separate world, and was r egarded as the embodiment of
ali that was remote. 78 Sorne few facts did sift in frorn time to
time, and a general notion had gradually been obtained of the
empire, its extent, its government, and its people. Books on it
were occasionally published in the United States, as, for instance,
an edition of Barrows, "Travels in China," 79 and the work of
Lay, another Englishman, on "The Chinese as They Are." 80
De Ponceau had published a dissertation. on the nature and char-
acter of the Chinese system of writing, 81 and Niles Register
contained from time to time items of news from the country.
In addition to these printed sources of information, a f ew Chinese
had come to the United States. In 1800 James Magee brought
one over to learn the English language. 8 2 In 1845, Atit, a
Cantonese who had resided in Boston for eight years, became
a citizen o( the United States.83 In 1819 another Chinese had
lived in Boston for two or three years 84 and still another had
been partially educated in this country. 85 Chinese were still so' )
few and so much of a curiosity, however, that in 1834 a girl in
native costume had been imported for purposes of exhibition,86
and things Chinese were still so little known that a rnuseum of
8
' Niles Reg., 55: 391, Feb. 16, 1839, mentions it as being in Philadelphia,
92
Niles Reg., Vol. 57 et sqq., passim, is an example of the way news
of the war was published.
03
The paper is given in Ch. Rep., I I :274-289.
9
~ Hunt's Merchant Mag., 8: 205, Mar., 1843.
95
John W. Edmonds, Origin and Progress of the War Between England
and China, New York, 184r.
126 K enneth S. Latourette,
9
~ The article in Hunt's Magazine quoted above admirably illustrates
this contradiction.
117
Cong. Globe, I Sess., 26 Cong., p. 172.
va Ex. Doc. II9, 1 Sess., 26 Cong., pp. 1-85.
00
Cong. Globe, 1 Sess., 2d Cong., p . 275. . Mar. 16, 1840.
100
E x. Doc. 34, 2 Sess., 2 6 Cong.
1 1
Edward Everett to D. W ebster, Nov. 29, 1842. An earlier letter on
the war was that of May 6, 1842. M ss. in State Department, W ashington.
102
Ibid.
Early Relations between the United States and China. 127
10
' Consular Letters, Canton, l. It has no date, but its early nature is
shown by the letters with which it is bound, and by the fact that it is
signed by Perkins and Company, l. S. Wilcocks, Philip Ammidon, J ohn
Hart, Andrew Mather, William F. Magee, etc.
104
Consular Letters, Canton, l. April 20, 1834. . Ibid., II, Sept. 23, 1834.
''Ch. Rep., 6: 69-82. (J une, 1837.)
Kenneth S. Latourette,
100
Nye, Peking the Goal, p. 80.
107
Henshaw, Around the World, 2: 294.
ios "What then is the cause of the present evil between China and the
other countries? Misapprehension of each other's designs and character
on the part of these nations. What is the remedy? Two words express
it, 'Honorable Treaty.' Such a treaty exists between ali friendly nations.''
Stevens, Life of Parker, p. 170.
Ex. Doc. 40, 26 Cong., I Sess. The s~me is in Canton Press, J une 13,
109
tion, and felt that war with China must if possible be avoided,
especially since the past friendliness of Americans, or as the
proud Chinese would have put it, their obedience, had created
such a favorable impression. On the other hand, when the
administration carne to understand the situatioti., it became con-
vinced that when England should have finished the war America
must do what she could to obtain by peaceful means a j ust
share of its results. In December, 1840, John Quincy Adams
proposed resolutions in Congress asking the President to com-
municate information about the past and present relations of the
United States and China, but the motion to adopt them was lost.11 1
The following month Peter Parker carne to Washington and saw
President Van Buren and Secretary of State Forsyth, but admin-
istrations were just changing, and he was referred to Webster,
the incoming Secretary of State, and to others of the new rgime.
W ebster received him court:,eously and asked him to put his views
in wntmg. Parker did so, urging the sending -of a "minister
plenipotentiary direct and without delay to the court of Taou
Kwang." 112 In March, after the new administration had come
in, Parker saw Adams and asked him whether he would under-
take the mission if it were instituted. Hawes and Cushing of the
Committee of Foreign Affairs had asked Adams the same ques-
tion, but he had given an evasive answer. He records in his
faithful diary that he thought the time for such an action had
not yet arrived, and that considering the then existing relations
between the United States and Great Britain, Parker's suggestion
that the former offer her me<liation was impractica:ble.113 In
September Parker saw the President and W ebster and found
that Tyler had as yet taken no action because he had been in
111
Cong. Globe, 26 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 24, Dec. 15 and 16, 1840.
112
Stevens, Life of Parker, pp. 184-188. He urged it on the grounds
that the war had unsettled American affairs, that an A.merican minister
might act as a mediator between the Chinese and the English, that there
was a strong desire in China for foreign trade, that the Chinese merely
wished for a pacification by which they would not "lose face,'' that
if not soon attended tQ they might close up like J apan, and that the
American nation was mo re acceptable to the Chinese than any other.
113
Memoirs of John Quincy Adams, Comprising Portions of Bis Diary
from 1795-1848, edited by Charles Francis Adams. Philadelphia, 1876.
IO: 444-445. Mar. 15, 1841.
TRANS. CoNN. AcAn., Vol. XXII 9
130 K enneth S. Latourette,
114
Stevens, Life of Parker, p. 220. He quotes Parker's Journal for
September 16, 1842.
llG Adams, Diary, 11: 166. June 2, 1842. At this point, Parker ceased
his efforts and returned to China. Just how much influence his work
had on the origin and conduct of the mission cannot be stated with
certainty. However, he had married a relative of W ebster, and had
enjoyed quite a little popularity, and it seems probable that he was an
influential factor in preparing the way for future action.
116
Ex. Doc. 35, 27 Cong., 3 Sess.
117
The Works of Daniel W ebster, Boston, 1856, 6: 463. The message
is given there with a footnote attributing it to him, and the work was
compiled under his direction.
Early Relations between the United States and China. 131
outfit. The House concurred in the amendments and the bill was
quickly signed by the President. 123
The mission was first offered to Edward Everett, who was
then minister to Great Britain, his nomination havi~ been hurried
to the Senate the last hour of the session. W ebster urged him
to accept it. The newspaper report was that the Secretary of
State wanted the London post for himself, as he was soon to
resign from the cabinet, but he wrote to Everett mentioning the
rumor and emphatically denying it, saying that in the present
state of affairs he had not the slightest wish to go to England.
Sorne have thought that the denial was only apparent, not real,
and have cited as evidence Webs.ter's pending resignation and
the conversation with Adams in which he asked him to write
Everett urging an acceptance. 1 24 Everett, however, refused the
128
Thomas Hart Benton, Thirty Years' View, or a History of the
American Government for Thirty Years from 1820 to 1850. 2 v., New
York, 1856, 2: 510-512: Benton was very much opposed to the act, and
gives the impression that it was railroaded through. While adhering,
except in one instance, to the facts as to dates, his account is misleading.
The one error in date is where he says that the bill was taken up in
the House ten days before the close of the session. It was passed there
Feb. 21. Cong. Globe, 3 Sess., 27 Cong., pp. 323-325. The law as passed
is in Statutes at Large, 5 : 624.
24
' Those taking the position that W ebster wished the English position
are James Schouler, History of the United States of America under the
Constitution, Vol. 4, 1831-1841, Washington, 1889, p. 436, Lyon G. Tyler,
The Letters and Times of the Tylers, 2 v., Richmond, 1885, 2 : 263, who
quotes Adams' Diary and the letter in Curtis, Life of W ebster; and
Foster, Am. Dip. in Orient, pp. 77-79, who quotes no one. George Ticknor
Curts, Life of Daniel Webster, N ew York, 1870, 2: 178, takes the opposite
position.
The documents in the case are as follows :
W ebster to Everett, Mar. 10, 1843. ". . . . You see it said in the
newspapers that the object in nominating you to China is to make way
for your humble servant to go to London. I will tell you the whole
truth about this without reserve.
I believe the President thinks that there might be sorne advantage
from an undertaking by me to settle remaining difficulties with England.
I suppose this led him to entertain the idea, now abandoned (a t least
for the present) of an extra mission; but in this present state of things,
I have no wish to go t o England-not the slightest. To succeed you in
England for the mere purpose of carrying for a year or two the general
business of the mission is what I could not think of. I do not mean only
Early Relations between the United States and China. 133
that I would not be the occasion of transferring you elsewhere for any
such purpose, but I mean that, if the place were vacant, I would not
accept an appointment to fill it, unless I knew that something might be
done beyond the ordinary routine or duties. At present I see little or
no prospect of accomplishing any great obj ect.
Embarrassed as the administration is here, and difficult as are the
questions with which it has to <leal, I find my hopes of success faint.
Besides, I do not know who is to fill this place ( which I suppose I shall
soon vacate) and therefore cannot anticipate the instructions which I
might receive. The President is most anxious to signalize his adminis-
tration by an adjustment of the remaining difficulties with England, and
by the making of a beneficia! commercial arrangement. If, for any
purpose, a negotiation could be carried on here, I would give the Presi-
dent all the aid in my power, whether in or out of office, in carrying it
forward. But, w ithout seeing clearly how I was to get through, and
arrive at a satisfactory result, I could not consent to cross the water.
I wish you, therefore, to feel that, as far as I am concerned, your
appointment to China had not its origin in any degree in a desire that
your present place should be vacated. If it were vacant now, o r should
be vacated by you, there is not one chance in a thousand that I should
fill it." Curtis, Life of W ebster, 2: i78.
Adams, Diary, Mar. 13, 1843 (II: 337), says that he (Adams) visited
W ebster. ". . . . I said I had been mu ch gratified with the appoint-
ment of Edward Everett as the Minister to China, deeming the mission
of transcendent importance, and deeming him by his character and attain-
ments peculiarly well suited for it. Mr. Webster seemed much delighted,
and my rei:narks appeared to be quite unexpected. He immediately said
he would be greatly obliged to me if I would write as much to Edward
Everett himself; which I said I would do with pleasure. He asked me
to send the letter to him to-morrow, when the dispatches would be made
up to go by the Great Western next Thursday."
120
Williams, Life and Letters of Williams, p. 126, footnote, thinks this
was true. The a priori evidence seems very strong. Benton, with his
strongly partisan viewpoint, saw in the whole plan a conspiracy. Cushing
had been on the committee which reported the bill, and in the House
which passed it, and although his term as a member of Congress h ad
expired, in Benton's eyes he was morally if not legally bound by the
constitution not to accept the position. Moreover, he was a man whom
134 K enneth S. Latourette,
the Senate would probably have rejected, and as he was appointed after
that body had adjourned, and sent off befare they could meet to act on
the nomination, Benton thought that the law had again been v iolated.
The President had a right to appoint during an interim of the Senate
only to a vacancy in an unexpired term. (Benton, Thirty Years' View,
2: 514.) Benton, however, was prejudiced, too much so to be fair. The
administration's first choice had undoubtedly been Everett, he had been
confirmed by the Senate, and bis refusal to accept left the office vacant.
Technically, it was an unexpired term to be filled by appointment, and if
the pressing opportunity were to be seized a man Ii.ad to be secured, and
the mission sail befare Congress could meet again.
120
They were third cousins. Lemuel Cushing, Genealogy of the Cushing
Family. Montreal, 1877, pp. 46, 37, 70, 74, 24. Rev. Caleb Cushing was the
great-great-grandfather of them both.
121
Webster to Everett, Mar. ro, 1834; Curtis, Life of W ebster, 2: 178.
128
W ebster to Cushing, May 8, 1843, Sen. Doc. 138, 28 Cong., 2 Sess.
Early Relations between the United States and China. 135
129
Sen. Doc. 138, 28 Cong., 2 Sess. W ebster to Cushing, May 8, 1843.
130
Foster, Am. Dip. in Orient, p. 81, thinks that the letter of the
President to the Emperor, because of its inferior quality, was written
by Tyler or Webster's successor, Upshur, who countersigned it; but it
is given in W ebster's works, ed. 1856, 6: 477; with. a footnote attributing
it to him. W ebster had evidently made something of a study of the
situation. He wrote to the merchants in the China trade, asking for
suggestions in regard to the mission, April, 1843. Letters and Recollec-
tions of J. M. Forbes, I : 115.
131
Sen. Doc. 138, 28 Cong., 2 Sess., Tyler to Empr. of China, July 12, 1843.
182
Benton, Thirty Years' View, 2: 515.
Kenneth S. Latourette,
expedition.
137
Consular Letters, Canton, III.
Early Relations between the United States and China. 137
138
Sen. Doc: 67, 28 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 2.
1
Sen. Doc. 87, 28 Cong.,
81) 2 Sess., p. 5.
uo lbid., p. 7, April 1st.
141
lbid., p. 10, April 4th.
2
u Ibid., p. 12.
143
Sen. Doc. 67, 28 Cong., 2 Sess:, pp. 13, 16.
144
Ibid., p. 20.
K enneth S. Laiourette,
the letter by mistake, 145 and that if the acting viceroy had sent
it directly to his house the accident would not have happened.
He _then lectured Ching on the use of salutes. "China," said he,
"will find it very difficult to remain at peace with an' of the great
states of the W est, so long as her provincial governors are pro-
hibited either to give or to receive manif estations of that peace
in the exchange of ordinary courtesies of national intercourse."
On M ay 9th, Cushing wrote saying that he would wait a little
longer before going N orth, to allow ample time to hear from
Peking, and reminded Ching that "foreign ambassadors repre-
sent the sovereignty of their nation. Any disrespect shown to
them is disrespect to their nation. . . . Causelessly to molest
them is a national injury of the gravest manner." He also said
that the delay would cause dissatisfaction in the United States.146
However, the American was secretly not anxious to go to Peking.
He preferred to negotiate at Canton rather than to jeopardize
the success of his mission by going to Tien Tsin or Peking. 147
Cushing's insistence on going to the capital and his growing
impatience finally had its desired effect. Kiying, the newly
appointed viceroy of Kwangtung and Kwangsi, was made
Imperial High Commissioner and was given full powers.148
Cushing with a parting note to the acting viceroy expressing his
satisfaction at Kiying's appointment, but reasserting his intention
of ultimately going north, prepared to meet the commissioner.
He later f elt that the months of waiting had been well spent.
His correspondence with Ching had settled the question of the
necessity of a treaty, and had given him the chance to "say all
the harsh things which needed to be said and to speak to the
Chinese government with extreme frankness in a
degree which would have been inconvenient . . . . m 1mme-
diate correspondence with" the commissioner. 149 Kiying made
1
'" Ibid., p. 17, Apr. 22, 1844.
" While this discussion was going on, there was sorne minor disturbance
over the weather vane on the new American flagstaff in Canton, which
the Chinese thought brought ill-luck; but it was removed as soon as the
objection was raised, and the trouble ceased. Ch. Rep., 13: 227.
ur Cushing to Upshur, May 27, 1844, and the same to Calhoun, July 15,
1844, Sen. Doc. 67, 28 Cong., 2 Sess., pp. 31, 58.
148
Ibid., p. 28.
uo Cushing to Sec. of State, Ibid., p. 40. (July 9, 1844.)
Early Relatians between the United States and China. 139
his public entry May 3oth, 150 and negotiations were at once
opened. The relations between the two commissioners were on
the whole very pleasant. The first two letters from the Chinese
had in the address the name of the United States one line below
that of the Chinese government, an expression of inferiority,
but when Cushing returned them, tactfully considering the offense
the "result of clerical inadvertance," they were promptly cor-
rected.151 On July 17th, Kiying crossed the boundary to the
Portuguese colony of Macao, and took up his residence in a
temple in the village of Whanghia, or Wang Hiya. The next
day he visited the fleet, and on the following day (J une 19th),
the Americans returned the call. That same evening three
Chinese officers attending the commissioner met vVebster, Bridg-
man, and Peter Parker, Cushing's secretaries, and arranged the
-:ourse of the negotiations. 152 On the 2rst, Cushing-presented a
pro jet for a treaty, basing it, as he said, on five principles153 : that
the United States were to treat with China on a basis of friend-
ship and peace; that they <lid not desire any perfect reciprocity,
but since their ports were all open to the ships of all nations and
there were no export duties, and since the Chinese had opened
only five ports and had an export tariff, they would acquiesce in
the view of the subject which it had pleased the Emperor to
adopt; that any difference between the American pro jet and the
British treaty was due to the fact that Great Britain had posses-
sion of Hongkong, and the United States neither possessed nor
desired such a concession; nd that in drawing up the pro jet
the interests of both sides had been borne in mind. The Chinese
and American secretaries met for several days, sometimes in
Cushing's house in Macao, sometimes at Whanghia, and discussed
and modified this pro jet until both principals were satisfied.
Within the first week after their meeting, Kiying told Cushing
that if he insisted on going to Peking negotiations must be broken
off. Cushing yielded with a show of reluctance, stipulating a
151
Cushing to Sec. of State, Sen. Doc. 67, 28 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 34. (J une
13, 1844.)
1 2
Cushing to Sec. of State, July 8, 1844, Sen. Doc. 67, 28 Cong., 2
Sess., p. 38.
m Cushing to Kiying, J une 21, 1844, Ibid., p. 41.
Kenneth S. Latourette,
condition which the other was most willing to grant, that if min-
isters of western nations were thereafter received at the capital
an American envoy would also be welcomed.154 Cushing asked
and obtained, however, permission to send thrdfgh the Com-
missioner the President's letter to the Emperor. 155 Negotiations
proceeded without further incident, and on J uly 3d the treaty
was finished and signed. The next <lay Cushing issued a letter
to the American merchants announcing the treaty and on July 5th
Kiying returned to Canton.
The document so obtained was a credit to Cushing and
remained the standard for settling difficulties between Chinese
and foreigners until the treaties of 1860.156 In general it pro-
vided for the it:hings stipulated by the English treaty.157 Ameri-
cans could reside for the purposes of comrnerce in the five ports
of Canton, Amoy, Foochow, Ningpo, and Shanghai; a definite
tariff was to be promulgated and annexed to the treaty; consuls
were to be allowed to reside in the open cities and communicate
with Chinese officials on equal terms; the old co-hong was to be
abolished; no prohibitions were to be placed on trade in these
ports; and the most-favored-nation clause was inserted. The
British treaty contained sorne clauses which the American docu..:
ment <lid not have; the cession of Hongkong, indemnity of debts
due British merchants by members of the co-hong, the r~lease of
prisoners of war, and the gradual evacuation of Chinese ports.
On the other hand, the American treaty was a much longer and
more carefully drawn instrument, and was superior to it in a num-
ber of important points. Cushing enumerated sixteen of these in a
letter to John Nelson, written on July 5th, 1844.1 58 (1) The
tariff was amended in favor of Ame'r ican articles, such as gin-
seng, contraband articles, and maitters of government monopoly,
and could be changed only by mutual agreement: ( 2) By the
104
Cushing to Sec. of State, J uly 8, 1844, Sen. Doc. 67, 28 Cong., 2
Sess., p. 38.
u The official reply to this letter was sent the following December in
due form, approving the treaty. Niles Reg., 68: 253. June 28, 1845.
150
Williams, Middle Kingdom, 2: 267.
157
The English treaty is in Lewis H ertslet, A Complete Collection of the
Treaties and Recip roca! .Regulations at Present Subsisting between Great
Britain and Foreign Powers, etc., London, 1845, 6: 221-225. The Ameri-
can T reaty is in U. S. Statutes at Large, 8 : 592-605.
1 08
Sen. Doc. 67, 28 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 77.
Early Relations between the United States and China. 141
English treaty, the consuls were made responsible for the pay-
ment of duties, but in the American treaty this was avoided by
stipulating tha.t these should be paid in cash. (3) A new pro-
vision was made allowing goods to be shipped from one port
to another without paying double duty. (4) To secure the dignity
of consuls the privilege was given to them of complaining to.
the superior officers of any disrespectful treatment. ( 5) Duties
were to be paid only as the cargo was landed, and a ship remain-
ing for forty-eight hours without breaking bulk was free from
tonnage and other duties. (6) Citizens of the United States
1
were to have accommodations in all five ports, and the privilege
of renting sites for houses and places of business, hospitals,
churches, and cemeteries. 159 (7) It was permitted to foreigners,
contrary to the former Chinese law, to hire persons to teach
them the language, and to buy any kind of book. ( 8) A prin- (.
ciple of more than ordinary importance was that of exterri- 1
150
The last three ;were added as a special favor to Peter Parker.
Stevens, Life of Parker, p. 234.
160
In House Ex. Doc. 69, 28 Cong., 2 Sess., and in Sen. Doc. 58, 28
Cong., 2 Sess.
Kenneth S. Latourette,
1 1
This clause brought as its result the necessity for an adequate consular
staff in China, a necessity which was to be met later. Sen. Doc. 58, 28
Cong., 2 Sess. Cushing to Calhoun, Oct. 1, 1844. Also in House Ex.
Doc. 69, 28 Cong., 2 S~ss. A precedent for exterritoriality occurred as
early as 1687 when a Chinese official suggested that an English sailor who
had committed depredations on Chinese property, be punished by bis
fellow tountrymen. Eames, The English in China, London, 1909, p. 40.
102
Sen. Doc. 67, 28 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 54, gives the further negotiations
in regard to this on J uly 13th to 28th inclusive, in which Kiying vainly
tried to get this point modified.
Early Relations between the United States and China. 143
1. BIBLIOGRAPHIES.
There is no printed bibliography which is at all complete. The
following .contain very brief book lists for this period:
CoRDIER, HENRI.
Bibliotheca Snica, Dictionaire Bibliographique des Ouvrages
Relatifs l'Empire Chinois. 4 v., 2d ed., Pars, 1904-1908.
Pages 2510-2519. Relations des Etrangers avec les Chinois. X.
TRANs. CoNN. AcAD., Vol. XXII 10 1917
Kenneth S. Latourette,
GREAT BRlTAlN.
Parliamentary Papers, 1833. Relating to India and China, and
the Finances of India. Return to an order of the Honourable
House of Commons dated 3 April, 1833, for Cowtinuation to the
latest period to which they can be made up, of all accounts
relating to the trade of India and China, etc. In the Boston
Public Library.
GREAT BRITAIN.
Parliamentary Papers, 1833. East India Charter Corre-
spondence.
Pages 13, 14, 15, give sorne statistics on American trade made
up by Thomas S. Cabell, accountant general of the E. I. Co.,
probably from the Company's statistics. In the Boston Public
Library.
GREAT BRlTAIN.
The Parliamentary Debates, forming a continuation of the
work entitled "The Parliamentary History of England," pub-
lished under the superintendence of T. C. Hansard.
2d Series, 1820 et sqq. 3d Series, 1830 et sqq.
These contain tlie debates on the East India Company's Charter
and so give much information concerning the impression which
American trade with China made in Great Britain.
GREAT BRlTAIN.
The Statutes at Large. London, 1763 et sqq.
The collection is used here for the charter of the East India
Company.
HAMILTON, ALEXANDER.
Trade with India and China, Communicated to the House of
Representatives, February IO, 1791. American State Papers,
Finance, 1 : 107.
HERTSLET' LEWlS.
A complete collection of the Treaties and Reciproca! Regula-
tions at Present Subsisting between Great Britain and Foreign
Powers, etc. London, 1845.
Vol. 6, pp. 221-2 25, contains the Treaty of Nanking, Aug., 1842.
NEw YoRK CusToM HousE.
Sea Letter Books of the N ew York Custom House. In the
N ew York Custom House.
Early Relations between the United States and China. 149
After March II, I799, they gave the names of all vessels
clearing for foreign ports. The dates covered by the books are
June, I798-Apr. I2, I8oo; Apr. I2, I8oo-Nov. 6, I802; Oct. I,
I8o4-July 29, I8og; Jan. 2, I8I8-0ct. I, I8I9; I829-I83I;
I832; I836; Apr. I, I844-Mar. 3I, I847.
PRoCEEDINGs oF THE BoARD oF MrssroNs oF THE DoMESTic AND
FoREIGN MissroNARY SocIETY OF THE PROTESTANT EPIS-
COPAL CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
See especially those published in New York, I836-I84r.
The references to China, as a rule a summary of the year's
operations there, are for I836, p. 94; for I838, pp. 76, 77 ; Or
I839, pp. 83-86; for I840, pp. 57-60; for I84I, pp. 58-59.
PROVIDENCE CusToM HousE.
Impost Books of the Providence Custom House.
Books A, B, C, I827, and D, are in the Rhode Island Historical
Society. Copies of A and B are in the Custom House. It is
possible through these, which cover all the years between I79
and I844, to determine the names, consignees, and the duties
paid by all the ships which entered this port from China during
this period.
SALEM CusToM HousE.
Impost Books of the Salem Custom House. In the Salem Cus-
tom House. These give information concerning Salem's trade
with China.
SALEM CusToM HousE.
Digest of the Duties of the Salem Custom House. In the
Salem Custom House. Book I, I789-I85I, is a more convenient
summary for our purpose than the impost books.
ANNUAL REPORTS oF THE SEAMAN's FRIEND SocIETY.
See especially the first six teen of these, published annually,
New York, I829-1844. They give information about the chap-
laincy for sailors at Cantan.
THWAITES, REUBEN GoLD. [Editor.]
The J esuit Relations and Allied Documents. Travels and
Explorations of the Jesuit Missionaries in New France, I6ro-
I79r. Cleveland, c. Igoo.
This is used here for notices regarding the discovery of ginseng
in Canada by the J esuits.
K ennth S. Latourette,
UNlTED STATES.
American State Papers. Foreign Relations. Washington,
1858. This is of use for the correspondence with Russia over
the N orthwest Coast, given on 5 : 456.
UNlTED STATES.
American State Papers. Documents Legislative and Executive
of the Congress of the United States.
Commerce and N avigation, l : 599; 2: 63. Washington, 1832.
_;-;" The quotations refer to trade statistics of the Chinese commerce.
CONSULAR LETTERS, CANTON.
Manuscript in the Bureau of Manuscripts and Archives, State
Department, Washington, D. C.
Vol. I, March, 1792, to August, 1834. Vol. II, Sept., 1834, to
Apr., 1839. Vol. III, May, 1839 to 1849..
This collection of letters, chiefly reports of the consul at Canton
to the State Departfnent, is one of the most valuable manuscript
sources for the entire subj ect of the early relations between the
United States and China.
U N lTED STATES.
The Congressional Globe. Washington, 1833 to 1873.
This contains the debates on the mission to China.
See especially, 26 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 24; 26 Cong., l Sess., pp.
172, 275; 3d Sess., 27 Cong., pp. 323-325; app. p. 93; 28th
Cong., l Sess., p. 226.
UNlTED STATES.
The Papers of the Continental Congress. Mss. in Manuscript
Department of the Library of Congress. See the following on
the beginning of American trade with Canton. Reports of Com-
mittees, Vol. 5, pp. 9, 43. List of Letters, (No. 185) from Nov.
5, 1781, p. 127.
UNlTED STATES.
The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United
States with an Appendix Containing Important State Papers and
Public Documents and all the Laws of Public Nature with a
Copious Index. Back Title, Annals of the Congress' of the
United States. Washington, 1855.
This is useful for the debates on the Oregon question. It
covers 1789-1824.
Early Relations between the United States and China. 15 1
UNlTED STATES.
Statistical View of the United States. . . . Being a Com-
pendium of the Seventh Census, by J. D. DeBow. Washington,
1854.
Page 188 gives a brief summary of the United States' trade ~-
with China from 1790 on.
UNlTED STATES.
Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States of America,
from the Signing of the Definite Treaty of Peace, Sept. ro, 1783,
to the Adoption of the Constitution, Mar. 4, 1789. Washington,
1834.
This is used for the letters of Samuel Shaw contained in vol.,.?"'."' .3
All of these letters are in the appendix of Shaw's Journals as well.
UNlTED STATES.
Executive Document No. 119, l Sess., . 26 Cong. A message
of the President, Feb. 25, 1840, in respont>e to resolutions of
Feb. 7, 1840, transmitting information about the condi.tion of
American citizens in China.
UNlTED STATES.
Executive Document No. 34, 26th Congress, 2d Session.
Documents giving information about the American Commerce
with China conveyed by the President's message of December
29, 1840, asked for by the Resolutions of December 23d, 1840.
UNlTED STATES.
Executive Document No. 71, 2 Sess., 26 Congress.
This contains papers relating to the Terranova Affair.
UNITED STATES.
Executive Document No. 35, 3 S ess., 27 Cong.
This is the message of the President, Dec. 30, 1842, about
China and the Sandwich Islands.
UNlTED STATES.
Executive Document No. 40, l Sess., 26 Cong.
This is a memorial of R. B. Forbes and others asking for a
commercia:l agent for China with power to negotiate a commercial
treaty with China, M ay 25, 1839.
U NlTED STATES.
Executive Document No. 170, l Sess., 26 Cong.
This is a memorial of Thomas H . Perkins and others urging
Kenneth S . Latourette,
UNlTED STATES.
Senate Document No. 58, 2d Session, 28th Congress.
This contains an abstract of the treaty between the United
States and China and sorne of the correspondence of Cushing.
UNlTED STATES.
Senate Document No. 17, l Session, 29th Congress.
This is a summary of the expenses of the Cushing expedition.
UNlTED STATES.
Senate Document No. 139, lst Session, 29th Congress.
This contains. all the correspondence between the commanders
of the East India Squadron and foreign powers, and of the
United States agents abroad, during the years 1842 and 1843,
relating to trade and the other interests of the government,
called for by the resolution of the Senate, Feb. 25, 1845.
UNlTED STATES.
Senate Document No. 67, 2d Session, 28th Congress.
This contains the correspondence of Cushing in regard to the
treaty with China, 1844.
UNlTED STATES.
J ohn H. Haswell, Treaties and Conventions Concluded between
the United States of America and other Powers since July 4,
1776. Washington, l88g.
Senate Document No. 47, 2 Sess., 48 Cong.
The text of the treaty of Whanghia is on pages 145-159.
UNlTED STATES.
Senate Documertt No. 31, lst Session, l9th Congress.
This contains various statistics in regard to the Cantan trade.
Senate Document No. 306, 3d Session, 25th Congress. This
is a General Statement .of the goods, wares, and merchandise of
Foreign Countries imported into the United States for the year
ending September 30, 1838.
UNlTED STATES.
State Papers, 1823-4, Vol. 4, Number 73. Report of the
Secretary of the Treasury of the Commerce and N avigation of
the United States for the year ending September 30, 1823.
Washington, 1824.
UNlTED STATES.
The Public Statutes at Large of the United States of America.
154 K enneth S. Latourette,
This is used for the copies it contains of the tariff and other
laws in regard to China and the China trade, and contains as well
the Treaty of Whanghia.
ASIA. ( Ship.)
Log Book of the Ship Asia, John Ormsbee, Master, July 25,
I8I6-circa July I, I8I8. Ms. in ibid.
ASIA. ( Ship.)
Log Book of the Ship Asia, John H. Ormsbee, Master, June
29, 18I8-circa June 30, I8I9. Ms. in ibid.
AsTREA. ( Ship.)
Abbreviations of a Journal of the Ship Astrea from China to
Java Head on the Island of Java. One of the terminal dates is
Jan. 24, I79 ( ?).
Ms. in the log book of the Brig Three Sisters, Benjamn Webb,
Master, 1788-1789. In Essex Institute.
BROOKLINE. ( Ship.)
Log Book of the Ship Brookline, kept by C. H. Allen, first
officer, I833-I834. Ms. in Essex Institute.
S. C. Phillips, Owner.
BROOKLINE. ( Ship.)
Journal of a V oyage of the Ship Brookline from Hamburgh
to Batavia, Manila, China, Manila, and New York, in I834-36.
George Pierce, Master. Kept by Charles H . Allen, first officer.
Ms. in Essex Institute.
CARAVAN. (Brig.)
J ournal of a V oyage from the Cape Verde Islands to Canton in
the Brig Caravan, James Gilchrist, Master, kept by James
Gilchrist, 18o7-1808.
Ms. in East India Marine Society's Journals, 6: 397-446. In
Essex Institute.
CLAY. (Ship.)
Journal of the Ship Clay, in a voyage from Salem to the Fiji
Islands and Manila, Captain William R. Driver, 1827-1829.
Ms. in Essex Institute.
COLUMBIA. (Ship.)
Log Book of the Ship Columbia, Captain Ro. Gray, in her
Voyage from Boston to the N orth W est Coast of America, from
Sept. 28, 1790, to Feb. 20, 1792. Ms. in Department of State,
Washington, D. C. In the Bureau of Rolls and Library.
CoNcoRD. (Ship.)
A J ournal of a V oyage from Salem to Massafuero m the
Kenneth' S. Latourette,
GANGES. (Brig.)
Account of. Sales of Sundries per Brig Ganges, l8IO.
Bill of Lading far Brig Ganges, signed by N athaniel Ingersoll,
Salem, Sept. 2, 1809.
Mss. in Essex Institute.
GENERAL V\TASHlNGTON.
Log Book of the General VVashington, December 27, 1787-
0ctober 5, 1790.
Along with this is a fragmentary journal of the same voyage,
covering May 8, 1788 to June 17, 1789.
Both manuscripts are in the Brown and I ves Papers, in the
J ohn Carter Brown Library
GLIDE. ( Ship.)
Jo11rnal of a Voyage of the Ship Glide to the South Pacific
Ocean. Henry Archer Jr., Master. l82g--1830. Ms. in Essex
Institute.
HAMlLTON. (Ship.)
Journal of a Voyage of the Ship Hamilton from Bastan to the
North VVest Coast of America and Canton, l8og-18rr, 1815.
Captain Lemuel Porter. The author was possibly VVilliam
Martain.
Ms. in Essex Institute.
HERALD. (Ship.)
J ournal of a Voyage in the Ship Herald from Salem to Rot-
terdam, Canton, and Return, by Zachariah F. Silsbee (Master
and Super-Cargo) in l8o4-18o5. Ms. in Essex Institute.
HuNTER. (Ship.)
Journal of a V oyage from Salem to Sumatra and Canton and
return, l8og-18ro, in the Ship Hunter. Ms. in Essex Institute.
lNDUS. ( Ship.)
Remarks on a Voyage from Boston to Cantan by Charles
Frederick VValdo, in the Ship Indus, 1802-1803. Ms. in Essex
Institute. This is a private J ournal kept by a common seaman.
lNDUS. ( Ship.)
Bill of Lading and other papers of goods on board ship Indus,
Richard VVheatland, Master, Boston, March 5, l8o2.
These are in the Dr. Henry VVheatland Manuscripts, in the
Essex Institute, Salem, Vol. 5, p. 24.
K enneth S. Latourette,
INDUS. ( Ship.)
A J ournal for the above voyage, incomplete. Kept by Captain
Richard Wheatland. Ms. in Essex Institute.
}OHN }AY. (Ship.)
Account Book of the Ship John Jay in 1798.
In the Brown and I ves Papers, in the J ohn Carter Brown
Library. It gives the wages of the crew.
LOUISA. ( Ship.)
Bill of Lading of Ship Louisa to N orthwest Coast of America,
dated Oct. 5, 1826. William Martain, Master, to William Mar-
tain. In Essex Institute: (It is a loose leaf in the Log of the
Louisa.)
LomsA. (Ship.)
J ournal of a Voyage of the Ship Louisa from Boston to the
N orth W est Coast of America, Canton, and Boston, William
Martain, Master, 182~1829. Ms. in Essex Institute.
MARGARET. ( Ship.)
Extracts from the Log of the Ship Margaret, Commanded by
Captain James Magee. Voyage to the North West Coast, 1791-
17g2. Typewritten copy in Essex Institute. Original owned by
R . H . Derby, N ew York.
MERMAID. (Brig.)
J ournal of a Voyage from Salem to N ew Zealand, the Society,
Fegee, Friendly, and other Islands in the Pacific, and home by
way of Manilla, and China, in the Brig Mermaid, J. H. Eagleston,
Master. Oct., 1836-Apr., 1839.
With this is a journal of a cruise among the Fegee Islands in
the Schooner Jane, in the employ of the Mermaid by G. N.
Cheever, first officer of the brig. Unfinished.
The second part was written many years af ter the first, and
is probably less accurate.
Mss. in Essex Institute.
MIDAS. (Ship.)
Journal of a Voyage from Salem to Canton and back, in the
Ship Midas. She left Boston Sept. 13, 1818, and returning _
arrived in Boston Sept. 8, 1819. Ms. in Essex Institute.
MoNROE. (Brig.)
Journal of a Voyage of the Brig Monroe from Boston to Africa
Early Relations between the United States and China. 159
ABEEL, DAVID.
Journal of a Residence in China and the N ei:Tiboring Coun-
tries, with a Preliminary Essay on the Commencement and
Progress of Missions in the World. New York, I836. (Ist Ed.,
New York, I834.)
This is the personal narrative, kept day by day, of the man
who shares with Bridgman the honor of being the first American
missionary to China.
ADAMS, ]OHN QUINCY.
Memoirs of John Quincy Adams, Comprising Portions of His
Diary ~rom I795 to I848, edited by Charles Francis Adams.
Philadelphia, I876.
This is a source for the negotiations with Russia over the
Northwest Coast, and for the preliminaries of the Cushing mis-
sion to China.
THE AMERICAN REVIEW.
4: 392 et sqq., New York, Oct., I846.
This is of use here for the current impressions of China.
CoRRESPONDENCE oF THE AMERICAN BAPTIST MisSIONARY
UNION.
Mss. in their rooms in Boston.
Special use has been made of the files containing the letters to
and from Mrs. and Mr. Shuck, and l. J. Roberts.
CORRESPONDENCE OF THE AMERICAN BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
OF FOREIGN MISSIONS.
Mss. in their Library in Boston, Mass.
See especially the files marked Foreign, vols. r, 2, and 3, which
contain the letters of the Board and of its secretaries, to the
missionaries, and the two volumes marked "Correspondence
from the Field," "China, r83I-1837,'' and "China, 1838:-1844."
The letters are numbered according to their order in the files.
BARNARD, CHARLES.
A N arrative of the Sufferings and Adventures of Captain
Charles W. Barnard in a Voyage Round the World during the
years, 1812, 1813, 1814, 1815, and 1816. New York, 1829.
Early Relations between the United States and China. 161
D'WoLF, JoHN.
A Voyage to the N orth Pacific and a J ourney through Siberia
more than Half a Century Ago. Cambridge, Mass., 1861.
The N arrative of a V oyage from Bristol to the ~rthwest Coast
for furs. D'Wolf, the captain, sold his vessel to the Russians,
and part of the crew went to Cantan. He himself went overland
to European Russia. The book seems to have been written from
a journal kept on the voyage. It is to be found in the Public
Library, New York City.
D1x, W ILLIAM G.
Wreck of the Glide, with Recollections of t~e Fijis and of
Wallis Island. New York and London, 1848.
This deals with the South Sea trade. The Glide was owned
by Peabody, and sailed from S~lem, May 22, 1829. The book
was begun by James Oliver, of whose adventures it is a narrative,
and was written by him from memory in Hawaii in 1832, shortly
after the events recorded, the dates being supplied partly from
the Glide's log book, and partly from the manuscripts of his
companions. After Oliver's death his brother made additions
from the manuscripts of shipmates.
D1xoN, G.
Voyage Round the World, More particularly to the N orth
West Coast of America. London, q89.
This is the account of an early British voyage to the North-
west Coast.
DooLlTTLE, ERAsMus. ( ?)
Sketches by a Traveller. Boston, 1830.
These are letters which originally appeared in the N ew Eng-
land Galaxy and Boston Courier. They describe a voyage to the
Northwest Coast of America made probably during the War of
1812. No author's name is given, but there are sorne similar
sketches in the same volume written by Erasmus Doolittle, and
it is quite possible that he is the author of the anonymous ones.
The copy in the Essex Institute has Silas Pinckney Holbrook
entered in pencil as author, but the authority is not given.
DowNING, C. Toocoon.
The Stranger in China, or the Fan Qui's Visit to the Celestial
Empire in 1836-7. 2 Vols., Philadelphia, 1838.
This is a description of Canton, Whampoa, and Macao, by an
Early Relations between the United States and China. 163
This argues for the monopoly of the East India Company, and
hence tends to minimize the importance of the American trade.
In Essex Institute.
STAUNTON, (SIR) GEORGE THOMAS.
Miscellaneous N otices Relating to China, and our Commercial
Intercourse with that Country, including a f ew translations from
the Chinese Language. (2d ed., enlarged in 1822, and accom-
panied in 1850 by observations on the events which have affected
our Chinese Commerce during that interval.) London, 1822-50.
This is favorable to the East India Company, and hence inclined
to minimize the importance of American trade.
WEBSTER, DANIEL.
Speech on the Tariff in the House of Representatives April l
and 2, 1824. In Taussig, State Papers and Speeches on the
Tariff. New York, 1892.
WrNES, E. C.
A Peep at China in Mr. Dunn's Chinese Collections with
Miscellaneous Notices Relative to the Institutions and Customs
of the Chinese and our Commercial Intercourse with Them.
Philadelphia, 1839.
In Harvard Library.
This is largely a description of Dunn's Collection, and shows
again the curiosity in the United States about China.
vVooDs, LEONARD.
A Sermon delivered at the Tabernacle in Salem, -Feb. 6, 1812,
on occasion of the Ordination of the Rev. Messrs. S~muel N ewell,
A.M., Adoniram Judson, A.M., Samuel Nott, A.M., Gordon
Hall, A.M., and Luther Rice, A.M., Missionaries to the Heathen
in Asia, under the qirection of the Board of Commissioners for
Foreign Missions . to which is added the charge by
Samuel Spring, D .D., and the Right Hand of Fellowship by
Samuel Worcester, D .D . Stockbridge, r8r 2.
7. SECONDARY AUTHORITIES.
ABBOTT, ]ACOB.
China and the English, or the Character and Manners of the
Chinese as Illustrated in the History of their Intercourse with
Foreigners. N ew York, 1835.
This is a popular work written for Abbott's Fireside Series.
Its sources are the writings of Marshman, Morrison, Staunton,
Barrow, Auber, Milne, and others, for the most part reliable
authorities.
(ANDERSON, RUFUS.)
Memorial V olumes of the First Fifty Y ears of the American
Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. Boston, 1861.
AUBER, PETER.
China. An Outline of Its Government, Laws, and Policy :
and of the British and Foreign Embassies, to, and Intercourse
with That Empire. London, 1834.
This is qy the Secretary of the Court of the Directors of the
British East India Company, a man who h<l:d easy access to first-
hand information. The work resembles a chronicle.
BANCROFT, HuBERT HowE.
History of California. 7 vols. San Francisco, 1884-1890.
This is of value for the Northwest Coast fur trade, and espe-
cially for its voluminous references to and qtiotations from rare
sources.
BANCROFT, HuBERT HowE.
History of the N orthwest Coast. 2 vols. San Francisco, 1884.
This is useful for the same reasons as Bancroft's History of
California.
BARRETT, WALTER.
The Old Merchants of N ew York City. N ew York, 1870.
This was written by a man who had an intimate knowledge of
much of the lif e which he depicted, and contains information
which cannot be obtained elsewhere.. It is anecdotal, uncritical,
and must be used with the most extreme care.
In New York Historical" Society's Library.
BECKE, Lou1s, AND ] EFFERY, WALTE;R.
The Americans in the South Seas. London, 190!.
In the volume marked The Tapu of Banderah, pp. 245-258.
Kenneth S . Latourette,
CLARK, ARTHUR H.
The Clipper Ship Era . 1843-1869. New York and
London, l9II.
CLEVELAND, H. w. s.
V oyages of a Merchant N avigator of the Days that are Past.
Compiled from the Journals and Letters of the Late Richard J.
Cleveland. New York, 1886.
This is an interesting supplement to R. ] .. Cleveland's works.
It was written by his son, who adds new material and makes the
voyages more readable. As he made extensive use of his father's
journals and other reliable sources, the book is quite trustworthy.
In the Boston Athenaeum.
CooPER, ] AMES FENlMORE.
The Crater ; or Vulcan's Peak. A Tale of the Pacific. New
York, 1856.
This book, although fiction, shows a knowledge of the China
trade. Sorne rderences, especially those on pp. 17, 19, 20, and
35, are true to the general historical facts of the trade.
CoRDIER, HENRL
Histoire des Relations de la Chine avec Les Puissances Occi-
dentales, 1860-1890. 3 Vols. Pars, 1901.
Only a very little space is devoted to the years discussed in this
monograph.
CuRT1s, GEoRGE T1cKNOR.
Life of Daniel Webster. New York, 1870.
Pages 2: 172-180 give an account of Webster's share in the
Cushing mission. Curts believes that W ebster was not trying
to get the London mission by inducing Everett to accept the China
Mission.
CURTIS, WILLIAM ELEROY.
The United States and Foreign Powers. Meadville, Pa., 1892.
This is one of the volumes of the Chautauqua Reading Circle
Literature.
Pages 250-257 give an account of the treaty of Whanghia, but
are of only mediocre value.
CusHING, LEMUEL.
The Genealogy of the Cushi_n g Family. Montreal, 1877.
K enneth S . Latourette,
188 K enneth S . Latourette,
Early Relations between the United States and China. 189
Carne from the W est, Eastward. Behring the Dane; the Outlaw
Hunters of Russia; Benyowsky the Polish Pirate; Cook, and
Vancouver, the English N avigators; Gray of Boston, the Dis-
coverer of the Columbia; Drake; Ledyard, an~oth~r Soldiers
of Fortune' on the West Coast of America. New York, 1905.
Sorne good sources have been used quite extensively, and the
results have been written up in an attractive style.
LEAVlTT, WlLLlAM.
Materials for the History of Ship-Building in Salem.
In Historical Collections of the Essex Institute, 7: 207.
LlNDSAY, W. S.
History of Merchant Shipping and Ancient Commerce. 4 v.
London, 1876.
LJUNGSTEDT, ANDREW.
An Historical Sketch of the Portuguese Settlements in China,
and -of the Roman Catholic Church and Mission in China.
A Supplementary Chapter Descriptive of the City of Canton.
Boston, 1836. .
The Supplementary Chapter is the one of use to us here.
LocKHART, WrLLlAM.
The Medical Missionary in China. A Narrative of Twenty
Y ears' Experience. 2d ed. London, 1861.
Lockhart gives sorne information about the history of medical
missions before 1844, but devotes most of his space to a later
period.
LORlNG, CHARLES G.
Memoir of Hon. William Sturgis.
In Proceedings of the Mass. Historical Soc., 1863-1864.
Boston, 1864.
Pp. 420-473.
This is a eulogy and a character sketch, and is not very valuable
for our purpose.
LYMAN, HORACE s.
History of Oregon. The Growth of an American State. N ew
York, 1903. 4 vols.
This is useful for its bearing on the Northwest Coast fur
trade. See especially Vol. 2, Chaps. 3, 4, 9 1 10, 1I.
McCuLLOCH, J. R.
A Dictionary, Practical, Theoretical, and Historical of Com-
Early Relations between the United States and China. 191
(WYLIE, ALEXANDER.]
Memorials of Protestant Missionaries to the Chinese Giving a
List of their Publications and Obituary N atices of the Deceased.
Shanghai, 1867.
This contains fairly good brief biographies of most of the
men.
YuLE, HENRY.
Cathay and the W_a y Thither, being a Collection of Medieval
N otices of China, translated and edited by Colonel Henry Yule,
with a preliminary essay on the intercourse between China and
the Western N ations Previous to the discovery of the Cape Route.
London, Hakluyt Society, 1866.
This is the best single work on medieval intercourse between
China and Europe. It is used here to give information for a
brief sketch of Western intercourse with China prior to the
coming of the Americans.
INDEX.
Abeel, David, 89, 90, 92, 99, 104, Astoria, 42, 56.
106, 108, 160, 173, 194, 199 "Astrea", 18, 65, l 55.
"Active", 40, 45, 154. "Atahualpa'', 36.
Adams, J ohn Quincy, 38, 55, 125, Austin, Elij ah, 39.
129, 130, 131. Australia, 14, 16, 40, 45, 46.
Ah Loo, 97. Austrians, 31.
"Akbar", 70.
"Alceste", 169. Ball, Dyer, 105.
"Alexander", 36. Ball, J. D., 120.
Allen, Charles H., 155 Baltimore, 50, 60, ?
"Alliance", 14, 16. Bangkok, g6, 103, 104, 105, 106,
American Baptist Board of For- 173.
eign Missions, 87, g6, 106, 160, Banksall, 22.
187, 188, 193 Ba.ptist Missionary Society, 8.
American Bible Society, 86, 88. Barnard, Charles, 160.
American Board of Commission- Barrell, J oseph, 31, 167.
ers for Foreign Missions, 8, 86, Barry, Captain, 18.
89, 92, 94, 105, 106, 122, 146, 160, Bass, 66.
182, 183, 197. Batavia, 45, 46, 72, 88, 91, 95, 103,
American Oriental Society, 136. 104, 107, 108, 156, 159.
American Philosophical Society, Battaks, 108.
124. Baylies, 57.
American Seaman's Friend Soci- "Beaver", 43.
ety, 89, 93, 149. beche de mer, 8, 43, 53, 58-60, l5.
American Tract Society, 88, 146. Beechey, F . W., 161.
Amoy, 120, 140. Benham, 107.
Amsterdam, 45. Bentley, Christopher, 154
Amsterdam, Island of, 39. Benton, Thomas H., 131, 133, 146.
Andover Theological Seminary, Bering, 30.
86. "Betsey", 197
Anglo-Chinese College at Ma- Biddle, Commodore, 144.
lacca, 88. Bills of exchange, 7r.
"Ann and Hope", 22, 46, 47, 49, Bird's nests, edible, 43.
154. Blockade of Canton by British,
"Ann McKinn", 70. II4:;
Appleton, Nathaniel, 156. "Blossom", l6r.
Archer, Henry, Jr., 157. Bocea Tigris, 22, 23, 25, 48.
Archer, J ones, Oakford and Com- Bombay, 45, 46.
pany, 70. Bond, Phineas, 12, 74, 16!.
Ariel, n9. Boone, William J., 109, 120, 122,
"Arthur", 46, 154. 176.
"Asia", 18, 155. Borneo, 92, 105.
Astor, John Jacob, 37, 42, 43, 52, Boston, 13, 15, 18, 30, 31, 34, 35,
68, 189, 193 41, 64, 156-158, 188.
202 lndex.
...