72
he did want to sever the relationship with Ayaou in 1858 when she first became pregnant. In his diary entry for 26 May 1858 he writes "Ayaou two months
"Then, on 16 September "I went to see Ayaou who came back from Macao the night before last... I must cut the connection. He even started managing a new native partner named Ayi. On 22 September he wrote: "...Went to see Ayi near N.E. gate." 23 September: "Settle for Ayi $100 and $22Ch. ..." 26 September: "Again Ayi.” The arrangement, as it is suggested by Bruner, Fairbank and Smith, is "undoubtedly quite according to custom in the colonial Asia of the 1850s”. (1986: 232)
However, Hart's diary entries stop two months and ten days later when Ayaou would have given, or be about to give, birth to their daughter Anna. "The fact of fatherhood suddenly makes a difference to Robert Hart. There is no other way to account for the record, for he resumes the connection with Ayaou and they have two more children." (ibid) Hart might have changed the way in which he maintained the relationship since he left her at Macao - as he states in Declaration 1: "we never lived together afterwards" - and in that sense he could say he "ceased to live with her". But, it is by no means obvious that he terminated the relationship and only "saw her but seldom”. His emotional and physical involvement in the relationship is much deeper than that which he describes above, it is significant that in Declaration 1 we find the statement: "Ayaou was a very good little girl & well-behaved." Almost ten years after he finally terminated the relationship and married Hester Jane Bredon, he received photographs of his three wards from England. He wrote to Campbell (Fairbank, Bruner and Matheson 1975: 205);
Anna is very like what her mother was when I first saw her in 1857: only her mother was not pock-marked. I want Anna to stay at school four years more, and I hope she will be a nice, presentable girl by that time. Her mother was one of the most amiable and sensible people imaginable."
The records show that Hart did not only treat Ayaou and his three children by her with kindness and generosity, but also with love. As Bruner, Fairbank and Smith have argued (1986: 154):
Indeed, looking ahead at his twenty years of married life with
72
he did want to sever the relationship with Ayaou in 1858 when she first became pregnant. In his diary entry for 26 May 1858 he writes "Ayaou two months
"Then, on 16 September "I went to see Ayaou who came back from Macao the night before last... I must cut the connection. He even started managing a new native partner named Ayi. On 22 September he wrote: "...Went to see Ayi near N.E. gate." 23 September: "Settle for Ayi $100 and $22Ch. ..." 26 September: "Again Ayi.” The arrangement, as it is suggested by Bruner, Fairbank and Smith, is "undoubtedly quite according to custom in the colonial Asia of the 1850s”. (1986: 232)
However, Hart's diary entries stop two months and ten days later when Ayaou would have given, or be about to give, birth to their daughter Anna. "The fact of fatherhood suddenly makes a difference to Robert Hart. There is no other way to account for the record, for he resumes the connection with Ayaou and they have two more children." (ibid) Hart might have changed the way in which he maintained the relationship since he left her at Macao - as he states in Declaration 1: "we never lived together afterwards" - and in that sense he could say he "ceased to live with her". But, it is by no means obvious that he terminated the relationship and only "saw her but seldom”. His emotional and physical involvement in the relationship is much deeper than that which he describes above, it is significant that in Declaration 1 we find the statement: "Ayaou was a very good little girl & well- behaved." Almost ten years after he finally terminated the relationship and married Hester Jane Bredon, he received photographs of his three wards from England. He wrote to Campbell (Fairbank, Bruner and Matheson 1975: 205);
Anna is very like what her mother was when I first saw her in 1857: only her mother was not pock-marked. I want Anna to stay at school four years more, and I hope she will be a nice, presentable girl by that time. Her mother was one of the most amiable and sensible people imaginable."
The records show that Hart did not only treat Ayaou and his three children by her with kindness and generosity, but also with love. As Bruner, Fairbank and Smith have argued (1986: 154):
Indeed, looking ahead at his twenty years of married life with
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.