RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1964 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r 9 JOURNAL OF OCCURRANCES AT CANTON During the cessation of trade at Canton 1839 The manuscript of this Journal was discovered in the library of the Boston Athenaeum by Professor E. W. Ellsworth, who transcribed it and sent it as a contribution to the Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. Although it is not possible to claim categorically that it is by W. C. Hunter it is felt that it is a valuable contribution to our knowledge of this period and therefore worthy of publication in its own right. The Introduction by Professor E. W. Ellsworth is followed by the transcription of the actual Journal with added notes contributed by Sir Lindsay T. Ride and J. L. Cranmer-Byng. INTRODUCTION TO THE JOURNAL E. W. ELLSWORTH William C. Hunter of New York traveled to China in 1824. For the next two years as a necessary prelude to a business career he studied Chinese at the Anglo-Chinese College at Malacca. Thereafter he was employed by Thomas H. Smith and Son until the company ceased operation in China in 1827. Hunter then returned to the United States but he had been fascinated with the Far East and went back within a few months. In 1829 he joined Russell and Company and remained with the firm in China for fourteen years. Hunter's associates in this largest and most famous American trading association in China were A. A. Low of Salem, Massachusetts and later Brooklyn, New York, who diligently amassed a magnificent fortune and also Robert Bennett Forbes and Joseph Coolidge members of illustrious New England families. The comfortable existence and, indeed, complacency of Hunter and the foreign commercial community at Canton was rudely shaken by developments in early 1839 which were the opening salvos of the Opium War. The longstanding problem of opium traffic in China arose with a new intensity that was sparked by dedicated reformers. Drug addiction was a fairly widespread vice compounded by economic overtones; foreigners ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1964 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r 12 W. C. HUNTER The Hunter Journal was presented to the Boston Athenaeum by Dr. Robert W. Hooper on March 27, 1858. Hooper was born in Marblehead, Massachusetts in 1810, graduated from Harvard College in 1830, received a medical degree from the same institution six years later, and thereafter became a prominent surgeon in Boston. Hooper was also a bibliophile and a trustee of the Boston Athenaeum who added substantially to its holdings by gifts. It is impossible to establish definitely how he obtained the Hunter Journal, but it seems probable that it came from his wife's family. In 1837 he married Ellen Sturgis, daughter of William Sturgis who was active in the Orient trade. Many Massachusetts men engaged in the China trade were related. In 1788 Thomas Handasyd Perkins went to China on the Astraea and launched a commercial venture with the aid of his elder brother James. 1803 their nephew J. P. Cushing also travelled there and managed the business until 1828. Other nephews of T. H. Perkins, James Sturgis, and Charles Bennet Forbes also prospered in the China trade. In 1833 the third generation of the family left Boston for the Orient and for the next decade divided his time between Manila and Canton. William Hunter was a business associate of both R. B. Forbes and Russell Sturgis and mentioned the latter in his Journal, Julian Sturgis, son of Russell had vivid memories of Hunter. In I remember Mr. Hunter visiting my parents at Walton (England) when I was a boy, a handsome, courteous man with a brown face and white moustache, like a fine type of Anglo-Indian, and speaking Chinese for our amusement with so soft a voice that I have often wondered how much of that soft musical quality was due to him and how much inherent in that unknown tongue.2 Hunter finally left Canton and closed Russell and Company in May 1841. This move was recorded in the letters of William Henry Low, a young man in his twenties who arrived in Canton in September 1839 and joined his brother A. A. Low in Russell and Company. 1 Russell Sturgis joined Baring Brothers and Co. of London after he ended his commercial ventures in China about 1849. He became senior partner of the English firm in 1873. 2 Julian Sturgis, From Books and Papers of Russell Sturgis (Oxford, 1893), p. 206. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1964 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r BOOK REVIEWS 129 of the artist, is well known. It is impossible to reconcile this story with the statement, made without citation from any authority and no supporting evidence, that "Mrs. Chinnery did in fact follow him to Canton, but when she attempted to land she was not permitted to do so and was obliged to stay aboard ship, where she caught smallpox and died". If the name of the ship, the date, or any reference to the Canton newspapers or to the records of the English graveyard at Macao can be produced in support, this event will be new history. Without proof, it must be denied. << • + All will agree with the statement without question, he (Chinnery) stands alone for his work on the China Coast. Here he had no peer". However, it is curious that no other European artist who visited the Pearl River area is mentioned by name. True "none stayed for very long". Yet they were sound painters. The success of Webber, artist to the Cook Expedition, the Daniell brothers, and Borget all prior to Chinnery—as illustrators of travel books, undoubtedly spurred Chinnery in his efforts to have his pictures reproduced. + While the engraving of Morrison after Chinnery is noted, the Sartain stipple of Howqua and the pleasant colored lithograph of the Praya Grande at Macao by Reinagle and Hullmandel, both after Chinnery, are not mentioned. Four signatures of Chinnery are shown. They vary quite widely, but this fact is overlooked apparently, and there is no attempt to reconcile or evaluate.7 In speaking of Lamqua, the Chinese painter, it is stated “In 1850 he consigned a group of portraits of Chinese merchants to Boston, for exhibition at the Atheneum". Compare this with the actual facts. Five portraits of Chinese merchants by Lamqua were exhibited in the Boston Athenaeum (please, we "Proprietors” of this private library are sensitive about correct spelling) in 1850. They were the property of Augustine Heard, partner in Russell & Co., and were distributed under his will. They are all in existence Page 48. 5 Page 20. 6 Page 38. * Page 57, Plates 6, 7 & 24 top. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1964 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r 143 PRESENTATIONS AND ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY Cheng, J. C. Chinese Sources for the Taiping Rebellion 1850-1864. Hong Kong, 1963, From Hong Kong University Press. Cohen, Paul A. "Some Sources of Anti-Missionary Sentiment During the Late Ch'ing". (Reprinted from the Journal of the China Society, Vol. 2.) Michigan. From the Centre of Chinese Studies, Michigan. Crump, James I. Edited by. Occasional Papers, No. 2. (Centre of Chinese Studies, Michigan.) Michigan, 1963. Exchange. Endacott, G. B. A Biographical Sketch-book of Early Hong Kong. Singapore, 1962. Forke, Alfred. Translated by. Lun-heng. Parts I-II. (Reprint, 2nd edition.) New York, 1962. From Paragon Book Gallery. Henderson, Norman K. Educational Developments and Research with Special Reference to Hong Kong. (Hong Kong Council for Educational Research No. 1) Hong Kong, 1963. From Hong Kong University Press. Henderson, Norman K. Statistical Research Methods in Education and Psychology. Hong Kong, 1964. From Hong Kong University Press. Hsüeh, Chun-tu. "A Review Article: The Years of Triumph.” (Reprinted from the China Quarterly, July-September 1962.) London, 1962. From Chun-tu Hsüeh. Hunter, W. C. Journal of the occurrences at Canton during the cessation of trade at Canton in 1839. Manuscript in Boston Athenaeum, U.S.A. (Microfilm copy.) From E. W. Ellsworth. Kirby, E. Stuart. Edited by. Contemporary China: Economic and Social Studies: Documents; Chronology; Bibliography 1961-1962. Volume 5, Hong Kong, 1963. From Hong Kong University Press. Mackey, Sean. Edited by. Symposium on the Design of High Buildings. Hong Kong, 1963 From Hong Kong University Press. Maulvi, Imam Ma Tat Ng. Edited by. Prayer Ceremony. (English, Chinese and Arabic.) Hong Kong, 1962. From L. A. Khan ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1965 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s752cj653 116 NOTES AND QUERIES Additional Note on Article “JOURNAL OF OCCURRENCES AT CANTON IN 1839 BY WILLIAM HUNTER” Readers of Volume 4 of the Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society will be grateful to the Editorial Committee for deciding to print the full text of William C. Hunter's manuscript journal preserved in the Boston Athenaeum. It is a happy coincidence that his journal should have been made available in print to scholars of modern Chinese history at the very time when Hunter's manuscript has been drawn on extensively in a recently published account of the causes and events which led to the Opium War. The late Dr. Hsin-pao Chang, in his scholarly book Commissioner Lin and the Opium War (Harvard University Press, 1964), relates in some detail the story of the detention of the foreign merchants in their factories from 24th March until 5th May by orders of Imperial Commissioner Lin Tse-hsü (pp. 151-159). In describing this episode Dr. Chang has used various sources but has taken most of his details from Hunter's manuscript journal. After reading Dr. Chang's book I have discovered answers to a few problems which puzzled me while writing some of the footnotes to Hunter's journal as published in Volume 4 of this journal. May I, therefore, make a few additions and corrections to the text. Firstly, the sketch map of the Canton estuary on page 59 of Commissioner Lin and the Opium War marks most of the places mentioned by Hunter which were not shown on the sketch map on page 27 of Volume 4 of this journal, or left unidentified in the notes to the text. Thus the positions of Lankeet, Chuenpee, Shakok and Chunhow are clearly shown on the map in Dr. Chang's book. Hunter's use of the name Chinn-up under entry for 13th April is still inexplicable but in fact the opium was being unloaded at that date at Sha-chiao ('Sandy Head') which presumably was the Shakok of Western accounts, lying across the estuary from Lankeet. Secondly, some minor corrections. On p. 16, line 1, the word 'songs' should read 'gongs'; on p. 14, lines 9-10, it would be more accurate to say ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1965 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s752cj653 NOTES AND QUERIES 117 that the official title for the Superintendent of Maritime Customs for Kwangtung was Yueh hai-kuan chien-tu. Yueh hai-kuan pu means the Kwangtung Maritime Customs Office. In the footnotes on page 38, note 15, the term Kwang Hup, or Heep, is translated by Dr. Chang as 'police commandant'. Note 33: the Hoppo at this time was Yü-k'un. 豫堃 There are three further points for which I feel some responsibility since I was still editor of the Journal when this contribution was originally accepted. The editorial note on page 9 states that the manuscript of Hunter's journal was 'discovered' in the library of the Boston Athenaeum by Professor Ellsworth. This is misleading since the ms. was already known to Dr. Chang and, I imagine, a few other scholars. Also I now see no reason to be so cautious over the authorship of the ms. journal and I think it can safely be attributed to Hunter. Finally I was sorry to see that no acknowledgement was made to the Trustees of the Boston Athenaeum for permission to print from the microfilm which they allowed to be made. This can now be rectified by thanking the Trustees for their kind permission. University of Toronto J. L. CRANMER-Byng A MAP OF THE PEARL RIVER ESTUARY Readers of Volume 4 of this journal, especially those living outside the Colony of Hong Kong, must have been troubled from time to time by the plethora of local place-names which occurred in four of the articles dealing with the Kwangtung area. The sketch maps printed on pages 27, 83 and 106 of that volume, although of some help, were inadequate for identifying all the places mentioned. In case any reader of Volume 4 still wishes to identify certain places may I refer him to A Gazetteer of Place Names in Hong Kong, Kowloon and the New Territories (Hong Kong, Government Printer, 1960) if he does not already know it. This publication contains a pocket map, and is useful for a start. However, what is now needed is a specially compiled map of the Pearl River estuary from Canton to Macao and from Macao to Hong Kong as far as Tai Pang (Mirs Bay) showing names of places which occur in accounts of this area relating to the first half of the nineteenth century. A second map for the second ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1988 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q 190 of Mr. Bolton of the Atheneum of Boston, U.S.A.". This catalogue was dictionary in format and it included 2,125 catalogued items, grouped as follows: General Works 324 Philosophy 278 Religion 54 Sociology 65 Philology 120 Natural Sciences 52 Useful Arts 133 Fine Arts 84 Literature 340 History 675 (13) on Chinese languages)20 The need for a new and larger building became a regular topic of discussion, and the Shanghai Municipal Council became a frequent, if unpredictable, supporter of its causes, including the funding of the renovation of its building in 1909.2 In a guidebook written about this time, the Rev. C. E. Darwent wrote: The building in which the society is housed is situated in the Museum Road, just behind the British Post Office. There is a good library of books, on Oriental subjects mainly; a good supply of the proceedings of learned societies and learned magazines is kept. There is an exceedingly comfortable lecture hall; upstairs is a museum. The fathers of the settlement did well for it; their successors do nothing.2 By 1910 the library was open seven days a week, and no longer closed for tiffin as it had in earlier times. Donations were increasing, thanks largely to its new honorary librarian, Florence Wheelock Ayscough. A **suggestion book** was put out. A Chinese “assistant librarian” was engaged, first a "Mr. Woo" and later a "Mr. Wong", the latter described as “hard-working and attentive”. These people presumably did the routine checking out of materials, shelving, and record keeping. The library remained essentially an institution serving the foreign community although there was some Chinese membership in later years. A bequest from Thomas Kingsmill, a long-time society member, enriched the library. Duplicate works were sold and the funds used to ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1998 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794 350 Shanghai, 1917 1933 Handbook for China, Carl Crow, pub. Kelly & Walsh, Shanghai, The Philatelic and Postal History of Hong Kong and the Treaty Ports, FW Webb, pub. Royal Philatelic Society, London, 1961 Strangers at the Gate, Frederic Wakeman Jr, pub. University of California Press, Berkeley Cal., 1966 China's Struggle for Naval Development, 1839-1895, John L Rawlinson, pub. Harvard University Press, Cambridge Mass., 1967 "The Invasion of China by the Western World”, ER Hughes, pub. Adam & Charles Black, London, 1968 The British in the Far East, George Woodcock, pub. Atheneum, New York, 1969 Trade and Diplomacy on the China Coast, John King Fairbank, pub. Stanford University Press, Stanford Cal., 1969 Western Enterprise in Late Ch'ing China, Edward LeFevour, pub. Harvard University Press, Cambridge Mass., 1970 Imperialism and Chinese Nationalism - Germany in Shantung, John E Schrecker, pub. Harvard University Press, Cambridge Mass., 1971 Nagel's Encyclopedia Guide to China, pub. Nagel, Geneva, 1980 British Mandarins and Chinese Reformers, Pamela Atwell, pub. Oxford University Press, Hong Kong, 1985 Lion and Dragon in Northern China, Reginald F Johnston, pub. Oxford University Press, Hong Kong, 1986 ================================================================================