RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1963 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v PROTESTANT CEMETERY IN MACAO explore trade possibilities outside the Americas. 13 The New England states especially took the lead in this expansion of maritime trade, and towns like Salem and Boston soon became busy ship-building and overseas ports. Boston ships sailed east to the Pacific via the Cape of Good Hope, while those from Salem sailed west round the Horn; when, as was inevitable on a globe, east met west in the Far East, they agreed to an east-west boundary line which ran south of Canton and the Philippines; the area of South China was thus in the Salem sphere, and hence most of the early American traders in this area belonged to early Salem, Beverly, and Danvers families. The procedure that had to be followed by foreign ships trading with Canton was briefly this. They made their first China landfall amongst the Ladrone Islands; here they took on a pilot from a junk, and he brought them to Macao; anchoring in the roads off Taipa, they made contact with the Chinese officials who were at that time established on the Praya Grande at Macao; on being cleared by them for Canton, the ships were allowed to proceed to Bocca Tigris at the river mouth, where, after a further delay, they were eventually given a Grand Chop, which was the permit to sail up river. The ships anchored at Whampoa, and the almost endless negotiations for discharging their cargoes and reloading with their purchases began. In the early part of the nineteenth century, the foreign floating population of Whampoa ran into thousands, and the sickness, accident, and mortality rates were very high. Up river, disposal of the dead was one of the easiest of all local business transactions; the Chinese had no such things as enclosed cemeteries, and neither had the foreigners; burials involved no legal or civil procedures; one merely negotiated with a Chinese landowner for a hillside plot and hired a few labourers. On Danes Island, French Island, at Whampoa, Lintin, Capsingmoon, and Cumsingmoon, there lie buried thus hundreds of foreigners whose frail memorials, if they ever existed, have long since disappeared.* In westernized Macao, however, the situation was different. There were enclosed cemeteries there, but they were consecrated by the Roman Catholic Church and therefore were not available to the other Europeans who were *For a map of the Pearl River estuary see p. 93. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1970 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241 CHINESE EMIGRATION AND THE DECK PASSENGER TRADE 81 Until the treaty port era that began with the Treaty of Nanking 1842, most Chinese emigration was voluntary, and mainly to South-east Asia. Then the situation changed. Almost coincident with the opening of the treaty ports and the expansion of foreign shipping on the coast, a widespread demand for cheap labour arose in many parts of the tropics, to replace the recently emancipated slave labour, and also to supply the additional workers required for the increased agricultural and industrial development which followed the establishment of European administrations. In many of these places contract labour from China provided the solution. Much of the contract labour was voluntary; but many thousands of the Chinese emigrants to the Spanish and ex-Spanish colonies of South America and the West Indies were kidnapped, abducted by unscrupulous crimps, or sold by cruel or poverty-stricken relatives. The coolies themselves were not always blameless, and many accepted engagement money and then failed to turn up at the collecting centres, or absconded before joining the ship. The labour agents employed by the centres received a capitation fee for every coolie they delivered at the coast, and were specially active during famines and depressions. In 1853 the capitation fee was three dollars per head, but in addition these agents often appropriated any money advanced to the coolies on the score of defraying expenses, and also charged them with the capitation fee, maintenance costs at the depot, and other expenses. As a result the unfortunate coolie often found himself saddled with a heavy debt which might amount to several months' wages before he ever set foot on the promised land. But whether voluntary or forced, the coolies were herded into wretched barracoons at the coast while waiting for their ship, and then suffered great hardship and cruelty on the voyage. In spite of repeated protests, British ships and Hong Kong played an invidious part in this infamous traffic in the early treaty port years. However, the British government soon made attempts to ameliorate the abuses of the emigrant trade but only succeeded in diverting much of it to other ports such as Whampoa, Macao, Cumsingmoon, Amoy, and Swatow. The Chinese Passengers' Act, passed in 1855, prescribed certain standards of food, accommodation, medical attention, and so on; and two years later a ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1973 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r EARLY STEAMSHIPS IN CHINA 53 Hong Kong on 30th August 1849, just six months after the arrival of the P. and O's Canton. The second ship, the Hong Kong, arrived barely a month later. They went into service soon after their arrival, but not until modifications to the Canton's engines in early 1850, could they be said to be operating a regular service. They then commenced a regular schedule, leaving Hong Kong and Canton every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 8.00 a.m., and calling at Macao and Cumsingmoon as inducement offered. Saloon passenger rates were $8.00 between Hong Kong and Canton; $5.00 between Hong Kong and Macao; and $1.00 for Chinese passengers between any two ports. Although the two Cantons and the Hong Kong were a great improvement on earlier steamships, they were still liable to frequent accidents and breakdowns, and still often withdrawn for the more lucrative towing and salvage work. On 21st December 1854 the China Mail wrote: We are now pretty well supplied with river steamers, having no fewer than seven (Hong Kong and Canton of the Hong Kong and Canton Steam Packet Company; Canton, Sir Charles Forbes and Tartar of P. and O; and Spark and Ann of Russell and Company). The River Bird is on its way out (from America) and other three (Rose, Thistle, and Shamrock) are being assembled in Hong Kong. There is plenty of room for all of them, however, for every day seems to raise river steamer traffic higher in the estimation of the natives, and a very short time will elapse before Chinese merchants become steamboat proprietors. The Hong Kong and Canton Steam Packet Company, however, was not proving profitable, and the prospect of still more competition decided the company to wind up its affairs and offer its ships for sale. Shortly after this optimistic forecast by the China Mail, river traffic was almost completely disrupted—first by the continuing Taiping Rebellion and then by the Second China War. The fortunes of steamships as a whole, however, were very little affected by these events. Several were chartered by the Royal Navy for service in the war, and others went on coast services to Shanghai and intermediate ports. During these troubled years the foreign factories at Canton were burned, and Canton was blockaded and then captured by the Anglo-French forces on 29th December 1857. After this the tide of war moved north to the Peiho River, and peace was quickly restored to the Canton River. Admiral Seymour gave ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1973 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r 156 6. 1828 June 23 NOTES AND QUERIES PENANG MERCHANT J. Mitchinson Penang to Lintin: C. Galastauro to Magniac & Co. 652 baskets of cutch 11,600 bundles of rattans “17 bdls and 3 baskets in dispute if found to be deld.” 7. 1828 Sept. 2 CUMBERLAND A. Steel Singapore Roads to Canton: Charles Thomas & Co. to Magniac & Co. 665 pieces of ebony about piculs five hundred 8. 1829 Feb. 7 EPHEMINA N.M. Harper Manilla Bay to Lintin: N.M. Harper to Magniac & Co. 2004 bags rice weighing about 1080 piculs Paddy in bulk about 1950 piculs 9. 1829 March 10 FALCON S. Moore Roads of Singapore to Lintin: Guthrie & Clark to Magniac & Co. Two chests Patna opium Five chests Benares opium 10. 1829 May 14 PENANG MERCHANT J. Mitchinson River Hooghly to Lintin: Nanjie Tacoran for Jamseljie Jyiebhoy [?] to Magniac & Co. Ten chests Patna opium + + + shall not be subject to any demurrage until thirty days after the arrival of the ship at Lintin.” 11. 1830 April 23 CONDE DE RIO PARDO L. d'Encarnacão Damão to Macao: [?] to Magniac & Co. 20 cases of Opio de Malva In Portuguese 12. 1830 May 24 CASSADOR J.A. da Silva Damão to Lintin: Sr Caramachande Arcachande to Magniac & Co. 5 boxes Aufião de Malva In Portuguese 13. 1850 Aug. 13 ARIEL J. Burt River Hooghly to Cumsingmoon: Moolchund Premjee on acct of Oomedchund Hookumchund of Bombay to Jardine Mathewson & Co. 10 chests Patna opium ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1973 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r 160 38. 1873 June 30 NOTES AND QUERIES CYPHRENES Samuel Stephen San Francisco to Hong Kong: Williams, Blanchard & Co. to Augustine Heard & Co. 12 cases Downers Oil 6 cases whiskey one keg butter one keg pigs feet 4 pkgs herrings one case carriage one case butter 5 kegs pork 5 kegs tongues 5 kegs salmon 10 kits mackerel INDEX TO MCMULLEN COLLECTION Names of ships in CAPITALS; names of ship's masters in italics. The numbers refer to item numbers in the Calendar. Alexander & Co. 3 CASSADOR 4, 12 Allen, W. 2 Cavanagh, C. 24 ANN 2 Clark, J.S. 17 Anfião de Malva* 4, 5, 12 Coleman, N. 20 Arcachande, Caramachande 12 CONDE DE RIO PARDO 11 ARIEL 13 Cotton 1, 31 Ashburner & Co. 21 CUMBERLAND 7 AUBURN Beef, Extra mess Begodin, A. 34, 36 Cumsingmoon* 13 Cutch* 6 16 CYPHRENES 38 32 BENEFACTOR 23 Damão 4, 5, 11, 12 Berry, G. 23 Dibblee & Hyde 25 Bombay 37 Dollars, Mexican 15, 25 see also Hooghly, River DOM MANUEL DE PORTUGAL 5 Boston 18 Brandy 19 Downers oil 38 Bread 24 Dundas, A. D. 21 Budroodeen (Abadeen) & Co. 37 Dunham, W. C. 16, 27, 28, 35 Bull, Purdon & Co. Burt, J. 32 13 Encarnacão, L. d' 11 Butter 38 Everett (T.B.) & Co. 18, 19 Byramjee, Cowasjee 2 FALCON 9 Calcutta 21 Flour 24, 27 Canton 1, 3, 7 Foochow 24 Carriage (presumably horsedrawn) 38 Fungus FUSI-YAMA 33 21 *See notes at end of index ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1973 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r 162 Rattans Rice NOTES AND QUERIES 6 SUWONADA 29, 30, 31, 33, 34 8, 20 Routh (F.R. & D.) 35 Tacoran, Nanjie Russell & Co. 16, 29, 33 Taria, J.M. de Taylor, P. SACRAMENTO 22 Tea 14, 30 Safflower* 33 Thomas (Charles) & Co. Salmon 38 Tongues San Francisco 15, 22, 24 Trautmann & Co. 25, 38 Turpentine Selzer water 34 Shanghai SHERBURNE Silva, J. A. da Silver bars Semechand, Caramichand [?] 4 29, 30, 31, 33, 34 Upton, W.F. VALETTA 1 VENUS 4, 12 Vermicelli 22 Singapore Roads Smith (W.H.) & Son Sorabjee & Simjee 7, 9 WHEELER, W.E. 23 Whiskey Anagrada 2, 28 10 5 7 38 31 21 18 24 37 24 15 38 2 White, G. 1 Steel, A. 7 Wild (Aaron D.) & Sons 16 Stephen, S. 38 Williams, Blanchard & Co. 38 Stone, Bombay 37 With, M.C.G. 28 *See notes below. NOTES The following notes relate to the more obscure items in the foregoing index. Anfião de Malva-Opium from Malwa, an area in W. Central India, which together with Benares and Patna were the main opium growing areas. I am indebted to Mr. J. M. Braga for this identification, which defeated students of Portuguese in Hong Kong. Cumsingmoon-Kap Shui Mun, the straits between the N.E. point of Lantao Island and Tsing I Island. Cutch=The commercial name of the catechu obtained from Acacia catechu, used in tanning (O.E.D.) Nankeens-Either a kind of yellow cotton cloth, originally made in Nanking, or trousers made of this material. Safflower=Dried petals of Carthamus tinctorius, a thistle-like plant cultivated in the Mediterranean region, India and China for the red dye obtained from the flowers, also used in the making of rouge. Hong Kong June, 1973. H. A. RYDINGS ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1986 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063 179 The case of O Soey-cheong illustrates the predicament of the student in a missionary school. The conditions of enrolment obligated him to remain in school until his course of study was completed. At the same time he was dependent upon the school for his food, clothing, and lodging. If he was accepted as a theological student, he received, in addition, a cash allowance. By that time, as an advanced student, he had acquired a fair mastery of English, sufficient to qualify him for a larger income if he would leave his studies and use his language ability in business or as an interpreter. This is what most of the students did. It was a discouraging development for teachers who had set out to train religious workers for the Chinese church. YOUNG A-CHICK'S EARLY SCHOOL DAYS When the gold fever affected the students in the schools in Hongkong and Canton, their principals had to use persuasion and diplomacy to keep their older students from joining the exodus to California and Australia. On the other hand, some of their graduates were sent overseas with the blessings of their former teachers. Armed with letters of introduction, they were able to establish contacts outside the Chinese community. One of these students was Tong Mow-chee, known in his school days as A-chick. He was a former pupil of the Morrison Education Society School and of St Paul's College. Before describing his departure from Hongkong and his rise to leadership in the Chinese community in California, we shall relate his experiences as a schoolboy in Macau and Hongkong and as an interpreter in Shanghai and Hongkong. Tong A-chick was the eldest of three brothers. Their family home was Tong Ka, a village in the Heung Shan District (now Chung Shan) not far from Macau. The harbour upon which the village was located was the opium ship anchorage at Cumsingmoon. When the Morrison Education Society School was opened in ================================================================================