The first American treaty is dated 1844 when Caleb Cushing and Daniel Webster’s son, Fletcher, went to Hongkong, Canton, Macao, etc., but American trade began at a still earlier date, when the _Empress of China_, Captain Green, Purser Samuel Shaw, sailed from New York on Washington’s birthday, 1784. The ship _Alliance_ sailed from Philadelphia in 1788 without charts. The ship _Massachusetts_ sailed from Boston in 1789, armed with twenty six-pound guns, and half the cargo being useless furs for the southern Chinese! The old Philadelphia merchants interested in the China trade were of the Archer, Girard and Rulon families. The Boston merchants who despatched regular packet ships to Canton were of the Forbes, Perkins, Cabot, Sturgis, Russell, Cushing and Coolidge families. The first American consuls lived at beautiful Macao. Major Shaw, purser of the _Empress of China_ was consul in 1786, Samuel Snow in 1794, and Edward Carrington in 1804. On November 16, 1856, just before the “Arrow” war, Captain Armstrong, U. S. S. _Portsmouth_, attacked the Canton (Bogue) forts. This was the only time America attacked China, except at Peking in 1900. When all Europe hesitated to befriend the northern states, China issued this edict to viceroys in 1863: “Keep a careful and close oversight, and if the Confederate steamer _Alabama_, or any other vessel of war, scheming how it can injure American property, shall approach that part of the coast of China under your jurisdiction, you are to prevent all such vessels entering our ports.” The American representatives in China were first trade commissioners, and afterward diplomats, and the tendency now, at least with the British and Germans, is to have both commissioners and diplomats. The American officials were the following: Caleb Cushing, commissioner, 1844 (first treaty). Alex. H. Everett, commissioner, 1846 (died, Canton, 1847). John W. Davis, commissioner, 1847. Humphrey Marshall, commissioner, 1852. Robert M. McLane, commissioner, 1853. Doctor Parker, commissioner, 1856. William B. Reed, minister, 1857 (first minister). John E. Ward, minister, 1859. Anson Burlingame, minister, 1861 (remarkably brilliant). Mr. Low, minister, 1870. J. B. Angell, minister, 1882 (later president University of Michigan). Charles Denby, minister, 1885. Mr. E. H. Conger, minister, 1900. W. W. Rockhill, minister, 1905. Mr. Calhoun, minister, 1909. The most famous secretary of the American legation was Samuel Wells Williams, the author of the _Middle Kingdom_, etc., and editor of the _Chinese Repository_. His son serves at present in the Peking legation. It would take a volume to cover Mr. S. W. Williams’ brilliant work as interpreter of missions and legations, printer at Canton and Macao, translator, author, lecturer, secretary, dictionary compiler, professor at Yale, sinologue, money raiser for the causes of missions and letters, and diplomat. [Illustration: Copyright, 1913, The Bobbs-Merrill Company.