The 'Fan Kwae' at Canton Before Treaty Days 1825-1844Hunter, William C.
History
The 'Fan Kwae' at Canton Before Treaty Days 1825-1844
Hunter, William C.
Guangzhou (China) -- Commerce; Guangzhou (China) -- Description and travel
The Anglo-Chinese College was in every way adapted for instruction, and
I continued in it as a student of Chinese until the end of December
1826. I then left in the ship 'Bengal Merchant' for Canton. She was
loaded with cotton and opium, and not a fast sailer. Captain Brown was a
most pleasant and agreeable gentleman, full of jokes and amusing stories
with which to while away the time. We anchored at Singapore, which gave
me an opportunity to see my old friends the Reads, Mr. A. L. Johnston,
and to run up to Government House to make my salaam to Governor and
Mrs. Crawford and their nieces, being received everywhere with a kindly
welcome and the exclamation, 'How you have grown!' Continuing on our
voyage, we passed through the Caramatta Passage, the Java Sea, Straits
of Salayer, and into the Pacific by Dampier's Straits again. Between the
Pelews and the Bashees we fell in with a typhoon _au grand complet_. At
night the sea was as white as snow and of portentous height, coming
upon us with the full uninterrupted sweep of the Pacific. We anchored at
Lintin after a passage of sixty days.
Mr. D. W. C. Olyphant had arrived in 1826 as the successor of Mr.
Covert; Mr. Gordon had entered the office of Messrs. Russell and Co.,
No. 2 Suy-Hong. The American Factory had been entirely built anew
since 1825, and to it I betook myself. In addition to Mr. Olyphant
were Charles N. Talbot and Charles W. King. Mr. Talbot was filling the
office of U.S. Consul, and the flag was daily hoisted in the Square in
front of the house. No. 1 Suy-Hong was occupied by James P. Sturgis,
No. 3 by John R. Latimer, and No. 4 by John P. Cushing, T. T. Forbes,
and John Hart. With Mr. Olyphant I called on, and made the acquaintance
of, the Rev. Dr. Morrison, who had recently returned from England. Soon
after I underwent a searching examination by him of the progress I had
made in my Chinese studies at the Malacca College, and he pronounced
it to be 'good.' There was no intention, however, that they should be
discontinued, and in a few days I was placed under the tutorship of Le
Seen-Sang. The tea season was over; all but one or two 'out of season'
ships had sailed, but of those remaining was my old home and 'first
cradle of the deep,' the 'Citizen,' and it was not long before Captain
Keen and I again on board at Whampoa 'fought over the battles' of our
voyage out together.
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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