Page 275 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

261.

grape-shot."), Forbes asked for help from his friend Houqua.

Hearing the Americans' predicament, Houqua promised to send

cooked food to them "& accordingly some of his men who had
guarded. . Lthe Factorie..§. smuggled in turkeys capons hams &c."

He later sent them a cook. Houqua also promised Forbes that he

would make sure the Americans were "protected even if a riot
78
should take place from the imprudence of any English men.11

Houqua, furthermore, offered the Americans advice. He

told them "to stay aloof from the general question." Begin­

ning during the period of their confinement, the Americans

followed Houqua's advice. The Commissioner complained that

they had not surrendered any opium, asserting that "the traffic

in opium hitherto carried on by the American foreign merchants

has not been less than that of the English." American Consul

Peter W. Snow replied to Commissioner Lin that the opium in

American hands had been British property and had already been

turned over to Capt. Elliot. After several avowals by the
79
consul and Elliot, Lin accepted his explanation. At the same

78
Hunter, 'Fan Kwae' at Canton, pp. 143-44. Journal of
R.B. Forbes, Mar. 26 and Jun. 1, 1839, Forbes Family MSS. Tai­
pan Green finally claimed the duty of sweeping out the parlor
and making tea, while Forbes cleaned the silver and glass, and
Hunter trimmed the lamps and lighted them. The most interesting
duty fell to clerk J.T. Gilman: "looks out for beer, wine, cheese
& begs, borrows or steals small grub as eggs, bread, &c."
79
Consular Despatches: Canton, P.W. Snow, Mar. 22, 1839.
On April 5, in response to Snow's claim that Americans were
merely agents for English merchants, Lin retorted: "Why should
they employ your countrymen to sell it? You are not a tribu­
tary to the English. Why then listen to their suggestions?"
See also Chinese Repository, VII, 12 (April 1839), 639.