Page 276 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

262.

time Lin began to press Snow and Elliot concerning the bond

he demanded all foreigners to sign. He despatched the local

hsien (minor magistrates) to confer with the residents and

obtain their assent. The English refused to attend, but a

delegation of Consul Snow, the Dutch and French consuls, and

representatives of the three leading American houses (Forbes

for Russell & Co., Wetmore for Wetmore & Co., and Charles W.

King for Olyphant & Co.) met with the officials and Hong

merchants. Ordered to sign the bond, this delegation refused.
The Americans did not object to swearing they would not deal

in opium, but Lin's bond would subject anyone connected in

any way to a vessel caught with opium aboard to the death

penalty. To sign a bond of this nature was foolish. Snow

informed the Commissioner that he would communicate the

regulations to the United States government and would require
. 80
h t . invo ve in ra ing opium o eave
any mere an 1 d . t d' t 1 Ch' ina.
Capt. Elliot and the British refused to have anything

to do with the bond issue. The English Superintendent con­

cluded that the entire body of foreign residents should leave

Canton after the opium was delivered. He proposed that they

move their business to Macao, where Elliot mistakenly believed

foreigners could trade without any hindrance from Chinese

authorities. The Americans at Canton strongly disagreed with

80
Letter, A.A. Low to H.L. Hillard, Apr. 17, 1839, in
Loines, China Trade Postbag, p. 70. Chinese Repository, VIII, l
(May 1839), 13. Consular Despatches: Canton, P.W. Snow, Apr. 19,
1839. Snow enclosed a letter, sent on March 29 to all American
houses and agents, in which he asked for an account of their opium.
All signed that they had none on hand. (Russell & Co. had already
turned theirs over to Elliot.) Snow notified Lin of this action.