Page 282 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

268.

the spring had strongly criticized the Americans for not leav­

ing Canton now appreciated their services and did not begrudge

their profits. Elliot told the chief of Russell & Co.: "My

dear Forbes, the Queen owes you many thanks for not taking my

advice as to leaving Canton. We have got in all our goods,

& got out a full supply of teas & silk." Only through An1eri­

can agents were English vessels able to discharge their cargoes.

Week after week the Americans plied up and down the Pearl

River with cargo (usually cotton or teas) piled up ten to

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twelve feet on deck and packed into the between-decks.
Throughout this period Chinese authorities were very

interested spectators. They kept close watch on all foreign

vessels both inside the Pearl River and at Hong Kong. The

Chinese feared that the English would try to reinstate the

opium trade. After Elliot emphatically rejected Lin's in­

vitation to return to Whampoa, the Chinese became suspicious

of the American vessels that sailed between Whampoa and Hong

Kong. Commissioner Lin despatched an edict to Consul Snow to

inquire why American vessels "resortLeW to Hong Kong to asso­

ciate with every English ship in the fleet?" Lin reminded

Snow that "now merchandise i'a."t Canto_�? has the highest prices

and your nation alone receives this profit and thus the English

in a high degree perceive their own stupidity as the American

Ships pass out of Port with full cargoes to go away." Snow

responded that American vessels went to Hong Kong to sell their

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Forbes, Personal Reminiscences, pp. 155, 152-53.