Page 304 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

290.

Bridgman wrote: "My labors for the present are studying the

language, making the selections, and transcribing the scrip­
11
ture lessons . . . , and officiating on the Sabbath.11

Although the English already possessed a printing

press, Bridgman acquired his own in 1831 as a gift from the

Brown Press of New York. Besides employing the press for

religious materials, Bridgman also founded the Chinese Reposi­

tory. A monthly publication written in English, the Repository

was "designed to spread information about China among present

and prospective supporters of the mission." The journal

proved so successful that editing the Repository quickly con-

sumed most of Bridgman's time. In 1833 the American Board

appointed Samuel Wells Williams, an author who was also an

excellent printer, to the China mission. Williams joined

Bridgman as co-editor of the Repository and assumed manage-

12
t f th e prin ing press.
men o . t' The Chinese Repository through-
1
1
out the 1830 s and 1840 s remained a popular monthly at Canton
and in the United States. The journal was important not only

as a mouthpiece for the missionaries but as a major source of

information on China and the Chinese for its readers. Since

there were very few publications concerning China, many Ameri­
cans formed their opinion of the Celestial Empire and its inhab-

11
Letter, E.C. Bridgman to American Board of Cormnissioners,
Jan. 27, 1831, in Missionary Herald� XXVII, 8 (August 1831), 245.
12
strong, Story of the American Board, p. 109. Bridgman
remained editor of the Repository until 1847.