Page 308 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

294.
17
in China lost its leader. Morrison, who had directed all

mission efforts at Canton, had been a strong source of emo­

tional support for the Americans, who had expected more suc­

cessful results.

Instead of disintegrating, the American mission in

China actually grew stronger after 1834. With Morrison's

death, there was no natural leader among the missionary commu­

nity to replace him. As a result, the Americans forged ahead

on their own, not always assuming the same attitude as their

English associates. During this time, furthermore, more

American missionaries arrived in China and organized new en­

deavors, which buoyed American optimism. In the autumn of 1834

Peter Parker arrived at Canton. Trained in medicine and the­

ology, Parker was the first medical missionary to China,

although Western medicine was not entirely foreign to the

Chinese. Centuries earlier the Jesuits had introduced European

medicine and skills to the Imperial Court at Peking. At Canton
the East India Company retained surgeons who also gave their

services to Chinese. Prompted by Morrison, the Company also
18
maintained a dispensary at Macao. Although not a mission

17
strong, Story of the American Board, p. 111. Ira Tracy,
a minister from Vermont, had accompanied S. Wells Williams to
Canton in 1833 to assist him with the printing press. Wnen the
Canton authorities forced Bridgman and Williams to take the press
from Canton, Tracy moved it to Singapore. He then took over the
printing operation. With the dissolution of the East India Co.'s
monopoly in 1834 and the arrival of Lord Napier, Robert Morrison
had become official translator for the English Superintendent of
Trade.
18
Latourette, History of Christian Missions in China, pp.
218-19. Barnett, "Americans as Humanitarians, " pp. 8-9. Thomas R.
Colledge, the doctor who operated the dispensary at Macao in the
late 1820's, also preached to the foreign community at Macao. In
1831 at Macao he married Caroline Shillaber, sister of an American
merchant and friend of Harriet Low.