Page 330 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

316.

food, clothing, and service in the Celestial Empire. But

that the missionaries found other channels of income besides

donations had substantiation from the observation of another

American merchant.

In 1834 John Murray Forbes returned to Canton to

relieve Heard at Russell & Co. Although thought rather too

strait-laced by his older brother, Forbes included a devas­

tating note in a letter to him in June 1836. Expressing his

shock with a spark of amusement, he wrote: "Speaking of

parsons--do you know that the Revd Dr. Parker has taken a

house on Hog lane & keeps women there--I had notions of be­

coming godly but the scandal would be too great--young Morrison,

1
Bridgman, Stephens. .are his prime supporters! isn t it
horrible? 11 Apparently this sort of activity on the part of

missionaries was not novel, as Forbes recalled former mission­
48
aries having fathered illegitimate children. Forbes•
1
reference to Parker s brothel is singular, but certainly can­

not be dismissed. Most likely other foreign merchants merely

winked at the missionaries• lack of continence, since they

themselves patronized the "Flower Boats" anchored in the river

48
Letter, J.M. Forbes to R.B. Forbes, Jun. 19, 1836,
Boston, Museum of the American China Trade, Forbes Family MSS.
In the same letter Forbes wrote: "I don't hear that the clergy
have generated (or regenerated) any thing since the unhappy
blackie that J.P.S. L,:f�mes P. Sturgi§7 attributed to the potent
Bridgeworthl Of fiel iEdwiLY Stevens was very regular in his
visits to Whampoa which. .allow to be rather suspicious--tho
from the mans looks I should more exp�ct to §ee him filchinJ
a Hdkcf thar violating the 10th commiandmeni/ or which is it
against chastity?-- 11