Page 340 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

326.

Anti-Catholic prejudice, quite widespread throughout

the United States in the early nineteenth century, abetted the

missionaries' envy. Since the priests were Europeans, the

Americans felt nothing in common with the "papists." The fact

that "the sons of Loyola ithe Jesuity have long had, and still

have, missions in almost all parts of the empire," rankled

the Protestants, especially since the latter "have rested

quietly in the belief that hitherto the preaching of the gospel

in China has been impracticable, foreigners not being allowed

to enter the country." Furthermore, the Catholics were in the

midst of preparing to expand their work. As he considered moving
his mission from Macao to Hong Kong, Bridgman observed a group

of French priests already at Hong Kong building an establishment

which cost twenty thousand dollars. The sum exceeded the total
· · · 63
amoun t th e Americans a expen e in th ,eir en years in C h' i na.
d d ·
t
h d
Bridgman asked the American Board to send more men and money,
so the Protestant missionaries would not let Catholicism be the

only image of God presented to the Chinese. For the means of

reaching the Chinese, he and the other American missionaries

counted on the success of the English.

From the beginning of hostilities in 1840, the American

missionaries did not doubt that the English would open new

ports in China. As early as the summer of 1840, when the

English fleet first sailed along the coast, they planned to

63 · · ·
· d
d f
L etter, E.C. Bri gman to American Boar o Commissioners,
·
June. 24, 1842, in Missionary Herald, XXXIX, 2 (February 1843),
55. The Missionary Herald repeatedly reflected anti-Catholic, or
anti-"papist" sentiment.