Page 375 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

261.

for Macao and then for the United States because of ill health,

Snow appointed the chief of the house, Warren Delano, as acting­

consul. Delano had been involved in a questionable transfer

of English vessels to American hands for the purpose of trans­

porting English goods up to Canton from Hong Kong during the
44
embargo. As acting-consul, Delano did nothing. At the end

of 1842 he left for a vacation to Europe and the United States,

leaving another Russell & Co. partner, Edward King, in charge

of American consular duties. By 1843 Snow had officially re­

signed his commission as consul. Subsequently, Robert Bennet

Forbes secured the position for his cousin Paul Sieman Forbes.

The latter Forbes simultaneously obtained a partnership in

Russell & Co. In 1844 the American consul at Canton operated

under the same circumstances as had all his predecessors. He

still was an integral part of the American mercantile community

and shared its interests. The consul continued to serve the

commercial interests of American trade.

III

Before 1844 American consuls at Canton were not the

only official representatives of the American government in

China. Following the Revolutionary War the Navy Department

periodically despatched American warships on cruises to the

Indian and Pacific Oceans. The purpose of these missions was

44
Delano had deposited appropriate papers with Snow that
showed purchase of the English ship, yet whether Delano actually
bought the ship or merely changed its colors was not determined.
His papers are enclosed in Consular Desnatches: Canton, P.W. Snow,
Nov. 27, 1839. Snow himself was involved in changing ships•
colors without actual transfer of ownership.