Page 412 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

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pay his respects. Kearny, delighted with the admiral s visit,

reported to the Secretary of the Navy: "He was received with

the highest honors known to our Navy, & otherwise made sensible

of the friendly disposition of the United States toward the

Imperial Government. He seemed well pleased; &, after a close

scrutiny into every thing belonging to the armament of this

ship, he visited the Boston." Kearny hastened to add that, with

the exception of the English fleet•s bombardment of Canton, his
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presence at Whampoa and the admiral s visit "are events unknown

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to history. Reporting the event to his friends in Boston,
the Hong merchant Houqua also expressed delight. He wrote that

"the Chinese admiral, Woo, has paid Commo Kearny a visit and was

much pleased and astonished at the kind and honourable reception

he met and the great strength and beauty of every thing about

the ships." Houqua echoed Kearny•s sentiments as he concluded:

"I am very glad to see America & China on such good and friendly

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terms."
Before he left Whampoa, Kearny observed the opium trade

at that anchorage. He reported to his superiors that at Whampoa

the drug trade "is carried on more openly than hitherto. Many

of the vessels engaged in it are at this anchorage, of which

fact no notice is taken by the authorities." After repeated

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In this report Kearny also mentioned that he had com­
municated with the Chinese authorities without going through the
usual channel of the Hong merchants. "Squadron Letters, " East
India Squadron, May 11, 1842. Visits by other high officers
followed that Qf the Chinese admiral aboard the "Constellation."
"Squadron Letters, 11 East India Squadron, May 19, 1842.
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� Letter, Houqua to J.M. Forbes, May 11, 1842, Harvard
Business School, Baker Library, Houqua•s Letterbook.