Page 415 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

401.

return to Macao." The Commodore pointed to an American captain,

George W. Frazer, as the owner of several opium clippers on the

coast. Although Kearny claimed that ''he does not belong to any

mercantile firm whatever," Russ2ll & Co. at least owned shares

in the operation. More likely, he operated with illegal papers
that covered the house's involvement. Kearny must have real­

ized that American houses were involved in the opium trade, as
he concluded in his despatch that the illegal trade would "con­

tinue while the public consular duties are confided to merchants

whose interests are so deeply involved in the transactions .
.,18
His reference included Warren Delano and Edward King,

partners in Russell & Co.

American reaction to Kearny's action was predictable.

In a letter to his cousins in Boston, Paul Sieman Forbes of Rus­

sell & Co. expressed the house's outrage over Kearny's seizure

of the "Ariel": "Upon what pretext or rather what ground he acts

we have not yet learned but not knowing of any law of the Uinite/d

States forbidding vessels to take opium on board & sail where

they may choose we presume he is acting solely on his own respon­

sibility!!" Forbes asked his cousin Bennet to inquire if any laws

· · · 19
. t t o ena e nava comrnan ers to seize opium c ippers.
d . d exis bl 1 d 1
i
Another American merchant, Augustine Heard, seeking a reason for
Kearny's action, surmised that ''there are many conjectures on the

true reason the most likely I have heard is that the Capt. LFraze.£7

18
"Squadron Letters," East India Squadron, May 19, 1843.
19
Letter, P.S. Forbes to R.B. Forbes, May 27, 1843, Forbes
MSS.