Page 454 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

440.

Cushing and the American residents feared that this

type of incident would reoccur, unless they had more security

in their Factories. In 1841-42 mobs had twice attacked and burned

the Foreign Factories at Canton. Since Americans would operate
on the same basis in the new ports, they were apprehensive for

their lives and property there. Cushing believed the matter of

security important enough to warrant special negotiations with

the Imperial Commissioner. The minister, therefore, planned to

despatch his views on this matter along with his abstract of a

treaty to Ch'i-ying. While his interpreters were translating

the communication, Cushing received from the Commissioner a note

which informed him of another incident at Canton. A fight be­

tween Chinese and Americans had resulted in the death of a Chinese

man named Hsu A-man. Ch' i-ying asked Cushing to ''act with perfect

equity and strict justice. II Under Chinese law, equity and

justice meant discovering the identity of the man responsible

for Hsu's death and executing him. Cushing responded immediately

that he regretted the occurrence and that he had already "insti­

tuted a careful inquiry into all the facts of the case, and

shall take every step in my power to see that full justice be

done. II He also enclosed his statement on the need for

better security in the Factories and cited this incident as more
84
evidence in his argument.

84
Americans transliterated Hsu A-man's name as Sue Aman.
Correspondence with Ch'i-ying of Jun. 22 and 24 is in Diplomatic
Despatches: China, C. Cushing, Jul. 9, 1844. When Com. Parker
heard of the riot at Canton, he despatched a detachment of seamen
to guard the Americans. On arrival, they discovered Lieut. Tilton
11
of the "St. Louis already there with sixty seamen and marines.
The Americans did not stay long. Charles 0 .• Paullin, Diplomatic
Negotiations of American Naval Officers, 1778-1883 (Baltimore, 1912),
pp. 209-10. See also Parker's report in "Squadron Letters, 11 East
India Squadron, Jun. 1844.