Early Relations hcHveen the United States and China. 105 



two schools to Tracy. In the following October the latter 

 baptized the first Chinese convert made by the American Board.^^" 



Missionary supporters in America w^ere at this time very 

 strongly in favor of the distribution of Christian literature, and 

 this sentiment was to be the controlling one in Chinese missions 

 for the next few years.^^^ The missionaries fell in with the plan : 

 a press was started by Tracy at Singapore, and Parker wrote 

 home for money, equipment, and men.^^^ The American Board 

 responded to the demand, and in May and June, 1833, wrote to 

 Bridgman urging the early foundation of a printing establish- 

 ment somewhere in the south-east of Asia.^^^ In March, 1836, 

 Bridgman w^as able to announce that a full printing establishment 

 at Singapore had been purchased, consisted of two presses, of 

 fonts of English, Arabic, Bugis, and Siamese type, and of other 

 necessary equipment/-*' From this press various works were 

 issued in Chinese, as w'ell as in these other languages. 



Additions came to the Singapore mission. In December, 1836, 

 Matthew B. Hope, Rev. Joseph H. Travelli, and Stephen Tracy 

 arrived^-^ ; in 1837 Rev. J. T. Dickinson^-- ; and in 1838 Dr. 

 Dyer Ball and Rev. George W. Wood, all of the American 

 Board. ^-^ William J. Pohlman of the same society, who was 

 first stationed in Borneo, came later. ^-* In 1838 the Presbyterian 

 Board sent out two men.^^^ By 1840 Singapore was the most 

 important Protestant mission station among the Chinese. 



The second great accessible group of colonists from the Middle 

 Kingdom, that in Siam, centered at Bangkok, a city whose popu- 

 lation was half or two-thirds Chinese.^-*' In 1829 or 1830 Tomlin 



"" Tracy, Hist, of Am. Bd., p. 258. 



'" Missny. Herald, 36 : 208. 



^"^Corres. of A. B. C. F. M., China, 1831-7, No. 190. Parker to Ander- 

 son, Feb. 19, 1835. 



"''Corres. of A. B. C. F. M., China, 1831-7. 



^ Ibid., No. 8, Bridgman to Board, Mar. i, 1836. 



'■^ Tracy, Hist, of the Am. Bd., pp. 270 et sqq. 



'"Ch. Rep., 16: 12-13. 



"'Ibid., and Dean, The China Mission, p. 196, Wylie, Mem. of Prot. 

 Missions, p. 107. 



^"^Dean, The China Mission, p. 357. 



^" Ch. Rep., 16: 12-13. 



^"° Malcohn estimated the Chinese population at 60,000 and that of 

 the city at 100,000. William Gammell, A History of American Baptist 



