Early Relations between the United States and China. 95 



voyages along the coast, selling and distributing religious and 

 scientific works.''- Much criticism, however, was raised in some 

 quarters by the fact that at least one of these voyages had been 

 in connection with the opium traffic.'"' Still there was felt to 

 be a larger opportunity here, and the missionary world was 

 stirred to action by the German's reports. In the summer of 

 1835, Medhurst, who had been working among the Chinese in 

 Batavia, came to Canton at the request of Morrison (through 

 the London Missionary Society) to undertake a similar voyage. 

 Through the agency of Olyphant and Company, he succeeded in 

 obtaining the American brig "Huron," Thomas Winsor, master,"* 

 and took Edwin Stevens with him. They left August 26th, 

 and by October 31st had visited the provinces of Shantung and 

 Fuhkien, whose dialects Medhurst could speak, and the port 

 of Shanghai. In Shantung they were able to travel overland 

 some distance, meeting with only occasional resistance ; but at 

 Shanghai they were rudely received and were followed down the 

 coast by war junks.""' The effect of the voyage was to show that 

 settled mission work was still impossible in the Empire, but an 

 increased knowledge of the natives was gained, and some indi- 

 cations were found that the opening of China would not be long 

 deferred. 



The year 1836 was a quiet one for the missionaries of the 

 American Board. Bridgman was busy assisting Medhurst and 

 J. R. Morrison in a revision of Morrison's translation of the 



'-Williams, Mid. King., 2:328-329. Carl Friedrich August Giitzlaff, 

 The Journal of Two Voyages along the coast of China in 1831 and 

 1832, etc.. New York, 1833. The fact that these were published in Eng- 

 lish and in New York shows the interest with which they were followed 

 in the United States. 



'^Corres. of A. B. C. F. M., China, 1831-7, No. 205, Stevens to Anderson, 

 Mar. 6, 1834. 



"'W. H. Medhurst, China: Its State and Prospects with especial 

 Reference to the Spread of the Gospel, etc., London, 1838, pp. 365-367, and 

 Ch. Rep., 4:308-335. This publishes part of the journal kept by Stevens 

 during the voyage. 



"■' Ch. Rep., 4 : 308-335. See other accounts, not, however, with the value 

 of this one, in Williams, Mid. King., 2:329-330, and Foster, Christian 

 Progress in China, p. 139. 



