CHAPTER IV. 



From the Close of the War of 1812 to the Outbreak of the 

 Opium Troubles, 1815-1838 (Continued). 



the beginnings of AMERICAN MISSIONS TO THE CHINESE. 



In their origin American missions were singularly distinct 

 from American commerce. In Portuguese, in Spanish, and in 

 French intercourse with non-Christian lands the trader and the 

 missionary have usually gone together. The same has been true 

 in British and in Dutch enterprises, although to a more limited 

 extent. Christian missions have either begun simultaneously with 

 commerce, conquest, or exploration, or have been directed to 

 those countries to which these had pointed the way, as in the 

 Americas, in India, in the Philippines, and in the Dutch Indies. 

 In the early decades of missions from the United States, how- 

 ever, no such relationship obtained. Americans had abundant 

 commerce with non-Christian lands, but their earliest foreign 

 missions were not directed to those peoples with whom they had 

 the largest trade. 



This anomalous situation was due to the causes which brought 

 about the American foreign missionary enterprise. One is 

 impressed with the fact that in the United States missions arose 

 largely because of the stimulus of Great Britain's example. The 

 last decade of the eighteenth century saw in England a great 

 awakening of missionary interest. The English Baptist Mis- 

 sionary Society was formed in 1792, the London Missionary 

 Society in 1795, the Scotch Missionary Society in 1796, and the 

 Church Missionary Society in 1800.^ The effect of this move- 

 ment was quickly felt in America. Worcester says : "After the 

 London Alissionary Society was formed in 1795, the appeals of 

 Christians in England had an electrical effect upon our churches. 

 Missionary publications awakened an interest which in our 

 present circumstances it is difficult to appreciate."^ When in 

 1797 the General Association of Connecticut talked of organiz- 



^ The Christian Observer, 40 : 309. 



" S. ^I. Worcester, Origin of American Foreign Missions, p. 8, in H. W. 

 Pierson, American Missionary Memorial, New York, 1853. 



