ii8 Kenneth S. Latourette, 



fired on by the Chinese.^^ When Consul Delano, however, asked 

 for an explanation he was assured that no harm was meant, and 

 that the shots had been fired only after the boat had been 

 repeatedly warned off and when it was feared that it was there 

 with some sinister purpose and under a borrowed flag.^" Kearney 

 took a strong stand on the opium question, and soon after his 

 arrival asked the vice consul at Canton to make known to the 

 Americans and Chinese a letter of his, announcing that the 

 United States w'ould not sanction "the smuggling of opium on 

 this coast under the American flag in violation of the laws of 

 China."^^ With this and his other relations with the Chinese 

 officials as a favorable preliminary he attempted to obtain for 

 the Americans the advantages given to the British by the treaty 

 of Nanking, and to prepare the way for a treaty between his 

 nation and China. On October 8th, 1842, he wrote to Ke 

 [Kiying], the governor, saying that he had heard that an imperial 

 commissioner was to arrive soon to arrange commercial matters 

 with the English, and asking Ke to endeavor to obtain for Ameri- 

 can merchants an equal footing with those of the most favored 

 nation. A week later Ke replied that the Americans had "been 

 better satisfied with their trade than any other nation .... 

 [and] .... respectively observant of the laws, and that it 

 should not be permitted that they should come to have merely a 

 dry stick."^- While waiting for the imperial commissioners to 

 arrive, Kearney went to Manila,^^ but in January, 1843, he w^as 

 back again, and in March resumed the correspondence. The 

 death of the imperial commissioner delayed matters and until a 

 successor should arrive Kearney had to be content with treat- 

 ing with the governor. Ke at first seemed to think that the entire 

 question of the relations of the United States and China could 

 be settled by a simple agreement between the commodore and the 

 commissioner, and when Kearney told him that it was a treaty 

 he wished, and that the United States would have to send a 



''Ch. Rep., 11:329-335- 



^° Sen. Doc. 139, 29 Cong., i Sess., p. 11. Niles Reg., 63:19 (Sept. 10, 

 1842) says on the authority of the Canton Register that ample apology 

 was given to Kearney. 



"'The letter is given in Ch. Rep., ii : 239. April, 1842. 



'"- Sen. Doc. 139, 29 Cong., i Sess., p. 21. 



^ Ibid., p. 24. 



