CHAPTER V. 



The Period of the Opium Troubles and of the First 



British-Chinese War, Culminating in the Treaties 



OF Nanking and Whanghia, 1839-1844. 



The last important set of incidents in the history of Ameri- 

 can intercourse with China before 1845 cluster around the first 

 British-Chinese war. With the close of the East India Com- 

 pany's regime in Canton and the appointment of Lord Napier 

 as superintendent of British trade, a series of conflicts began with 

 the Chinese authorities which finally culminated in hostilities and 

 in the treaties of 1842 and 1844. Although the struggle was 

 between the British and Chinese alone, the interests of all Chris- 

 tian peoples were deeply involved, and the events of the next few 

 years must be recited in some detail wherever American rights 

 were at stake. 



The beginning of the trouble dates back a few years before 

 1839. Lord Napier reached Macao July 15, 1834, to fill the 

 office which at the close of the monopoly of the East India Com- 

 pany had been created for the supervision of British trade. 

 Almost immediately after his arrival he became involved in mis- 

 understandings with the Chinese officials, and as a result the 

 governor suspended the English trade, September 2, 1834.^ This 

 practically stopped American commerce as welP ; American 

 merchants were detained at Whampoa^ and business was at a 

 standstill. Lord Napier soon withdrew from Canton, however, 

 and the restrictions were removed. 



The four svicceeding years were ones of comparative quiet, 

 but it was felt that a crisis was approaching, and that the Son of 

 Heaven could no longer be permitted to hold himself aloof from 

 Western intercourse. He must be brought to treat with fairness 

 the stranger within his gates, and to hold direct intercourse with 

 him. The inevitable conflict was precipitated by the opium 

 question. The importation of this drug had been illegal since 

 1796,"* but for fifty years it had been smuggled into the empire 



'Williams, Hist, of China, p. 121. 



" Davis, China, i : 119. 



^ Canton Register, September 23, 1834. 



* Foster, Am. Dip. in Orient, pp. 64-73. The real effectiveness of the 



