94 Kenneth S. Latourette, 



Morrison, cast a gloom over the scanty force and retarded its 

 work. 54 



. While the after swells of this squall were dying down, there 

 arrived still another reenforcement, Peter Parker, the first 

 medical missionary to China. Bridgman had felt the lack of 

 such a man for some time. 55 Morrison and T. R. Cooledge had 

 each begun dispensing medicines in i827, 56 but something more 

 was needed, and to supply it, the American Board sent out 

 Parker. 57 He sailed June 3 58 in one of Olyphant s ships and 

 reached Canton October 26th. 59 It was early decided that he 

 should go to Singapore to learn the language, and after a year 

 there he returned to Canton. Here, November 4, 1835, he opened 

 an Ophthalmic Hospital. 60 The suspicions of the Chinese were 

 soon disarmed, and after the first year, Howqua, the chief hong 

 merchant, gave him a building rent free. 61 



Five days before this hospital was opened, Stevens returned 

 from a remarkable voyage with Medhurst along the coast of 

 China. In the closed condition of the Chinese Empire it was 

 possible to do little more than to distribute printed matter and 

 to trust to it for the work of evangelization. From June, 1831, 

 to May, 1832, Giitzlaff, a German missionary, had made three 



&quot;Ibid., No. 102, Oct. 31, 1834, Bridgman to Anderson. 



55 Corres. of A. B. C. F. M., China, 1831-7, No. 83, Bridgman to Ander 

 son, Dec. 26, 1833. He desires that Tracy s place at Canton be occupied 

 immediately by an able physician. &quot;. . . . all of us are anxious that 

 such a man should be here.&quot; 



58 Williams, Mid. King., 2 : 333. 



57 Stevens, Life of Parker, pp. 5-99. 



58 Parker was a New Englander by birth, and had been educated at 

 Amherst and Yale, taking his A.B. at the latter institution in 1831, and 

 later completing a medical and theological course there. While a senior 

 in college he had decided to enter the mission field and had become a 

 warm friend of Stevens. In 1834 he was ordained. Wylie, Memorial 

 of Prot. Missionaries. 



59 Ibid, and Corres. of A. B. C. F. M., China, 1831-7, No. 173. Parker 

 to Anderson, Oct. 30, 1834. 



60 George B. Stevens, The Life, Letters, and Journals of the Rev. and 

 Hon. Peter Parker, M.D., etc., Boston and Chicago, 1896, pp. 106-119. 

 A. P. Stokes, in Memorials of Eminent Yale Men. New Haven, 1914. 



61 Williams, Mid. King., 2 : 333-7. 



