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CHAPTER II

THE DAWN OF WESTERN INFLUENCE

Early travellers in Asia-Marco Polo-Raphael Perestralo-Fernand Perez D'Andrade-Arrival of the Portuguese-Mendez PintoWilliam Adams-English travellers in the East-Captain SarisThe British East India Company-Captain Weddell-Russian intercourse with China-The opening up of Siberia-Feodor GolovinTreaty of Nerchinsk-Kamchatka-Leon Ismaloff-VladislavitchAmerican relations with the East-Portuguese efforts-Lord Macartney's mission-Lord Amherst's mission-Singapore-Captain Elliot-Commissioner Lin-The "Opium War"-Sir Henry Pottinger-Treaty of Nanking.

1 FOR upwards of four thousand years the destinies of China rested in the hands of the Chinese and their immediate neighbours. From the accession of the first Emperor Hwangti, who is said to have exerted his sway over the Celestial Empire about the year 2637 B.C., to the advent of the first ruler of the Mongol dynasty, Chitsou, better known as Kublai Khan, who was a contemporary of our own Edward I., no European had penetrated into the recesses of the farthest East. The Pacific shores of Asia

1 NOTE.-The sources from which the present account of the early intercourse between Western civilisation and the Far East are derived are exceedingly numerous. They include the chronicles of such travellers as Marco Polo, Mendez Pinto, Perez D'Andrade, and Raphael Perestralo; the records of Will Adams and Hendrik Hamel, and the journals of Lord Amherst, Sir George Staunton, Sir Hope Grant, Sir John Davis, Lord Elgin, Commodore Perry, and other of the early navigators of the China Seas. I have relied for the details of Russia's elementary dealings with China on my own Russia in Asia, in which these events are fully discussed, and where the various authorities consulted are set forth. It is only necessary here to express my obligations to Ravenstein's Russians on the Amur, Fischer's Sibirische Geschichte, Middendorf's Nord und Ost Siberia, and the journals of Ysbrand Ides, Golovnin, and other early travellers, to which I am indebted for much that is of value and interest.

remained during this period as unknown to the civilisation of the West, as were the location and races of Europe unsuspected by the peoples of China and Japan. Lacking the roving instinct, enwrapped in their selfesteem, practical rather than imaginative in their reasoning, it is doubtful whether these Orientals even suspected the existence of a civilisation other than their own; and it affords no matter for surprise that its first manifestations among them were received in an attitude of contempt and incredulity.

The first European who visited China was one Nicolo Polo, a prosperous Venetian merchant, who made a journey into Asia in the middle of the thirteenth century. While in Bokhara, Polo chanced on some envoys who were returning from the court of Persia to that of Kublai Khan. The traveller accompanied the ambassadors, and was extremely well received by the Mongol emperor at Cambaluc,1 whither he had recently transferred his capital from Nanking. Kublai was greatly interested in what Polo told him of European learning and religion, and entrusted him with a letter to the Pope asking that a number of skilful men of scientific attainments might be sent to China for the purpose of instructing the Mongols in Western knowledge.

Nicolo Polo returned to Venice in 1269, but failed to persuade the monks, whose aid he sought, to accompany him on his next journey to China. He set out therefore alone in 1271, taking with him his young son Marco, who was only seventeen at the time, and reached Cambaluc in 1275. He was received with the greatest honour. The emperor seemed greatly taken with young Polo, who set about educating himself in the Mongol language. And such favour did he find with Kublai Khan that he became employed in his service, and was sent on various important missions to distant countries. Eventually he

became the governor of a provincial city.

The Polos remained in China for seventeen years, after which they returned to Venice by sea, arriving there in 1 Cambaluc was the ancient name of Peking.

EARLY TRAVELLERS

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1295. Marco Polo has detailed his experiences in a book which is remarkable in its way, and the oldest of existing works describing Eastern Asia.1

For upwards of two hundred years after the departure of the Polos from China, no Westerns entered the portals of the Far East; but in 1511 one Raphael Perestralo reached Canton. He was well received, being regarded as a curiosity by the natives, and is supposed to have remained in the country, though of his subsequent fortunes there is no record. Six years later a Portuguese vessel put into the Canton river in charge of Don Fernand Perez D'Andrade, who, like his predecessor, was accorded a welcome by the mandarins. The news of his arrival spread, and in consequence of the interest evoked, D'Andrade was conducted to Peking, where he was received as an ambassador from his country. The high favour shown him at the capital gave promise of a permanent understanding between the Chinese and Portuguese courts; but the situation became strained when it was announced that a large Portuguese fleet had arrived at Canton, and that the crews were committing outrages on the natives. receipt of this intelligence the Emperor Woutsong ordered the arrest of D'Andrade, who was imprisoned, and after being kept confined for several years, was executed by the Emperor Chitsong in 1523.

On

About the year 1544, the exact date is uncertain, Fernao Mendez Pinto, a Portuguese traveller, found his way to Japan in a Chinese junk. He was taken before the Shogun, who bade him welcome, and received from him the gift of a gun, which was a novelty in that country. Subsequently Pinto, having found continued favour with the ruler of Japan, was offered employment by him. This hardy Portuguese spent nearly fifteen years in Japan, returning to write his experiences in Portugal in 1558.2

While D'Andrade had enjoyed favour at Peking, a number of Portuguese traders had profited by his example, and ventured to China, where they had succeeded in

1 See The Book of Ser Marco Polo the Venetian, by Col. Henry Yule, 1875. 2 See Perigrinacam. Trans. by F. Cogan, 1663.

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developing a considerable commerce with the natives in the province of Kwangtung. These traders prospered greatly and increased rapidly. In 1560 they obtained permission to erect buildings on an island near the mouth of the Canton River, in which to store their goods. This place, which speedily assumed the appearance of a thriving settlement, became known as Macao, and by dint of the payment of bribes to the mandarins, it came to be regarded as a concession for the exclusive use of the Portuguese. Thus was founded the first European colony in the Far East; and it prospered so greatly that within a few years of its being established, Macao comprised a population of several hundred traders, who held the whole of the import trade of the country in their hands.

The news of Portuguese doings in China found its way in due course to the Iberian peninsula, and the Spaniards determined to emulate the success of their neighbours. In 1571 a Spanish fleet under command of one Legaspi set sail for the Far East. Instead of reaching for the China coast, however, it found itself in the Philippines, which were duly seized, and after massacring the native and Chinese inhabitants to the number of over 10,000, Spanish rule was established throughout the Archipelago, where it continued until 1898.

The Portuguese traders who had come in the wake of Mendez Pinto to Japan, had been followed by numbers of Jesuit missionaries, who had made numerous converts among the Japanese. This was resented by the people, who in 1590 rose against this species of interference, and by means of a fierce persecution obtained the expulsion of the Jesuits. Hideyoshi, at this period at the height of his power, also took the matter in hand, and condemned many of the Christian converts to death. Thus after existing for close on fifty years, Portuguese influence came to an end in Japan in 1591, just as Hideyoshi set out on his invasion of Korea, which country he desired to bring under Japanese dominion.

In the year 1600 occurred an incident which, though slight in itself, resulted in developments of considerable