Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 07.djvu/107

 McCARTEE

McCARTEE

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1837-41. He visited Detroit, Mich., 1841-42, did a year's post graduate work at Blockiey hospital, 1843-43, and in October, 1843, was sent by the Presbyterian board as medical missionary to Ningpo, China, which place he reached June 20, 1844. He was the first Protestant missionary to

make a prolonged residence in that city, 1844-72, (includ- ing short periods in Chefoo, Slianghai and the United States) and in that time ac- quired a thorough knowledge of the life, language and litera- ture of China. He was married at Ning- po, in 1853, to Juana M. Knight, who sur- vived him. While engaged in his evan- gelical and medical work he was also acting U.S. consul at both Ningpo and Chefoo. In 1861 during the T'aiping rebellion he accompanied Flag-Officer Stribling, U.S.N., with his small squadron to Nanking; and obtaining personal access to the " Heavenly King" or rebel chieftain, secured his guarantee of protection from the rebels for all Americans in China, and for all Chinese in their employ or care. He also received from him a sealed docu- ment which when shown to the rebel force enter- ing Ningpo, released many native Christians, and prevented much threatened massacre. In 1865 he effected the settlement of a difficult diplo- matic dispute reported in TJ.S. Foreign Relations for 1866. He resigned his connection with the Ningpo mission in 1872 to take charge of the Presbyterian mission press at Shanghai ; but soon became interpreter and U.S. assessor in the mixed court at Shanghai. At that time the Maria Luz, a Peruvian vessel en route from Macao to Peru with 300 Chinese coolies, was driven into the harbor of Yokohama by a ty- phoon, and the coolies appealed successfully to the Japanese government for rescue. But that they might not remain a charge to the Japanese, the Toatai of Shanghai, at Dr. McCartee's sug- gestion, memoralized the Viceroy, who appointed the Chinese judge of the mixed court with Dr. McCartee as advisor to proceed to Japan and re- ceive the coolies. This was the first time in some centuries that an envoy from China had been sent to Japan, and their mission was en- tirely successful. For this service he received from the Chinese government a gold medal and a complimentary letter. At the instance of Dr. Guido F. Verbeck, then advisor to the Japanese

department of education, Dr. McCartee was ap- pointed professor of law and natural science in the incipient University of Tokio; there he served, 1872-77, resigned in 1877, and became vice U.S. consul-general, U.S. assessor of mixed court, and director of mails in the consulate at Shanghai, for the next six months, during a dif- ficult exigency of the consulate. In November, 1877, he became foreign advisor of the first Chi- nese legation to Japan, with rank of secretary of legation ; and in 1879, at the request of Gen. U.S. Grant, then in Japan, he suggested the plan of settlement of the Loo Choo Islands dis- pute that was adopted. At this time he wrote the series of letters entitled Audi Alteram Par- tem, published first in the Japan Gazette, and afterward in pamphlet, and translated into Chi- nese. He also did all the translating into the Chinese character of the English, French and Jap- anese documents, which the legation handled. He was given the title of Honorary Consul-Gen- eral by the Chinese government. In May, 1880, he resigned his position and returned to the United States, where lie acted as foreign advisor to the Japanese legation at Washington for some time. In May, 1887, he visited Japan, spending the summer there, and then a year in Amoy, where he was engaged in missionary work. He accepted an appointment to the East Japan mission by the Presbyterian board in April, 1889. In October, 1899, he left Japan for San Francisco, where he arrived, and celebrated his 80th birth- day, Jan. 13, 1900. He translated the Book of Jeremiah's Lamentations from the Original He- brew into Chinese, to complete the Bridgman- Culbertson Version of the Bible (1862); and wrote and translated numerous brief tracts, and some more extended works, religious and educa- tional, in Chinese and Japanese. He also contri- buted to the Transactions of the China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society ; was a member of other learned societies including the American Oriental society and the Natural History society of Portland ; and corresponding member of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia and of the Department of Archaeology of the University of Pennsylvania. His tract, An Easy Introduction to Christianity, first written in Chinese in 1831, and translated into Japanese and Korean, is one of the most widely circulated and influential of Protestant tracts in those languages. This was remodelled and enlarged by him in Japanese, and called The Way of Truth (1890) . In this form 20,000 copies had been used up to 1901. He left two books in MS. : Personal Re- miniscences, and Critical and Exegetical Notes on the New Testament unth Especial Reference to the Chinese Characters Used in the Japanese Protes- tant Version. The Japan Evangelist, Yokohama,