Page:The Chinese Empire. A General & Missionary Survey.djvu/47

Rh signing of the Treaty of Nanking in 1842. By this treaty the live ports of Canton, Amoy, Shanghai, Ningpo, and Fuchow were thrown open to trade, Hongkong was assured to the British, and $21,000,000 was determined as the sum to be paid the victors for indemnity. Through the subsequent treaties of 1844 with the United States of America and that of 1845 with Trance, the toleration of Christianity was obtained, and the persecuting edicts of 1724 and later, rescinded.

Before proceeding to review the new period of missionary enterprise ushered in by the Treaty of Nanking, it is necessary to record that medical missions to the Chinese had already made a good beginning. In 1834, the year that Morrison died. Dr. Peter Parker of the American Board landed in Canton, and during the following year opened the first missionary hospital in China. Previous to this Morrison himself, with two doctors connected with the East India Company, had done something in the way of dispensary work, but these efforts had ceased in 1832. Dr. Cumming, an independent and self-supporting worker, had commenced work at Amoy almost as soon as that port was opened in 1842; while Dr. Lockhart, who had opened a hospital at Tinghai in Chusan in 1841—when that island was occupied by the British troops—moved to Shanghai in 1844. Another hospital was opened at Canton by Dr. Hobson in 1846. Thus was begun that branch of Mission work which was to be so much used of God in after years to break down the opposition and distrust of the Chinese.

In 1834 a Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge in China was inaugurated, and in 1835 the Morrison Educational Society was founded. During the whole of this period, from 1807 to 1842, fifty-seven workers had either in China or in the Straits sought to advance the Kingdom of God among the Chinese. Of these fifty-seven persons, ten had died before the period closed, while fifteen had retired, leaving thirty-two still living in 1842. These fifty-seven workers had been connected with the following