After two and a half months had passed, Mr. Cushing was advised of the emperor's decision. "America never as yet having gone through with presenting tribute," the coming to Tientsin and the capital to negotiate would be irregular; that he had appointed as high commissioner with the imperial seal, Tsiyeng (or Kiying); and that he was traveling with all speed to Canton to meet the American plenipotentiary. The appointment of Tsiyeng was a happy one, as he possessed fully the emperor's confidence, and had shown his fitness for the work in the supplementary treaty as to trade which he had a few months before agreed upon with the British plenipotentiary.
On the 9th of June Mr. Cushing received a letter from Tsiyeng, advising him of his arrival in Canton, and added that "in a few days we shall take each other by the hand, and converse and rejoice together with indescribable delight." In view of the many delays and tergiversations experienced, doubtless Mr. Cushing accepted this as a somewhat exaggerated figure of speech. But his relations with Tsiyeng proved in the main quite satisfactory. Only one untoward incident need be noticed. In the address of two of the communications of the commissioner, the name of the Chinese government stood higher in column by one character than that of the United States, a Chinese method of indicating the relative dignity of the parties to a correspondence. Mr. Cushing returned the letters with an expression of his belief that his excellency would "see the evident propriety of adhering to the form of
