by the general and his brother officers. After the war he visited India and China, and on his return from that voyage entered the War Department, under General Knox, as a clerk, and was holding that position when appointed consul at Canton. Captain Delano, who knew him well both at home and in China, writes: "He was a man of fine talents and considerable cultivation; he placed so high a value upon the sentiments of honor that some of his friends thought it was carried to excess. He was candid, just, and generous, faithful to his friendships, an agreeable companion, and manly in all his intercourse."[1]
Consul Shaw's first report, December 31, 1786, gives an account of the manner of conducting the trade at Canton. From it and from contemporaneous sources the following facts are obtained. Vessels arriving in Chinese waters to trade were required first to report at Macao, a Portuguese establishment, located on a peninsula near the mouth of the river on which Canton is situated. The Portuguese in the middle of the sixteenth century secured the privilege of occupying the point of land, and built up a considerable settlement there with the right to control their own local affairs, under the supervision of a resident Chinese official. They were, however, not permitted to exercise sovereignty over the territory, and were required to pay annually a ground-rent to the Chinese government. Foreign vessels, upon reporting to the native authorities at Macao, were granted permits to ascend the river to Whampoa, fourteen miles below Canton, where all of
- ↑ Delano's Voyages, 21.
