The well-known English missionary and Chinese interpreter, Dr. Robert Morrison, was the chief interpreter of the Amherst embassy in 1816, and he acted as the official interpreter and trusted adviser of the British government and the East India Company at Canton for twenty-five years. During the Opium War and in the peace negotiations, Dr. Gutzlaff, the German missionary and historian, was in the employ of the British government, as interpreter and adviser, and was most useful in the negotiations.[1] He was also of service to the government of the United States in a similar capacity, as will be noticed later.
When Mr. Roberts was sent by the American government to negotiate treaties with Siam and other oriental countries, he first went to Canton and there engaged the services as interpreter of Mr. J. R. Morrison, the son of Dr. Morrison. The valuable assistance of Dr. Peter Parker, a missionary of the American Board at Canton, has already been noticed in connection with Mr. Cushing's mission in 1844. In a later chapter his further service to the government will be mentioned. Dr. S. Wells Williams, another missionary of the American Board, it will be seen, was associated with Commodore Perry in the opening of Japan, and there will be frequent occasion to refer to him in connection with the diplomatic service of the United States in the East.
These instances are cited to show what an important part the missionaries have borne in the international
- ↑ Staunton's Embassy, 24 ; Davis's China during the War, etc., passim; Williams's Hist. China, 106, 184, 190, 204.
