journal of american-east asian relations 25 (2018) 221-225 brill.com/jaer

Review Essay ∵

Gillian Bickley, Ed. Through American Eyes: The Journals of George Washington (Farley) Heard. (: Proverse, 2017). 352 pp. $80.00 (cloth).

Gillian Bickley, a well-known Hong Kong historian and writer, has produced an extremely carefully annotated version of the diaries of a young businessman- cum-diplomat. George Washington Heard (to abbreviate his signature, in 1861 he changed his middle name to Farley), then aged 22, accompanied the U.S. Minister John E. Ward to in 1859 and 1860, on two missions to observe events in and obtain Chinese ratification of the 1858 () between the United States and China. This treaty, the successor to the 1844 Treaty of Wangxia, continued the commercial arrangements of its pre- decessor and under a most-favored-nation clause accorded the United States equal rights with other foreign powers. Sandwiched in the middle was a visit to Japan, which only had reopened in 1853 to dealings with the West and was still something of a mystery to outsiders. George Heard, the youngest of four New England brothers who joined ­Augustine Heard and Company, their unmarried uncle’s trading firm and from 1840 until its failure in 1875 one of the foremost American business houses in China, appears to have won his appointment as secretary largely on personal charm, after encountering Ward on shipboard. Although he took notes when necessary, Heard was something of a supernumerary, with time to observe and enjoy the experience. His brother John later suggested that “in China, [George] seems to have done nothing of much use” (p. 44). His trip to Japan John bluntly termed “a frolic” (p. 27). But that was not the point, since “an education of this sort is the best one can have” (p. 37). An exuberant young man who climbed Mont Blanc in Switzerland at the age of eighteen, one of the first Americans to do so, Heard seems to have had an abundance of energy and vitality. The cover illustration, a miniature that was the work of well-known Chinese painter Sunqua, who had studios in Guang- zhou and Macao, shows a rather romantic young man, with dark flowing locks

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2018 | doi 10.1163/18765610-02502001

222 Review Essay and a slight moustache. A later photograph from the hsbc Archives offers a more prosaic image of a bearded, top-hatted figure, whose once luxuriant hair no longer obscures most of his ears. Unmarried and aged just 38, he died of heart failure in the Suez Canal in early 1875, travelling from Hong Kong to the United States, as the Heard firm went into bankruptcy. Images of Heard’s 1859–1860 journals are now available online, through the Baker Library of Harvard Business School. These, however, only provide the handwritten text, which is sometimes difficult to decipher. Bickley has gone over the journals with a fine toothcomb, meticulously seeking to eluci- date every possible reference. She also has supplemented the text with a range of striking illustrations, in color and black and white, depicting the places, in- dividuals, and events to which Heard refers. Heard visited China at a highly sensitive period, when the was in progress. Seeking additional commercial concessions in China’s coastal cities and the right to permanent diplomatic representation in Beijing, from 1856 to 1860, Britain and France were at war with the Qing Empire. The United States was supposedly neutral, but on one famous occasion in late June 1859, U.S. naval Commodore Josiah Tatnall came to the rescue of the belea- guered British ships, whose attempts to besiege the Taku Forts on the Peiho River Chinese forces had repelled with much loss of life. With Ward’s permis- sion, his ship the Toey-wan, a steamer with a shallow draft, towed stranded British boats into action and later back to safety, and several American sailors abandoned their own posts to help man British guns. Heard’s diaries described this episode in considerable detail, as did a confidential letter he sent to his parents in Massachusetts. Subsequently, Chinese officials apparently first ­decided to break off dealings with the Americans, but later ignored the entire subject. The Americans continued on to Beijing, and in August 1859, finally ratified the Sino-American treaty, in meetings with lower-level officials that allowed the u.s. representatives to avoid kow-towing to the emperor. Though temporarily defeated, the following year the British and French ­returned in force, determined to avenge their loss. As fighting continued, Ward and his entourage made one more visit to the China coast, arriving in late July, to inspect the assembled Anglo-French forces—over 250 ships in all—once more besieging the Taku Forts. After ten days, the Americans discreetly left. They had calculated, in Heard’s words, that it “certainly is not the place for the American Minister to follow up in their wake after the English have forced their way in by the bayonet,” nor would it be tactful for them to “see [the Chi- nese] be hammered to pieces” and then simply decamp for Shanghai. “It is certainly much better to go away, as we can do no earthly good by remaining and not have the us participate in the affair in any way!” (p. 212). And, as Heard

journal of american-east asian relations 25 (2018) 221-225