THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
Dr. Benjamin Hobson, of the London Mission, also conducted a hospital in Canton, Macao, and Hongkong, from 1839 to 1843. The war with Great Britain was terminated by the Treaty of Nanking in 1842, as a result of which the ports of Canton, Amoy, Fuchau, Ning-po, and Shanghai were definitely opened to trade.
From the close of the war to the settlement at the end of the next one is to be reckoned as the second period of Protestant missions 2. The China, characterized by an activity Period^ on the part of the British, American, 1842-60 ^^"^ German missionary societies fully equal to that of the agents of commerce. The various missions to the Chinese in Java, Siam, and the Straits of Malacca were now transferred to the Chinese empire itself. Among them were those of the American Baptist Missionary Union, removed from Bangkok to Hongkong in 1842, and thence to Swatow in 1860; the American Presbyterian Mission from Singapore to Canton, with work opened later at Amoy and Ning-po, the Southern Baptists likewise beginning in Hongkong in 1842, and in Canton in 1845. During this period of renewed energy the American (Dutch) Reformed, the Church Missionary Society, the English Baptist Society, the American Methodist Episcopal (both North and South), the Berlin and Basel Mission, the English Presbyterian, the American Seventhday Baptists, the Wesleyan Mission, and the Methodist New Connexion were first seen in China (discrepancy in the dates of the opening of some of these missions is often due to the fact that in some instances the preliminary work was discontinued). The difficulties inherent in the initial stages of missions among the self-centered, suspicious, and practically hostile people like the Chinese were greatly aggravated by the rise and rapid growth of the T'ai P'ing rebellion, which devastated nearly all the provinces of the empire, lasting from 1850 to 1864, when Nanking was captured, and in its sequelse for three years more. The last four years of this period witnessed another war with Great Britain — the effects of the defeat half a generation before having worn off — the Takii Forts were taken, and Peking was entered by the British and French in Oct., 1860. At the close of the war of 1840-42 the number of living Chinese converts might have been counted on the fingers of one hand. After eighteen years more of sapping, mining, and laying of foundations, there V7ere in 1860 at the most but a few score, but important beginnings had everywhere been made in evangelistic, medical, educational, and literary work.
All the open ports of China were at this time centers of intense and unwearied activity, confined within these limited areas like waters behind a closed lock. By the Treaty of Tien-Tsin many new ports were opened, and Christianity in each of its forms was explicitly tolerated. More than a hundred missionaries had been penned up in Shanghai awaiting the expected opening of inland China. Tien-Tsin was first reached by Henry Blodgct (American Board) in company with British troops, and Peking by Mr. Joseph Edkins (London Mission), while Mr.
Griffith John, of the same society, settled at Hankow, from which strategic point missions were opened in Hupeh and later in Szechuen and 3. The Hunan. Similar expansion took place from each of the other ports. This 1860°95 period of missions is full of important poUtical events so intimately related to all foreign interests that the one can not be considered without the other, and they must therefore be briefly mentioned. Among them are the suppression of the T'ai P'ing rebellion (1864), the reception by the emperor of the foreign ministers in audience (1873), the murder of Mr. Augustus Raymond Margary (1875), with the resultant Chef u Convention (1876), by which greater security was given to foreigners in China, and in connection with which more new ports were opened. A great steamship company was organized under Chinese management, and a network of telegraph lines began to overspread the empire.
The most important single step in the evangelization of China was the development (rather than the organization) of the China Inland Mission (1865), founded on a combination of faith and works, which within a single generation has eovered China with a chain of mission stations. Each of the older societies endeavored to expand into the illimitable regions beyond, and many new missions were begun. At the first general conference of missionaries in Shanghai in May, 1877, attended by 126 representatives, the total number of Protestant workers was 473, of whom 228 were connected with thirteen British societies, 212 with ten American societies, and two of German origin. The number of Christians in ninety-one stations with 312 organized churches was about 13,000. Thirteen years later a second conference was held, in May, 1890, when the societies had increased to forty, male missionaries to 589, married women to 391, and the unmarried to 316, a total of 1,296. There were 522 churches, and the Christians were nearly three times as numerous as in 1877, numbering 37,287 More than sixty hospitals and forty-four dispensaries treated in 1889 348,000 patients. By the end of the century, however, this work had vastly expanded, so that 128 hospitals and 245 dispensaries, conducted by 162 male and 79 lady physicians, treated in one year 685,047 patients. The influence of this branch of missionary work in a country like China is immeasurable. Other opportunities for philanthropy arose in connection with the great famine of 1877-78, which overspread all northern China. The loss of life among the Chinese was estimated at between nine and a half and thirteen millions. Famine relief proved a golden key to unlock many closed doors. Similar relief has been afforded upon a large scale at other times in connection with other famines, floods, and pestilence, not without visible effect. The terrible maseticre at Tien-Tsin in June, 1870, was one of a long series, the most numerous outbreaks taking place in 1891-93, apparently as a direct result of the blasphemous Hunan tracts, the whole Yang-tzu valley being ablaze with excitement. Another atrocity took place at Ku Ch'eng, Fukien province, in 1895, when Mr. Robert Warren Stewart and most of