The term of 1837-8-9 saw the withdrawal of Messrs. Forbes and Coolidge, the first on December 31, 1838, and the latter on December 31, 1839. Were admitted on January 1, 1837, Mr. A. A. Low (nephew of Mr. W. H. Low), who had come out to join the office in 1833), and Mr. W. C. Hunter. Mr. Edward King (who came out in the 'Silas Richards,' Captain Rosseter, 1834), was taken in the office on arrival, and became a partner on July 1, 1837; Mr. Robert B. Forbes (who arrived in the 'Bashaw' in October 1838) was admitted January 1, 1839, and became the chief of the house.
The term of 1840-41-42, Mr. A. A. Low having retired, began with the admission of Mr. Warren Delano (formerly of the house of Russell, Sturgis, & Co., of Canton and Manila). He succeeded Mr. Forbes as chief of the house when the latter left for New York in the 'Niantic' on July 7, 1840. Mr. Russell Sturgis, also a former partner of Russell, Sturgis, & Co., became a partner on January 1, 1842. Mr. King and Mr. Hunter retired on December 31, 1842, left Macao in February 1844 for New York, _viâ_ the Cape (in the ship 'Akbar,' Captain Hallet), and the retirement of Mr. Sturgis took place on December 31, 1843.
This is but a rapid _résumé_ of an interval of twenty years. A history of the house from its foundation to the present time--a period of sixty years--has been compiled by a former partner. The work, which would prove of interest to its many friends, its old associates, and their successors, may be published.
Just a Cycle ago, a gentleman came on board the ship 'Citizen,' as she anchored at Lintin, China, from New York, to hear the _latest_ news she may have brought--125 days old!--the interval was a short one at that time.
Such as Canton _then_ was in its commercial, social, and domestic life it has been for two generations a sealed book; nor will the world ever see its like again! May those who _now_ seek China Opened be as well received, as little molested, as much protected, as were those over whom the ægis of treaties never existed, and as bountifully rewarded as those whose enterprise led them to what was _then_ a 'mysterious land.'
It is _now_, through the untiring encouragement and assistance of the gentleman above referred to (and who will, I trust, excuse my naming him)--Robert B. Forbes, Esq., of Boston, U.S.A.--that I have reproduced in the foregoing pages the days of Old Canton, with which we became familiar; regretting that to restore those scenes--all of which we saw, and part of which we were--it fell not to a more able pen.