Keen Lung was the first Manchu prince to receive formal embassies from the
sovereigns of Europe. Among these the Portuguese were the first in point
of time, although they never attained the advantage derivable from that
priority; and indeed the important period of their connection with China
may be said to have terminated before the Manchus had established their
authority. Still, as the tenants of Macao, the oldest European settlement
in China for more than three centuries and a half, their connection with
the Chinese government must always possess some features of interest and
originality. The Portuguese paid their rent to and carried on all their
business with the mandarins at Canton, who lost no opportunity of
squeezing large sums out of the foreigners, as they were absolutely in
their power. The Portuguese could only pay with good or bad grace the
bribes and extra duty demanded as the price of their being allowed to
trade at all. The power of China seemed so overwhelming that they never
attempted to make any stand against its arbitrary decrees, and the only
mode they could think of for getting an alleviation of the hardships
inflicted by the Canton authorities was to send costly embassies to the
Chinese capital. These, however, failed to produce any tangible result.
Their gifts were accepted, and their representatives were accorded a more
or less gratifying reception; but there was no mitigation of the severity
shown by the local mandarins, and, for all practical purposes, the money
expended on these missions was as good as thrown away. The Portuguese
succeeded in obtaining an improvement in their lot only by combining their
naval forces with those of the Chinese in punishing and checking the raids
of the pirates, who infested the estuary of the Canton River known as the
Bogue. But they never succeeded in emancipating themselves from that
position of inferiority in which the Chinese have always striven to keep
all foreigners; and if the battle of European enterprise against Chinese
exclusiveness had been carried on and fought by the Portuguese it would
have resulted in the discomfiture of Western progress and enlightenment.
The Dutch sent an embassy to Pekin in 1795, but it was treated with such
contumely that it does not reflect much credit on those who sent it. The
Spaniards never held any relations with the central government, all their
business being conducted with the Viceroy of Fuhkien; and the successive
massacres of Manila completely excluded them from any good understanding
with the Pekin government. With Russia, China's relations have always been
different from those with the other powers, and this is explained partly
by the fact of neighborship, and partly by Russia seeking only her own
ends, and not advantages for the benefit of every other foreign nation.
With France, the relations of China, owing to a great extent to the
efforts and influence of the missionaries, had always been marked with
considerable sympathy and even cordiality.
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