Series 4 > William Melrose in China, 1845-1855

145
1851
mercials sent per October mail - please open a policy for this £5,000
also which I have just received.
I have to advise having drawn on you for:
No. 68 £52 is. 8d. at 10 days sight at 5s. 2^d. $200
No. 69 £30 os. od. at 10 days sight at 5s. 2jd. $115.20
in favour A. MeShane Esq.1
No. 70 £525 18s. gd. at 30 days sight at 5s 3d. $2,003.57
in favour R. Wilson Esq.2
Also sold Commercial Bank bills:
40/24 and 25 2 bills of £300 each £600 at 5s. 3d. $2,285.70.
All the above I have put to the credit of Messrs A. M. & Co. and
J. R. & Co., the bills being drawn for that account.
I also received the seconds of the £5,000 Commercials per this
mail, the first of which were received by me the mail before. For
other advices I beg to refer you to my letter to Mr Simpson.
Canton, 24 February 1851
I have yours of 21 December 1850 and am glad to see that you
are all well. I and some of my friends here had a good laugh at the
paragraphs in the newspapers about the curiosities.3 One came in to
enquire of me what kind of things I had been sending as he had been
written out about them. It was a capital puff whoever blew it
especially about the paintings and ‘the Dutch-like finish’!!! I am
glad they went off so well and I think now we had better let well
1 A. MeShane: not identified.
2 Dr R. Wilson: his arrival at Hong Kong from Loo Kong was announced in China
Mail, 15 Mar. 1849; see also above, p. 144.
3 Curiosities consisted of an assortment of novelty and decorative goods and included,
among others, vases and other Chinawares, ginger, cabinets, tables and writing desks,
Mandarin and ladies’ dresses, tortoiseshell combs, China ink [in dry sticks], chessmen,
ivory ball, glass paintings, grass cloth, handkerchiefs, lamps, gongs, images, birds,
insects, folding screens, lacquered wares, work boxes, tea-pots, baskets, rice paper
drawings, paper hangings, fans, backgammon boards, crossbows, etc. The newspaper
paragraphs refer to the advertisement of T. & H. Littledale & Co., Liverpool, in
Edinburgh Evening Courant, 12 Dec. 1850. Similar advertisements of William Connal
& Co. in Glasgow Herald, 17-31 May 1852.
K