Description:

AMERICAN TRADER WRITES OF A DEADLY HONG KONG TYPHOON
Interesting content A.L.S., 3pp. 8vo., Hong Kong, Sep. 22, 1862, from Frank Blake, an employee of the American trading firm Augustine Heard & Co. to his sister. Blake writes to thank his sister for her letters, and to thank another friend for sending him a pair of opera glasses and a photograph album, as well as photographs of family members. He states that he may add more to the letter later, in part: "It is blowing a young typhoon here at present, which may detain the mail steamer. If so will write more tonight..." True to his word, he returns to the letter later, adding this account: "... We had a typhoon here a short time ago which also passed over Macao and Canton entailing loss of life - taking it at the lowest possible estimate, at 35 [or] 40,000 people. The Mandarins offered $1 per head for all bodies brought in, & just about 12,000 were recovered up the river. You can judge from this what damage a little wind can do, & imagine how a fellow feels at sea, close to a lee shore, at such a time..." Also present is an itinerary, 1p. 8vo. showing the voyages made by Blake between 1854 and 1866, taking him from New York to China via San Francisco and then from Hong Kong to Bangkok, Singapore, Shanghai, and Kanagawa, as well as a 2 1/2" x 3 3/4" b/w full-length photographic portrait of Blake, dated Hong Kong, March 1863. Folds to the documents, else very good. Blake would later die at Hiogo (modern Kobe) in Japan in November of 1871. Augustine Heard & Co. was a major trading firm in China from 1840 to 1875, importing and exporting tea and opium. They are credited with introducing steamships to the China trade routes.

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