1868年美国人廷得尔对海南岛的考察——兼论1872年美国向琼州派驻领事的尝试

American E. C. Taintor's Survey of Hainan Island in 1868——On the Attempt of USA to Dispatch a Consul in Qiongzhou in 1872

1858年《天津条约》规定琼州府开埠通商,但琼州府海口港一直没有外国商人和领事进驻。1868年,为调查琼州开埠的价值和条件,粤海关美籍洋员廷得尔对海南岛进行了为期一周的环岛考察,发表报告《海南岛地理概述》。1869年,《中英新定条约》议定开放温州,取代一直没有开埠的琼州,但条约未获英国议会批准。1872年,英、美、法、俄等国照会清政府,要求依照《天津条约》开放琼州,美国更率先提出向琼州派驻领事,清政府以不能确认领事是否为商人兼充为由加以拒绝,琼州开放再次搁置。在琼州口罢开和重开过程中,《海南岛地理概述》对英美外交决策起了重要作用。报告作为目前所知最早的西方人对海南岛的考察记录,有助于我们研究西方人对海南岛的认知历史。

Although Qiongzhou Harbor was open to foreign trade under the terms of The Treaty of Tianjin （1858） , no foreign traders and consuls had ever lived or worked in Haikou. In order to investigate the value and condition of Qiongzhou harbor for foreign trade, an American officer of Canton Customs, E. C. Taintor, made a seven-day tour of Hainan Island and then issued a report -A Geographic Sketch of Hainan Island in 1868. While Wenzhou was agreed to be open to foreign trade under The New Sino-Britain Treaty in 1869 to replace Qiongzhou, the decision was not ratified by the British Parliament. In 1872, Britain, the United States, France and Russia offi- cially requested the Qing Government to open Qiongzhou Harbor in line with The Treaty of Tianjin, and the United States even took the lead in proposing the dispatch of a consul to Qiongzhou, but the Qing Government rejected the proposal on the grounds that it was hard to verify whether the consulate was also a merchant, thus having laid aside the development of Kiungchow once more. In the course of displacement and reopening of Qiongzhou Harbor, Tain- tor~ report played an important role in the decisions of Britain and U. S. A. As the earliest known record of Westerners＇survey of Hainan Island, it is helpful for us to study the history of the Western perception of Hainan Island.