To George Washington from Andreas Everard van Braam Houckgeest, 19 December 1796
From Andreas Everard van Braam Houckgeest
Philadelphia 19th December 1796. (City Tavern)1
Sir
My Discription Of the Dutch Ambassy to the Emperor of China Two years ago, being Translated in the french Language, is now in the press, and I Hope to See the first Volume ready for Delivery in Abouth Two Months. I dare to proclaim it Will be Very Interesting for the Publicq here as Well as in Europe, Containing a Variety Of Eclaircisments About an Empire to little known to Other Nations.2
It is my Intention to Dedicate this Work to Your Exellency as a proof Of my Great and Sincere Veneration for Your Dear Person and Merits. I therefore Request by those Lines Your Estemed Acquiescion And permission to Execute this Publicq Offer to Your Exellency.3
A Condiscension to my humble prayer Will, no doubt, Serve greatly to Illustrate my Labours. I Hope therefore that Your Exellency Will Excuse the Liberty Of my proposal, And favor me With His kind Acceptance.
In mean Time I Assure Your Exellency Of my highest Respect And Remain Sir Your most humble & Obedt Servant
A: E: v: Braam Houckgeest
ALS, DLC:GW.
Born in Utrecht, Netherlands, Andreas Everard (Everardus) van Braam Houckgeest (1739–1801) traveled to China in 1758 as a supercargo on a Dutch East India Company ship. He remained in China until 1773. After returning to the Netherlands and settling in the Dutch province of Gelderland, Braam Houckgeest in 1783 traveled to Charleston, S.C., where he was a merchant and rice planter. He became a U.S. citizen in 1784, but around 1790, he returned to Canton in China, where he headed the factory of the Dutch East India Company. Braam Houckgeest was later appointed to the embassy sent by the East India Company to the Chinese emperor, Ch’ien Lung (Qianlong) (1711–1799), who ruled from 1736 to 1796. He participated in the Dutch delegation’s 1795 expedition to Peking, China, to celebrate the sixtieth year of Qianlong’s reign. Braam Houckgeest returned to the United States in April 1796 and brought with him Chinese art, furnishings, and other objects. He later displayed these items in his home, “China’s Retreat,” located near Bristol in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. A Chinese porcelain service that Braam Houckgeest later gifted to Martha Washington was among the items that he transported to America from China (see , 151–58). Braam Houckgeest returned to the Netherlands in 1799 and died in Amsterdam.
1. Located at 86 S. Second St., between Walnut and Chesnut streets, City Tavern was run by Edward Moyston. Launched by early 1774, when it was operated by Daniel Smith, City Tavern reportedly then boasted “several elegant bed rooms” and “a genteel Coffee Room.” It was compared at its opening to a London tavern (Pennsylvania Gazette [Philadelphia], 16 Feb. 1774).
2. In 1797–98, Médéric-Louis-Élie Moreau de Saint-Méry published the two-volume Voyage de l’Ambassade de la Compagnie des Indes orientales hollandaises, vers l’empereur de la Chine, dans les années 1794 & 1795 … (Philadelphia, 1797–98), a travelogue taken from Braam Houckgeest’s journal which he kept during the Dutch East India Company delegation’s visit to the court of Qianlong. Dedicated to GW (see n.3 below), the Voyage describes Chinese villages and provides information about the customs, religion, architecture, and other aspects of Chinese society observed by the Dutch delegation. The Voyage also provides a glossary of Chinese words and phrases, and contains notes about cultural concepts and objects, such as ships. An English translation of Moreau de Saint-Méry’s work appeared in London in 1798 under the title An Authentic Account of the Embassy of the Dutch East-India Company, to the Court of the Emperor of China, In the Years 1794 and 1795. …
3. No reply to Braam Houckgeest from GW has been found, but both the French and English versions of the Voyage contain a dedication to GW that appears in the form of a letter. The dedication in the 1798 London edition reads: “TRAVELS among the most ancient people which now inhabits this globe, and which owes its long existence to the system that makes its Chief the Father of the National Family, cannot appear under better auspices than those of the Great Man who was elected, by the universal suffrage of a new nation, to preside at the conquest of liberty, and in the establishment of a government in which every thing bespeaks the love of the First Magistrate for the people.
“Permit me then to address the homage of my veneration to the virtues which in your Excellency afford so striking a resemblance between Asia and America. I cannot shew myself more worthy of the title of Citizen of the United States, which is become my adopted Country, than by paying a just tribute to the Chief, whose principles and sentiments are calculated to procure them a duration equal to that of the Chinese Empire.”