China and the West

Mark Twain and Anson Burlingame.
Mark Twain's interest in China had been aroused and partially influenced by Anson Burlingame. Twain met Burlingame when he was working as a correspondent for the 'Sacramento Union' in Sandwich Islands, Hawaii.
Letter from Mark Twain to Jane Lampton Clemens and Pamela A. Moffett ; Honolulu, Sandwich Islands, 21 June 1866.
Hon. Anson Burlingame, U.S. Minister to China, & Gen. Van Valkenburgh, Minister to Japan, with their families & suits, have just arrived here en route. They were going to do me the honor to call on me this morning, & that accounts for my being out of bed now. You know what condition my room is always in when you are not around—so I climbed out of bed & dressed & shaved pretty quick & went up to the residence of the American Minister & called on them. Mr. Burlingame told me a good deal about Hon. Jere Clemens & that Virginia Clemens who was wounded in a duel. He was in Congress years together with both of them. Mr. B. sent for his son, to introduce him—said he could tell that frog story of mine as well as anybody. I told him I was glad to hear it, for I never tried to tell it myself, without making a botch of it. At his request I have loaned Mr Burlingame pretty much everything I ever wrote. I guess he will be an almighty wise man if by the time he wades through that lot.
Letter from Mark Twain to Mrs. Jane Clemens and Mrs. Moffett ; Honolulu, June 27 (1866).
Mr. Burlingame went with me all the time, and helped me question the men—throwing away invitations to dinner with the princes and foreign dignitaries, and neglecting all sorts of things to accommodate me. You know how I appreciate that kind of thing—especially from such a man, who is acknowledged to have no superior in the diplomatic circles of the world, and obtained from China concessions in favor of America which were refused to Sir Frederick Bruce and Envoys of France and Russia until procured for them by Burlingame himself—which service was duly acknowledged by those dignitaries. He hunted me up as soon as he came here, and has done me a hundred favors since, and says if I will come to China in the first trip of the great mail steamer next January and make his house in Pekin my home, he will afford me facilities that few men can have there for seeing and learning. He will give me letters to the chiefs of the great Mail Steamship Company which will be of service to me in this matter. I expect to do all this, but I expect to go to the States first—and from China to the Paris World's Fair.
Letter from Mark Twain to Mrs. Jane Clemens and family ; San F., Dec. 4 (1866).
The China Mail Steamer is getting ready and everybody says I am throwing away a fortune in not going in her. I firmly believe it myself.