Eaft India Company's Service, to the Yellow Sea and Gulph of Pekin; as well as of their Return to Europe: with Notices of the feveral Places where they stopped in their Way out and home. Taken chiefly from the Papers of his Excellency the Earl of Macartney, Knight of the Bath, his Majefty's Ambajador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Emperor of China; Sr Erafmus Gower, Commander of the Expedition, and of other Gentlemen in the feveral Departments of the Embally. By Sir George Staunton, Baronet, Honorary Doctor of Laws of the University of Oxford, F. R. S. his Majesty's Secretary of Embally to the Emperor of China, and Minifter Plenipotentiary in the Abfence of the Ambafador. In Two Volumes, 4to, with Engravings; befides a Folio Volume of Plates. 41. 4s. Boards. On large Paper, 61. 6s. Boards. Nicol. 1797.

HIS is one of thofe perfor

under more views than one, the liberal spirit of the age itself. It may indeed truly be faid that we are here prefented with much important and multifarious information concerning the greateft empire of the world. Sir George Staunton enjoyed peculiar advantages for defcribing with accuracy the phyfical as well as moral state of China. The embaffy was accompanied by gentlemen verfed in the most useful brauches of natural and nautical knowledge: the tranfactions in which the heads of it were employed, with the emperor and his minifters, were well calculated to exhibit the views, difpofitions, and talents of the Chinefe court; and the established characters of the narrators, in respect to probity and good fenfe, give a degree of au

thenticity to their reports, which former deferiptions of China are not thought to poffefs.

The first and fecond chapters are employed in explaining the occafion of the embaffy, and the preparations for executing it with fuccefs. The author then proceeds, throughout the greater part of the first volume, to defcribe the voyage to China, by the way of Madeira, the Canaries, Rio de Janeiro, Triftan D'Acunha in the fouthern part of the Atlantic, and the Ifles of St. Paul and Amfterdam in the Indian Ocean. A moft interesting part of the voyage then follows, through the Straits of Sunda and Banca, to Pulo Condore, a fmall island near the coaft of Cambodia; thence to Turon Bay, a defirable place of refrefhment in Cochin-China; and from Turon Bay to the Chu-fan isles, above a thousand miles beyond Canton, and on the fame eastern Aachu-fan,

of war and Hindoftan Indiaman had reached the utmost boundary of recorded navigation by Europeans. The fea thence to the port neareft to Pekin, extending upwards of ten degrees of latitude, was totally unknown, except to thofe who dwell around its fhores. Into this fea flow the waters of the great Whong-ho; which, in its long and circuitous courfe, carries with it fuch quantities of yellow mud, that it receives the name of the Yellow River, and communicates the fame quality and the fame appellation to the adjoining fea.

The accurate examination of this unknown fea is not one of the least benefits derived from the embally. The British veffels conveying the embaffy, its attendants, and prefents, were furnished each with a Chinese

at Chu-fan. Thefe pilots ;ht with them two marine com; but they were unprovided charts, or any inftrument for taining latitudes. They trufttirely to their local knowledge obfervation; as did the nations d furrounding the Mediterra1; which the Chinese feas nearfemble, both in the narrowness heir boundaries, and in the nuous iflands with which every of them is ftudded. The track of the Lion and Hintan, in navigating the Yellow , is carefully laid down in the irts accompanying the work; 1 on these charts are marked not ly the foundings, but the ftate of marine barometer, and of Fahnheit's thermometer, in the fhade, ery day at noon: a precaution hich renders unneceffary the connual repetition of thofe obfervaons in the body of the work.

In the courfe of the Hindoftan, when separated from the Lion, the erceived on Sunday the 14th of July, 1793, a small square-rigged European veffel. This was the Endeavour brig, Captain Proctor, belonging to the Eaft India Company, and fent by the Company's commiffioners at Canton, through whom the defign of the embally had been communicated to the Chinese court, with difpatches for the ambaffador. In the neighbourhood of Tfung-ming, and along the coaft of China, Captain Proctor met feveral fmall junks, cruizing with mandarins on board, to find out and welcome the ambassador, as well as to conduct him into port: but they feldom went out of the depth of two fathoms, not aware that the fhip which had his Excellency on board, drew about double that quantity of water.

The fquadron, confifting of the Lion, Hindoftan, and Jackall tender, came to anchor in feven fathoms water in a broad bay, a few miles diftant from the city of Tenchoo-foo; the laft fyllable of which word always denotes a city of the first order, having feveral middling and fmall towns within its jurifdic tion.

As foon as the governor of Tenchoo-foo was informed that the ambassador was on board the Lion, he fent to him a prefent, confifting of fresh provifions and fruit; and afterwards came on board to vifit him. The governor was attended by a great number of perfons; one of whom having had occafion to fpeak to him as he was palling along the fhip's deck, immediately threw himself upon his knees, and, in that pofture, communicated his bufinefs, to the great furprise of the Englifi spectators: a furprise that was heightened by the undisturbed countenance of the governor, as if accustomed to be accofted in that manner. The governor of Tenchoo-foo, in his interview with the ambassador, teftified not only great politenefs, but much cafe and affability; and it was apparent upon this occafion, as well as from what was obferved at Chu-fan, that the folemnity of behaviour, attributed in many accounts of this country as a general character to the Chinefe, was only an appearance af fumed by them in the prefence of those whom they confidered as their inferiors.

The governor gave an invitation (which was declined) to the ambassador and his suite to entertainments and plays on fhore, as indeed had done the governor of Chu-fan, in order, in fome small degree, to correfpond, as they expreffed it, with

the

the fplendid reception which it was understood their fovereign intended for his Excellency, when he should arrive at the imperial court.

The eclat of fuch a reception was, no doubt, likely to operate upon the minds of the people of China, who look with more than an ordinary degree of reverence to the throne. It might tend to imprefs them with a general fenfe of confideration for the English nation, of which the agents of the English Eaft India Company at Canton might experience effects conducive to their benefit and comfort.

The fhallownefs of the water obliged the Lion to come to anchor on the 25th of July, about four leagues from the Chinese coaft, which at the north-weft extremity of the Gulph of Pekin, consists of a low and fandy beach. From this anchorage, the river Pei-ho, which comes from Tien-fing, was found to be fifteen miles diftant. A bar croffed the mouth of the river, which did not materially obftruct the navigation of Chinese fhips, though of three and four hundred tons burden; while the Jackall, an Eng. lifh veffel of 100 tons, followed them with much difficulty. Having entered the river,

The Jackall was foon accofted "by Chinefe foldiers in a boat, defiring her to anchor, and wait the arrival of a mandarin, who had inquiries to make about her. This gentleman made his appearance prefently, with feveral attendants, upon the Jackall's deck. As foon as he was fatisfied that the belonged to the expected embaffy, he made many inquiries about the ambaffador, and the prefents brought for his Imperial Majelly. As the ap

fwers were general, he, after a little time, endeavoured to obtain a more particular account by changing the manner and form of his questions; and he feemed to exert no little addrefs to obtain his object. Though the motion of the brig and smell of the tar were offenfive to him, yet he continued long on board to colleft information as to the fize and ftrength of the ships attending the ambalador, and the number of men and guns on board; while one of his attendants was bufy writing all the time of the conference, as if taking notes of every thing that paffed. The mandarin concluded by declaring, that the Emperor had iffued orders for the reception and accommodation of the embassy, and offered to supply whatever might be wanted. The brig being oblig. ed to wait in the river for the return of the tide next day, Captain Campbell and Mr. Hunter were invited on fhore, where they were hofpitably treated; but in a manner cross-examined, and the former queftions repeated to them. Particular inquiries were alfo made as to the fpecies of nutriment to which the ambaflador and his fuite had been accustomed, and how his Excellency wifhed to travel, obferving that gentlemen in China travelled either in fedan-chairs, or in twowheeled carriages by land, or in commodious boats by water; which latter method was generally preferred wherever practicable; but adding, that his Excellency and his fuite were to be accommodated whichever way they wished. The mandarins fpoke alfo about the articles of merchandize which they fuppofed were brought for fale to Pekin, and faid they might be fafely depofited in the four chriftian chur

che

in that city, where they might fold to great advantage. The of trade was fo affociated with of Englishmen, in the minds of Chinele, who knew them only enders and purchafers of goods, t they could fcarcely give credit the affertion, that the perfons npofing the embaffy were not rchants, and that the fhips of r never carried goods for fale, that there was little, befide what as intended for prefents for the urt, in any of the vefels. The oposal, made with fo little cereony, of converting churches into ops for the retail of merchandife, hich appeared fingular to an Euroean ear, was perfectly familiar to he Chinese, whofe places of worhip are occafionally made to anwer every purpofe of utility to which they may be applied. The building in which this converfation took place, was itfelf a temple; and in the crowd were fome of the bonzes, or priests, who miniftered in it; and were remarkable for the contrast between their grey beards and their robes of rofe-coloured filk. The mandarins, who were informed that the Englifh fhips could not cross the bar, immediately conceived their fize to be immenfe, and formed a proportionate idea of the quantity of prefents neceffàry to fill them. They gave orders for preparing junks to bring thofe prefents, as well as the paffengers and baggage, on fhore. A confiderable building near the river's mouth was provided for the reception of the ambaflador, where it was expected he would remain fome days, to recover from the fatigues of fo long a voyage. And it was obferved, that he need not precipitate his journey to the capital, as the Emperor's

birth-day was yet at a confiderable diftance: thefe people not imagining that an embassy could be any thing more than a vifit, or meflage of high compliment to their fovereign on that anniverfary, or on the occafion of fome other folemn feftival.

This information had not been long communicated on board the Lion, when feveral Chinese veffels brought a fupply of live ftock, fruit, and other vegetables, in fuch profufion, that the fhips could only contain a part of it, and the overplus was neceffarily fent back. Among other articles were 20 bullocks, 120 fheep, 120 hogs, 160 bags of flour, 1000 water- melons, 3000 mulk-melons, 10 chefts of candles, and 3 baskets of porcelaine. The hofpitality, and indeed the attentions of every other kind, which the embaffy and fquadron experienced on all occafions, were fuch as ftrangers feldom meet with, except in the eaftern parts of the world. Two mandarins, one civil and the other military, came to congratulate the ambaflador on his fafe arrival: they told him that they were appointed to attend him to the imperial court; and that it was the exprefs will of their fovereign to render his journey fafe and agreeable to him.

Thefe gentlemen were received on board the Lion with attention and cordiality. Much of the stiffnefs which generally accompanies a communication through the mediurn of an interpreter, was removed by the good humour of the parties, and the ardent defire they felt of making out one another's meaning. Their difcourfe by no means par took of the guarded intercourfe of ftrangers fufpicious of each other. Sometimes, before the explanation

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