*1
 
 A JOURNAL 
 
 OP THE 
 
 FIRST FRENCH EMBASSY 
 
 TO CHINA, 
 
 1698-1700. 
 
 I 
 
 TRANSLATED FE05I AN UNPUBLISHED JtANUSCEIPT BY 
 
 SAXE BANNISTER, M.A. 
 
 QUEEN'S COLLEGE, OXFORD. 
 WITH 
 
 AN ESSAY 
 
 ON THE PBIENDLY DISPOSITION OF THE CHINESE GOVEBNMENT 
 AND PEOPLE TO POBEIGNEBS. 
 
 " If I might presume to hope that my description of the manners and 
 institutions of the people of INDIA could contribute in the smallest degree 
 to render them more respected, and their condition more happy, I should 
 close my literary labours with the satisfaction of thinking that 1 have not 
 lived, or written in vain." The Works of Dr. Robertson, by Dugald Stewart, 
 8vo. 1840, vol. viii. p. 359. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 THOMAS CAUTLEY NEWBY, PUBLISHER, 
 
 30, WELBECK STREET. 
 
 1859. 
 
 T/ir riiiht / Tiitnslaliuii ti restrved.
 
 (fin 9tlmt is Itfoitatdi 
 
 ADMIRAL SMYTH, F.R.S. 
 
 - 
 
 VICE PBESIDENT OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF AJTTIQUABIBS, 
 AND OF THE BOYAL GEOGBAPHICAL SOCIETY, 
 
 IN thankful acknowledgment of much instruction 
 and much benefit received from that accom- 
 plished seaman, by an humble geographical 
 student the Editor of this old Journal. 
 
 In the " History of the Mediterranean," Ad- 
 miral Smyth has shown, in the union of nautical 
 science with antiquarian lore, how well dry re- 
 search may be brought to bear upon great 
 interests in modern navigation ; and how the 
 patient traces of the plumb-line, known only 
 upon mouldy manuscripts, can be revived 
 
 2063253
 
 IV DEDICATION. 
 
 to help out our better, but defective stellar 
 observations. To Admiral Smyth the Editor of 
 this Journal is further indebted for encourage- 
 ment in a geographical work that may still, as 
 we more and more cover the earth with our 
 fleets and our people, be found to be of eminent 
 use in guiding our progress. That work is 
 the construction of selected maps of sea and 
 land upon a vast uniform scale, to give clear 
 perceptions of what is now too often vague ; and 
 enable us to judge of men and things of deep 
 interest, where, at present, our ignorance baffles 
 the best designs. Should this work be executed 
 worthily of its object, it is to Admiral Smyth, at 
 the head of a distinguished list of other approvers 
 of it, that the Editor will owe his success.
 
 INTRODUCTION, 
 
 I. The urgent need of better intelligence respecting 
 China and Japan. The Method adopted by Mr. Locke 
 and Lord Somers to secure proper intelligence upon all 
 our affairs beyond sea. II. The need of improved prin- 
 ciples of intercourse with the Chinese. The Earl of 
 Elgin to the Merchants of Shanghae. Our conquests to 
 be stayed in the East, and its people to be treated with 
 more justice. III. The Chinese Government well dis- 
 posed in the last two centuries to encourage friendly in- 
 tercourse with foreign governments ; and at a critical 
 period, prepared to grant domestic reforms, based upon 
 a love of TRUTH, and calculated to facilitate such inter- 
 course with us. IV. The general opinion respecting the 
 dislike of Foreigners by the Chinese, erroneous. V. The 
 Four British Missions to Pekin in 1787, 1792, 1804, and 
 1816. VI. The Honourable Charles Cathcart's Mission
 
 ii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 to Pekin in 1787. VII. Lord Macartney's Embassy, 
 1792. VIII. The success of Lord Macartney's Em- 
 bassy to Pekin in 1792. The results. IX. Lord Am- 
 herst's Embassy to Pekin in 1816. X. Gio Ghirardini's 
 Residence in China in 1698. XI. Father Bouvet, the 
 Jesuit, in China, 1698. XII. British Antecedents to 
 the French Mission of 1698. The Letters of King Ed- 
 ward the Sixth, in 1 553, to the Emperor of Cathay. XIII. 
 The Law of Administrative Justice in China. XIV. 
 The corruption of opinion, and of our home colonial 
 administration from 1806 to 1858. Convict colonies. 
 Conquests. Colonial patronage. Illegal delegation of 
 authority by the Colonial Secretaries. The Colonial 
 Office. Despotism in our Colonial Government. Igno- 
 rance and intrigues of the Colonial Office : and its ad- 
 mitted incapacity legitimately to extend our colonies. 
 The Privy Council. The struggle of the free Colonial 
 spirit from 1825 to 1858. XV. British Conquests, or 
 British Commerce in China. XVI. Christianity in 
 China. XVII. The ceremony of the Kotou. XVIII. 
 Japan. 
 
 I. 
 
 The urgent need of better intelligence respecting China 
 and Japan. The Method adopted by Mr. Locke and 
 Lord Somers to secure proper intelligence upon all 
 our affairs beyond sea. 
 
 HARD as it may be, correctly, and in all their 
 complex bearings, to estimate the prodigious
 
 INTRODUCTION. Ill 
 
 passing events in the East, the intrinsic im- 
 portance of those events deeply interests thinking 
 men; while their novelty or their grandeur 
 strikes the imagination of the most unreflecting. 
 Their issue, for ill or good, perplexes the coolest 
 reasoner ; but the more hopeful view of things 
 on this occasion has powerful encouragements 
 for us all. At least the persuasion gains 
 strength daily, that, both for our own sakes and 
 for the sake of our multitudinous fellow-creatures 
 throughout Asia, we are bound to become better 
 acquainted with whatever in their condition 
 affects us, and upon all points in which our 
 influence may affect them. These objects, it 
 may be said, without presumption, will be ma- 
 terially promoted by examining such neglected 
 details as are presented in this volume upon 
 former communications, especially with China, 
 by ourselves and the French. The dates of 
 most of those details are comparatively recent ; 
 and they bear directly on the actual condition of 
 things in the East. Those details have been 
 mainly collected from official and other inedited 
 stores in our own and in foreign archives. 
 
 The substance of the volume is a journal kept 
 
 a 2
 
 IV INTRODUCTION. 
 
 on board a French ship of war sent to China by 
 Lewis the Fourteenth. The manuscript of that 
 document is in the writing of the early part of 
 the last century. It was obtained casually in 
 London : and, from the character of other MSS. 
 among which the Journal was discovered, it 
 seems to have been in the possession of a dis- 
 tinguished emigrant of the first French Revolu- 
 tion having probably belonged to the family of 
 a former minister or intelligent sea-officer. This 
 journal is ably compiled, but several errors in 
 the spelling of even trivial words show it to 
 have been a copy of a more correct original. 
 
 It contains a genuine narrative of proceedings 
 to which the journalist was more or less a party, 
 on board the ship or in Canton, from its sailing 
 in 1698 and its return to France in 1700. 
 The French mission to China in 1698, here 
 described, was unknown to our later ambassa- 
 dors, although it affords a valid precedent that 
 must have helped their suitable reception at the 
 court of Pekin, where such reception has been 
 held to be of extremely difficult attainment, 
 and is still not without perplexity. By the 
 liberal decision, however, of the Chinese Em-
 
 INTRODUCTION. V 
 
 peror himself, this French mission was originally 
 destined for the northern port of Ning-po, and 
 for the capital. It proceeded to Canton in con- 
 sequence of the lateness of the season. But at 
 Canton the Viceroy, it is expressly said, " wished 
 to honour the French," foreigners as they were, 
 and relieved them at once from the payment 
 of customs. In regard to the prostrations of 
 the Kotou, the Viceroy permitted the French 
 officers to offer their respects to the Emperor in 
 any way " creditable to both nations." This 
 was, therefore, settled amicably and on equal 
 terms, when the French envoy declined to do the 
 act of humiliation often imposed in such cases. 
 
 This took place, indeed, in Canton, not at Pe- 
 kin, in the actual presence of the Emperor. But 
 the original plan of the embassy not being carried 
 out, from stress of weather only, the narrative 
 represents the Emperor as invested with a sort 
 of ubiquity the authorities in Canton studiously 
 turning to the supposed imperial presence with 
 the reverence that would have been given to 
 their great head, if actually before them. The 
 waiver, therefore, of the offensive ceremony in 
 question at the provincial city in 1698 is to be
 
 iri INTRODUCTION. 
 
 held indicative of the disposition of the Chinese 
 at that time to receive the foreigners with be- 
 coming courtesy. Consequently, in the actual 
 condition of our intercourse with China, the 
 production of this journal, containing such de- 
 tails, properly illustrated, will certainly promote 
 the more peaceful tenor of that intercourse. 
 
 Lord Amherst in 1816, and Lord Macartney 
 in 1792, were carefully provided with information 
 in print and in manuscript, concerning what 
 were thought to be all the former diplomatic 
 communications with the Chinese Government 
 from Portugal, Russia, Holland, and Rome. 
 
 History was diligently searched for instances 
 of missions to and from the Emperors for the 
 last six centuries, including the narratives of 
 travellers. Even a Chinese Embassy to Lisbon 
 was not quite overlooked, although not so fully 
 described as its interest required. Such pre- 
 cedents were sought for in order to justify our 
 claim of admittance to the Emperor on terms of 
 reasonable equality, seeing that submission was 
 not to be thought of, to ceremonies implying 
 that subjection to China which must have 
 weakened negotiations for fair trading, and for
 
 INTRODUCTION. Vll 
 
 mutually useful social intercourse. It is to be 
 regretted that the habitual secresy of diplomatic 
 proceedings defeated the good intentions at that 
 time manifested by us. Lord Amherst being 
 unaware of any suitable example previous to 
 Lord Macartney's of 1792, was unwilling to rely 
 on that supposed solitary case. When, there- 
 fore, the Court of Pekin, under the influence of 
 really fleeting jealousies, would not yield in 1816 
 what its representative at Canton had readily 
 granted in 1698, our minister came away in no 
 small discredit. From that time our trade with 
 the Chinese has suffered much embarrassment ; 
 wars have broken out between us ; and our 
 opium smuggling has been persevered in to an 
 amount and with an evil character unparalleled 
 in the history of trade. 
 
 It is in the absence of proper intelligence 
 respecting the disposition of the Chinese go- 
 vernment and people towards us, that force has 
 been mainly depended upon as the means of 
 opening their country advantageously at once 
 to us and to themselves. But the most eager 
 advocate of force will gladly renounce it if the 
 object we all aim at can be won by ways of
 
 viii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 peace ; and the discovery of these happier ways 
 will assuredly be promoted by the publication of 
 authentic reports of such communication with 
 the Chinese government as this Journal of the 
 Mission from France ; and also by the produc- 
 tion of such particulars as are here collected from 
 official sources respecting several important 
 British missions to Pekin. 
 
 It will not be denied, that a competent know- 
 ledge of the matters which statesmen are con- 
 cerned about, is indispensable to the discharge 
 of their duties. Nor will it be doubted that 
 the first of Italian philosophers, Vico, was right 
 in making great powers and the best intentions 
 subordinate to knowledge in the direction of 
 life. It is then to be expected that eminent 
 men should not neglect good means of 
 acquiring such intelligence. Accordingly, we 
 have not been without those of the highest re- 
 putation, who have studiously devised excellent 
 methods of that kind of instruction. What the 
 philosopher declared in theory, the wisest of our 
 statesmen long ago developed practically in the 
 analyses of national events beyond affecting us. 
 The early plan of administering our colonies.
 
 INTRODUCTION. IX 
 
 mainly traceable to the first Earl of Clarendon 
 and Sir William Temple, and set forth in the royal 
 Instructions of 1670 to the Committee of the 
 Council for Plantations, expressly provided for 
 the transmission of good intelligence from the 
 Colonies home. That committee, after the 
 Revolution of 1688, become the Lords of Trade 
 and Plantations, framed, under the guidance of 
 two other equally illustrious men, Locke and Lord 
 Somers, a method of periodical analysis of that 
 intelligence for the public instruction. 
 
 What was so deliberately planned, stands 
 upon the Journals of Parliament to this day, 
 as it was followed out during several years, until 
 unwisely discontinued. The system included 
 the Indian along with the Colonial Administra- 
 tions ; and it aimed at securing in both a due 
 regard to philanthropy in the exercise of our 
 growing power abroad. 
 
 The department under which so much was 
 well done, is now represented by two Secretaries 
 of State for the Colonies and India ; and efforts 
 have not been wanting to call the attention of 
 the Government to a system admirably adapted 
 to aid it in all its functions* No longer since 
 
 2
 
 X INTRODUCTION. 
 
 than in 1841, the Earl of Derby, at that time 
 Secretary of State for the Colonies, and com- 
 mencing his Ministry with a zealous execution 
 of its duties, encouraged a special plan for the 
 revival of those periodical analyses ; but that 
 plan was peremptorily put by, under an influence 
 in the Colonial Office, which had been during 
 many years hostile to publicity, and adverse to 
 the best-conceived designs of Colonial reforma- 
 tion so much struggled for of late. In an evil 
 hour, the Earl of Derby submitted to that in- 
 fluence ; but we are come to better times, when 
 it may reasonably be expected, that with the pre- 
 sent greater need of what may be thus easily ob- 
 tained for our guidance at home, our Colonial 
 and Indian ministries will ere long revive what 
 is open to no objection, and must tend to the 
 best results. It is hardly rash to assert, that 
 with the timely publication of the documents 
 respecting China to be here produced after sixty 
 years' suppression of them, the present favourable 
 opening of this rich country to our trade might 
 have been commanded long ago ; whilst they 
 will be seen to be of a character to silence all 
 possible objections to their publication almost
 
 INTRODUCTION. XI 
 
 concurrently with the events to which they 
 relate. 
 
 We possess, in this way, means of intelligence 
 at our command such as no nation ever had 
 before ; and a field lies before us for the wise, 
 humane, and vigorous application of that intelli- 
 gence, surpassing even our own great colonizing 
 works. 
 
 At the same time, proof exists, amounting to 
 demonstration, that the neglect of what was 
 approved in 1842, by our Colonial Minister, 
 has led to unparalleled horrors, and enormous waste 
 of treasure in one region alone South Africa. 
 That region was selected at the time, to develop 
 the method of our Colonial analyses proposed ; 
 and with due intelligence, the best and most suc- 
 cessful system of Colonial rule ever carried out 
 with the sanction of Parliament, could not have 
 been abandoned, as in ignorance it then was. 
 Without that intelligence, for Parliament was 
 kept in the darken the subject of South Africa ten 
 whole years, we first had the burthen of the 
 two needless Caffre wars of '46 '51 to bear, 
 and they have been followed by the utter ruin 
 of a small people, our neighbours eager to
 
 Xli INTRODUCTION. 
 
 share our civilization upon fair terms. Yet 
 their ruin is at this moment on the brink of 
 completion, whilst we are parcelling out their 
 ands, for which we have paid an enormous 
 price, both in coin, blood, and honour. 
 
 II. 
 
 The need of improved principles of intercourse with the 
 Chinese. The Earl of Elgin to the Merchants of 
 Shanghae. Our conquests to be stayed in the East, 
 and its people to be treated with more justice. 
 
 THERE is urgent need, moreover, of much 
 improvement in the political and commercial 
 principles by which we are to conduct our inter- 
 course hereafter with the people of China. 
 Since the late treaties, indeed, with its govern- 
 ment, the cautions sagaciously given a few 
 months since by the Earl of Elgin to the mer- 
 chants of Shanghae, in order to moderate their 
 too eager expectation of profit from the trade of 
 that vast country, and in order to guide all our 
 proceedings with its inhabitants, have become
 
 INTRODUCTION. Xlll 
 
 of paramount urgency to the Western Nations, 
 in all their relations with the East. Proper 
 inquiries into the special history of the Chinese, 
 and into the history of the travels, the trade, 
 and diplomacy of the more western world 
 with the far East, will show that a great debt 
 is owing from us to that too little known 
 people. The Earl of Elgin, in reply to a pre- 
 vious address from the merchants of Shanghae, 
 conceived not only no sanguine anticipations of 
 commercial success, but also in a spirit of ag- 
 gression, as if the government of China required 
 extraordinary stray " demonstrations before its 
 lofty pretensions could be reduced to pliancy," 
 says 
 
 " You express the trust that the result of my 
 exertions may be ' more fully to develop the vast 
 resources of China,' and to ' extend among the 
 people the elevating influences of a higher civi- 
 lization.' 
 
 " The expectations held out to British manu- 
 facturers at the close of the last war between 
 Great Britain and China, when they were told 
 that a new world was opened to their trade, so 
 vast that all the mills in Lancashire could not
 
 x iv INTRODUCTION. 
 
 make stocking stuff sufficient for one of its pro- 
 vinces, have not been realized ; and / am of 
 opinion that when force and diplomacy shall 
 have done all that they can legitimately effect, 
 the work which has to be accomplished in China 
 will be but at its commencement. 
 
 " When the barriers which prevent free access 
 to the interior of the country shall have been 
 removed, the Christian civilization of the West 
 will find itself face to face, not with barbarism, 
 but with an ancient civilization in many respects 
 effete and imperfect, but in others not without 
 claims to our sympathy and respect." * 
 
 This solemn and most wise judgment from 
 our own ambassador, purports that besides the 
 " legitimate uses of force and diplomacy," there 
 are other proper means of intercourse with the 
 Chinese wherewith to win our way to their 
 reasonable confidence; and the precept must 
 be made our familiar text, and be enrolled 
 among our household words. There is need of 
 such spurs to just and prudent resolves in all 
 our proceeedings in the supposed new work 
 
 * See Appendix A, for the entire address of Lord 
 Elgin.
 
 INTRODUCTION. XT 
 
 now opening upon us. The great principle of 
 humanity which Lord Elgin really rests upon, 
 cannot fail to become at once the subject of 
 earnest investigation, if the present occasion be 
 properly used by the men appointed to watch, 
 that the policy of this country be shaped to its 
 lasting and honourable advantage. We shall 
 not assuredly be wanting in our old, brave quali- 
 ties by becoming more resolutely peaceful. But 
 that principle of humanity, bitterly as we have 
 to repent of its violations by us, lies deep en- 
 shrined in our history ; and it has been settled 
 by the parliamentary declaration that wars for 
 conquest and the enlargement of dominion are 
 repugnant to the true genius of our people and 
 the best dictates of the constitution. Upon our 
 relations with the whole East, critical events are 
 before us ; and we are under the holiest obliga- 
 tion to give heed to these portentous signs, 
 however bravely danger must be repelled and 
 difficulties struggled against. With no thought 
 of abandoning what we hold, the past may be 
 repaired with honour by listening to the coun- 
 sels of experience. Our hopeful prospects in 
 China and Japan offer easier means of com-
 
 XVI INTRODUCTION. 
 
 pensating the Eastern world for great com- 
 mercial and political wrongs done there by us. 
 Those vast regions are also linked to us by 
 another more newly- opened world from Hudson's 
 Bay, " the Baltic of North America," * destined 
 at no distant period to teem with the free and 
 hardy founders of settlements direct across to 
 British Columbia, and to prosper in friendly 
 rivalry with our republican brothers in the 
 
 >. 
 
 south. 
 
 But the loftier principles of humane policy 
 must be made our pole-star in this fresh career 
 of real, national greatness, in the spirit in which 
 Parliament declared in the last century, " that to 
 pursue schemes of conquest and extension of 
 dominion in India are measures repugnant to 
 the wishes, the honour, and policy of this 
 
 * It will be permitted to the editor of this Journal to 
 state, that this designation of Hudson's Bay, so strongly 
 significant of capabilities equivalent to those commanded 
 by Danes, Norwegians, Swedes, Germans, and Russians, 
 on another freezing sea, was, he thinks, first given to the 
 American Hudson's Bay in letters written some years ago 
 by a relative of his from California, to urge on ministers 
 to take timely steps for colonizing our northern possessions 
 from these islands.
 
 INTRODUCTION. XVII 
 
 nation ;" * and therefore expressly forbade all 
 wars without authority from home, except in 
 case of actual or prepared hostility. 
 
 It is, then, our policy at home that must be 
 curbed ; and after half a century's fatal abandon- 
 ment of the sagacious resolution by the par- 
 liament of George the Third, her present 
 Majesty has wisely been advised to proclaim to 
 India that " we desire no extension of our 
 present territorial possessions" there ; and the 
 Queen promises what a great minister, Charles 
 James Fox, so earnestly called for, " a system 
 of measures that would secure peace and pros- 
 perity to India." 
 
 Another great man arrived at an analogous 
 conclusion respecting the East, by historical 
 deduction. Principal Robertson, at the close of 
 his eminently honoured life, declared his confi- 
 dence and satisfaction that his own labours upon 
 India would tend to correct the erroneous opi- 
 nions which commonly prevailed, to the injury 
 of its swarthy tribes. He was persuaded that 
 with more KNOWLEDGE the European rulers o* 
 
 * 1783, 21 Geo. III. c. 65, and 1793, 33 Geo. III. 
 c. 52.
 
 xviii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 India would direct their sway there more and 
 more humanely. 
 
 Such observations, to be found among the 
 very last of the writings of the eloquent Scottish 
 divine, have the solemnity of a dying man's 
 declaration; and they should be weighed at 
 a crisis when our churches are too prone to 
 offer up their prayers for our own people, 
 instead of the " whole race of mankind," the 
 objects of a broader and therefore wiser service. 
 The authority of Dr. Robertson is not the less 
 deserving of trust, since in his works is dis- 
 played the rare excellence of profound historical 
 truth united with brilliant grace of style,* and 
 his just conclusion upon India applies with equal 
 force to China. It was a conclusion formed at 
 a memorable period in our own career beyond 
 sea. There had also been growing up for half 
 a century all over Europe, throughout the Chris- 
 tian world, a warm feeling in favour of our 
 more humane treatment of the world not 
 Christian. The liberation of France and Ger- 
 many was becoming deeply imbued with phi- 
 
 * Lord Brougham's Lives of the Men of Letters of 
 the time of George the Third, p. 258.
 
 INTRODUCTION. XIX 
 
 lanthropy. America shared the spirit in the 
 avowed sentiments of Franklin, Benezet, and 
 Washington. Here, independently of the aveng- 
 ing inquest by Mr. Burke and his illustrious 
 supporters into atrocities committed in Hin- 
 dostan, the King's ministers zealously entered 
 upon a diplomatic intercourse with China, which 
 originated in a cordial invitation of such inter- 
 course from the Court of Pekin. 
 
 Indeed, of the good influences of the eighteenth 
 century, so fit to be set off against its corrup- 
 tions and its crimes, not the least important 
 was the earnest endeavours of France and Bri- 
 tain to search out and enlighten the dark places 
 of remote regions. The peaceful missions of 
 the time to China and Japan are to be traced 
 to such explorations under the Bougainvilles 
 and the Cooks of those days. To set the negro 
 slave free, and to bring hope to the convict's cell, 
 were great works ; but it was better to aim as 
 men then did, and are only beginning to do so 
 again, at the prosperous spread of our civiliza- 
 tion far and wide, without sacrificing our fellow- 
 men of any class or nation in our progress.
 
 XX INTRODUCTION. 
 
 III. 
 
 The Chinese Government well disposed in the last two 
 centuries to encourage friendly intercourse with 
 foreign governments ; and at a critical period, pre- 
 pared to grant domestic reforms, based upon a love of 
 TRUTH, and calculated to facilitate such intercourse 
 with us. 
 
 THE invitations from two aged and most dis- 
 tinguished Chinese Emperors, Kang-hi, in 1697, 
 and Kien-Long, in 1786, to European powers of 
 the first rank, to open diplomatic intercourse 
 with Pekin, were surely conclusive refutations 
 of the common opinion respecting the exclusive 
 character of the Chinese government. Allow- 
 ance will be readily made for circumstances 
 which have given rise to that erroneous opinion ; 
 and the difficulties of the whole case can be 
 properly accounted for by a fair consideration of 
 the perplexity with which a proud and not in- 
 corrupt Eastern Court must have looked upon 
 the steady progress of Western nations the 
 Russians in the North the British in India for 
 a century towards its greatness. The conduct 
 of the Western ecclesiastics, admitted liberally
 
 INTRODUCTION. XXI 
 
 into the heart of China, had not always proved 
 their Christianity to be humble and peaceful as 
 they professed it was. Other bodies of men 
 of various European nations, long frequenters of 
 the Chinese coasts, and only of latter times 
 limited to the trade of Canton had too often 
 exhibited habitual disorders and mutual jealousies, 
 that lowered them all in the eyes of the Chinese 
 government and people. And when, at length, 
 the dominant traders, the agents of the East 
 India Company, acquired with their greater 
 wealth a higher character, there was permitted 
 to grow the frightful opium smuggling, to our 
 immense profit, and ruinously to China, which 
 alone was enough to mar all the good we ever 
 did there. 
 
 What influence is justly to be attributed to 
 European agencies, as stimulants to the Chinese 
 troubles of the last fifty years, cannot be well 
 estimated ; but the efforts made by the Imperial 
 government to stay the source of those troubles, 
 call for our profound respect. 
 
 Concurrently with our diplomatic mission to 
 Pekin, under Lord Amherst, in 1816, offering 
 to China that just system of intercourse with
 
 Xxii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the west which the former sovereigns had 
 approved, the Emperor issued a proclamation 
 to his people, in order to initiate an era of great 
 reformation in the country itself, declaring such 
 reformation to be the only way to save it from 
 convulsion. 
 
 " Govern," said his Imperial Majesty to the 
 officers of the state, "govern with truth and 
 sincerity, and order will be the result ; if not, 
 anarchy will ensue. To an individual, to a 
 family, even to the sovereign, and the whole 
 empire, nothing further is required but TRUTH. 
 At this moment great degeneracy prevails ; the 
 magistrates are destitute of truth, and multi- 
 tudes of the people are false." 
 
 The gigantic rebellion then begun in China, 
 and raging to this day, is attributed by the 
 Emperor, in the spirit familiar to Chinese usage, 
 to his own " moral defects ;" but it is to the 
 Imperial functionaries of all ranks that this 
 appeal is the most earnestly addressed. 
 
 It was an appeal of the highest authority for 
 administrative reform on a gigantic scale, and 
 to be based upon popular sympathies.
 
 INTRODUCTION. XX111 
 
 The document* is to be found among our 
 records collected preparatory to Lord Amherst's 
 mission ; and it may well have been held to 
 indicate a disposition to accept from us good 
 offices, in aid of the reformation so earnestly 
 desired, and so much in harmony with the 
 best Chinese constitutions. 
 
 Assuredly it is not for us, who justly assert 
 our purer, Christian civilization, to add fresh 
 difficulties to those that beset the Chinese 
 government. We are earnest at home for many 
 reforms ; and are bound to assist the efforts of 
 those whose chief calls for a reign of TRUTH 
 upon earth. 
 
 The application of the lesson rests with the 
 true statesmen ; and with the sincere philan- 
 thropists terms that should be largely synon- 
 imous, with all whom the genius and the 
 counsels of the Burkes and the Robertsons of 
 the last century should more and more in-* 
 fluence, when dealing with the East. Fresh 
 appeals must be made with energy to the 
 national spirit which then did much for Indian 
 
 * Appendix E.
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 reforms ; and whatever the Earl of Elgin may 
 have accomplished more to justify his warning 
 to the merchants of Shanghae, must be sup- 
 ported with zeal, to do honour to that good 
 natural spirit claimed by illustrious men for 
 centuries as the genuine spirit of the British 
 constitution, hating fraud for any gain, and 
 sanctioning force only for beneficial purposes. 
 
 At the same time, what an envoy may have 
 erred in, must be boldly corrected. The result 
 will be the development of means to strengthen 
 and extend the solemn Parliamentary declaration 
 of 1783 and 1793 against aggressive war, by 
 shewing a way to natural aggrandisement 
 superior to, and far more enduring than the 
 sanguinary conquests of the Alexanders and 
 Caesars, and their modern imitators. This 
 better policy will consist in a just system of 
 commercial interccurse, calculated to secure 
 benefits to all who respect it, and who are will- 
 ing to impose upon men only honest obliga- 
 tions.
 
 INTRODUCTION. XXV 
 
 IV. 
 
 The general opinion respecting the dislike of Fo- 
 reigners by the Chinese, erroneous. 
 
 No conviction is more deeply rooted among 
 us than the opinion that the Chinese people and 
 Government have, time out of mind, been in- 
 superably opposed to fair intercourse with fo- 
 reigners, unless under the compulsion of armed 
 force. This opinion has not, indeed, been undis- 
 puted, but it is become almost universal. It 
 is expressed in strong language, in a very able 
 work, written to counteract the exclusive prin- 
 ciple thus vehemently imputed to a people with 
 whom we have long wished to trade on equal 
 terms. " The Mandarins," it is asserted in that 
 book, " have rejected, as they would avoid contact 
 with the plague, every proposal from a foreigner 
 for the establishment of friendly intercourse. 
 Timeo Danaos, et dona ferentes, has been the 
 never-failing answer of the Chinese government 
 to offers of friendship and advantage from 
 other governments." 31 
 
 * England and America. Loud. 8vo. 1833. vol. i. p. 296. 
 
 b
 
 Xxvi INTRODUCTION. 
 
 This unqualified statement occurs in the 
 work of one who by that work thoroughly ex- 
 posed our colonial maladministration ; and who, 
 familiar as he was with all forms of its cor- 
 ruption, might well have looked more carefully 
 upon the policy of a great people, not only not 
 indisposed to meet us upon equal conditions, but 
 also capable of appreciating things respecting 
 which we have superior intelligence. That people, 
 too, have been the source from which we have 
 perhaps derived more than one institution essen- 
 tial to our social welfare, and certainly obtained 
 some of the valued most of industrial products. 
 
 But the author of England and America 
 shared the enormous error commonly prevalent 
 on this subject. From the point of view in which 
 he examined it, the leading part of his case was 
 mistaken, and he was ako misled by a common 
 unfounded assumption, arising out of the super- 
 ficial estimate habitually taken by our most expe- 
 rienced statesmen, and by our greatest advisers of 
 important affairs beyond sea. These affairs have 
 never secured attention except by fits and starts 
 upon the occurence of some calamity a war, 
 or an insurrection upon the renewal of charters
 
 INTRODUCTION. XXV11 
 
 to rich companies, or upon a great discovery of 
 precious metals. Hitherto, as soon as a dis- 
 turbing incident has passed by, our indifference 
 to its colonial or Indian scene is fleeting about, 
 returns. After the trial of Warren Hastings, 
 and during the first quarter of the present cen- 
 tury, commercial monopoly and administrative 
 abuses revived, to be followed by a marvellous 
 indifference respecting India ; and the result of 
 that trial really concealed from us the fields of 
 peaceful enterprize at our command from Bombay 
 to Japan. There was then set up in its place 
 a system of unlimited conquests, which, in 
 defiance of the injunctions of Parliament, was 
 fast overleaping the Himalayas, and alarming, 
 when not threatening, all eastern Asia. 
 
 France has shared our faults of ignorance 
 and ambition on this head of territorial rule 
 beyond sea ; and she has more than shared our 
 punishment. Whilst we have secured many 
 indemnities for our frequent disasters, France 
 has been stripped by us successively of her 
 colonial possessions in Canada, in the West 
 Indies, in the Indian Ocean, and upon the Con- 
 tinent of India. Nor has France any corrective
 
 XXVJii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 as Britain has, in the freedom and energy of 
 individuals, against administrative corruption 
 and incapacity. While Downing Street has 
 been in profound sleep, or bewildered for want 
 of intelligence, or misled by intrigue respect- 
 ing the proper policy for our colonies, the 
 colonists for the most part have taken care of 
 themselves, and saved the national honour so 
 far as their own material interests are concerned. 
 But the cabinet of the Tuileries, pretending 
 despotically to rule its remotest dependencies, 
 paralyses them by fatal official influence. The 
 want of intelligence respecting French affairs 
 beyond sea betrayed by the French Cabinet, 
 as could be shown by astounding examples, sur- 
 passes even the ignorance of Downing Street res- 
 pecting our own remote affairs. How much the 
 French have forgotten events so honourable to 
 them as this Journal records the proceedings 
 of their government to have been respecting 
 China, was lately proved by the highest authority. 
 The Moniteur says, that the power of France 
 " has been little known in Pekin, save by the 
 vague remembrances left by the Jesuits con. 
 earning the grandeur of Lewis XIV., and subse-
 
 INTRODUCTION. XXIX 
 
 quently by the grandeur of Napoleon's 
 name." 
 
 This utter oblivion of the really successful 
 intercourse of Louis the Fourteenth with the 
 Emperor of China a success unquestionably won 
 by the renown of the Grand Monarque stands 
 in amusing contrast with the assumption of the 
 first Napoleon's influence in the East. We 
 took care that he should possess no power as 
 a conqueror there ; and his want of it was not 
 certainly compensated by his renown as a humane 
 reformer. The vanity may be pardoned that 
 prompts the French official organ in 1858 to 
 claim " the first rank in breaking down the 
 barriers of ages, which have kept nearly three 
 hundred millions of people in isolation." But 
 it is for the interest of France that her states- 
 men should be better read in diplomatic history, 
 which records a much earlier and much worthier 
 opening of the mysterious land, than that which 
 we are now busy about It is much more in- 
 cumbent upon French statesmen to call care- 
 fully to mind the causes of the failure of France 
 in China so soon after the country had been 
 fairly opened to them one hundred and fifty years
 
 XXX INTRODUCTION. 
 
 ago. They should now revive the admirable 
 speculation of the very ablest of their economists, 
 the Abbe Morellet, on their trade. At this mo- 
 ment they are acting against his wise conclusions, 
 byforcible territorial acquisitions in Cochin-China; 
 and they are doing this, when ever since 1830 the 
 like marauding expeditions from Algiers to the 
 South Seas have drained them of hundreds of 
 millions of their treasure, without a single solid 
 compensation. The Abbe Morellet demon- 
 strates, unanswerably, that China and its rich 
 resources may be reached by France far more 
 persuasively and more profitably by peaceful 
 trade, than by all such conquests as the first Na- 
 poleon and his successors, whether Bourbon, 
 Orleanist, or Imperial, could possibly effect. 
 
 Another voyage to China, by a French royal 
 ship, in the reign of Charles the Tenth, directed 
 by a skilful navigator, Admiral La Place, seems 
 to be also forgotten, although now meriting 
 earnest attention for its peculiar bearing upon 
 the trade of the French in the East.
 
 INTRODUCTION. XXXl 
 
 V. 
 
 The Four British Missions toPekin in 1787, 1792, 1804, 
 and 1816. 
 
 THE prospect of satisfactory intercourse with 
 China, will be much cleared by examining the 
 character of our own four solemn communica- 
 tions with its government before we made war 
 upon that country ; and so got hostile posses- 
 sion of a small portion of it Hong-Kong. 
 Two of those communications, that under 
 Colonel Cathcart, in 1787, and those of 1804, 
 are almost unknown. The other two, Lord 
 Macartney's embassy in 1792, and Lord Am- 
 herst's in 1816, have been the subjects of many 
 printed volumes, which, however, omit some 
 things of great interest at present, and essen- 
 tially belonging to both. 
 
 The four missions to Pekin originated in an 
 invitation addressed by the Chinese court to the 
 agents of the East India Company at Canton, 
 upon the occasion of a great solemnity in honour 
 of the aged Emperor, Kien Long, one of the 
 most venerated sovereigns of China. Impru- 
 dently, no advantage was taken by the Supra
 
 XXXii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Cargoes of this favourable opportunity of im- 
 proving our national relations with the central 
 government of that country. 
 
 There was a difference of opinion respecting 
 the disposition of that central government to- 
 wards foreigners. All were agreed that the 
 conduct of the authorities at Canton was op- 
 pressive ; but whilst some well-informed persons 
 were thoroughly persuaded that proper appeals 
 to the Emperor at Pekin would be well re- 
 ceived, and effectually check those local au- 
 thorities, the company's representatives took an 
 adverse view of the case,* appearing to have 
 been remarkably ill informed on the subject. 
 Their chief, Mr. Fitzhugh, in 1787, made the 
 following statement respecting the mission to 
 Pekin then settled by George III. himself. 
 
 After asserting that all former embassies had 
 failed to conciliate the Chinese court, he pro- 
 ceeds :* " I cannot suggest to myself a reason 
 why one sent from England should be more 
 favoured. The Chinese government is proud 
 and insolent. It looks with contempt on all 
 foreign nations. Its ignorance of their force 
 
 * Records at the Board of Control, vol. 148, p. 1.
 
 INTRODUCTION. XXX111 
 
 gives it confidence in its own strength, which by 
 experience it knows to be superior to the border- 
 ing hordes of Tartars with whom it is com- 
 monly engaged in war : nor do I think it looks 
 on Embassies in any other light than acknow- 
 ledgments of inferiority. Many I know are 
 of a different opinion, and they form it from 
 what has sometimes passed at Canton, where, 
 when disputes have arisen, there has been an 
 appearance of fear, not only in the common 
 people and merchants, but among the Man- 
 darins ; and even the Viceroy himself has 
 shewn anxiety and apprehension. Allowing this 
 to be true, it does not change my opinion ; 
 because I have always believed that such ap- 
 prehensions arose not from our power and 
 force, but from the absurdity of their own 
 government, which supposes, that if any dis- 
 turbance happens, it must be owing to some 
 misconduct of the magistrates ; and if the 
 tumult is of a serious nature, and lives are lost, 
 the Mandarins are disgraced sometimes exe- 
 cuted. 
 
 " I think the Ambassador would be well re-
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 ceived, as far as the pride and singular forms of 
 the Chinese allowed. The prostrating himself 
 before the Emperor's throne would not on any 
 account be dispensed with. It is said that this 
 ceremony has for many years been the bar to a 
 French Embassy." 
 
 " With regard, then, to, first, in what part of 
 China it would be proper to land the Ambassa- 
 dor, I think he ought to land at Canton, because 
 it is the place which all embassies from Europe 
 have hitherto been sent to, excepting the Rus- 
 sian, which went through Siberia to Pekin, and 
 it is at present the only place to which Eu- 
 ropeans are allowed to go. This may appear a 
 frivolous reason to you ; but custom and prejudice 
 usurp the place of reason among a people bigot- 
 ed to forms. Otherwise TIEN-TSIN is a sea- 
 port within seventy miles of the capital, which for 
 distance would be more eligible, as the journey 
 from Canton to Pekin is above fourteen hundred 
 miles. But there appears to me a material 
 reason why Tien-tsin would be an exceptional 
 port for an English Ambassador to debark at. 
 It is the place to which an English Agent was 
 sent in the year 1759 to present a remonstrance ;
 
 INTRODUCTION. XXXV 
 
 and it was hoped he would be able to proceed to 
 Pekin. He was not, however, permitted either 
 to go thither or to embark again, but sent down 
 by land to Canton, with orders from the Court to 
 make good his charges, and the vessel was 
 obliged immediately to leave the port. I think 
 it therefore probable that the Chinese Govern- 
 ment, suspecting something of a similar nature 
 by the arrival of another English ship, might 
 proceed in a violent and peremptory manner, 
 without considering the difference between the 
 company's Agent and the King's Ambassador." 
 It will not have escaped the reader's notice 
 that a motive is here attributed to the French 
 government for always abstaining from diplo- 
 matic intercourse with the Chinese government, 
 in direct contradiction to the facts established 
 by the record of the mission of 1698. Now, 
 how entirely Mr. Fitzhugh erred, was shown by 
 Lord Macartney's proceedings in 1792. He 
 landed without the slightest difficulty at the port 
 nearest to Pekin ; was received there with great 
 respect ; did not submit to the degradation so 
 positively looked for ; and the mission actually 
 produced an earnest desire on the part of the
 
 XXXVI INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Chinese Government that it should be followed 
 up by more familiar diplomatic intercourse at 
 Pekin. 
 
 To our own reigning sovereign, George III., 
 is due the credit of having been the most earnest 
 to meet the invitation of the Chinese Court 
 frankly, promptly, and liberally. His Majesty 
 expressed much regret when he learned that the 
 Company's agents at Canton had acted in the 
 matter with so little consideration ;* and when 
 the first mission was stopped by the death of 
 the envoy, the King at once " determined" it 
 should be revived.f 
 
 Thus, as in the case of Captain Cook's voyages 
 of discovery, the Chinese Mission may be pro- 
 perly called a personal work of George III. 
 
 The ministers of the Crown of that day, Mr. 
 Pitt and Mr. Dundas, understood human nature 
 better than the worthy supracargo of the East 
 India Company at Canton. Therefore, by their 
 advice and active interposition, the error com- 
 
 * Records at the Board of Control, vol. 193. 
 
 t This determination was signified to the Board of 
 Contract the 8th of February, 1789, by Secretary Gren- 
 ville. Records, ib.
 
 INTRODUCTION. XXXV11 
 
 mitted by him and his colleagues was fully recti- 
 fied. They had curious information on the 
 subject for their guidance, as shown by the fol- 
 lowing three papers, which require little com- 
 ment. The first seems to have been written by 
 a friendly European in Pekin, probably one of 
 the Christian priests long settled there. Such 
 an individual was afterwards friendly, and very 
 serviceable to Lord Macartney in 1792. 
 
 Extract of a letter received 1779.* 
 
 " It gives me no small uneasiness when I re- 
 flect on the harsh and unjust treatment which 
 the Europeans meet with at Canton, and I am 
 certain that if the Emperor was acquainted with 
 one hundredth part of the frauds and villainy of 
 those Mandarins he would hang them every one. 
 The four millions (of dollars) owing by the 
 Chinese would certainly be immediately dis- 
 charged, and, if no other way could be found, 
 out of the public treasury, so just and strict is 
 this emperor, more particularly when foreigners 
 are concerned. I do not mention the robbery 
 
 * Records at the Board of Control, vol. 148, p. 30.
 
 XXXviii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 committed on board your ship at Whampoa, 
 which would be looked upon as a most atrocious 
 outrage ; but how represent such a circumstance 
 without creating a great deal of confusion? 
 
 Imagine to yourself, my dear Mr. , that WE 
 
 are only twenty Europeans among so many mil- 
 lions of infidels. The Mandarins of Canton are 
 all related to, or supported by the ministers and 
 grandees of the empire, to please whom, and 
 to ensure their protection, they are obliged to 
 send immense presents. Wherefore, had we an 
 inclination to inform the Emperor, than which 
 to me nothing would be more easy, I need only 
 show your letter to one of his sons or grandson 
 (with whom I have frequently conversed about 
 you and your nation), what would be the 
 consequence? One of two events must take 
 place. Either the Emperor would order a general 
 massacre of the Mandarins of Canton, and also 
 of their patrons here ; and the odium must fall on 
 us Europeans, doomed to live among so many 
 beasts, who would seek to revenge themselves 
 on us for the loss or death of their relations, &c. ; 
 or he might send a person to Canton, to examine 
 into the truth of the accusations, when every
 
 INTRODUCTION. XXXIX 
 
 artifice would be made use of, to clear their 
 countrymen, and throw the whole blame on the 
 Europeans. What, then, is to be done ? Would 
 the foreigners all unite, it would be easy to hit 
 upon some scheme ; but the animosities among 
 them at Canton, where each nation is aiming 
 at the abasement of the rest, occasion the 
 many oppressions." 
 
 The second is without date, but it was pro- 
 bably written shortly after the first. The genu- 
 ineness of both letters was vouched for to the 
 satisfaction of Mr. George Rose, who communi- 
 cated them to the ministers, his colleagues. 
 
 " Translation from a paper received from a 
 friend up the country, in answer to some 
 questions asked, whether it would not be 
 possible to put the Europeans who trade to 
 China, on a more equitable and respectable 
 footing ?* 
 
 " With regard to the oppressions and abuses 
 suffered by the Europeans who either reside in, 
 or annually come to Canton to trade, there is no 
 
 * Records of the Board of Control, vol. 148, p. 29.
 
 xl INTRODUCTION. 
 
 other mode of redress than to find some method 
 of laying them before the Emperor, who, being 
 a man of integrity, and desirous that justice 
 should be done to every one, particularly to 
 strangers, would immediately apply the proper 
 remedy, and severely punish the guilty persons. 
 In the present state of affairs this cannot be 
 done, as the very persons whose duty it is to 
 acquaint him of the situation of them, are the very 
 same who most vex and defraud the poor Euro- 
 peans, whence it arises that many circumstances 
 are totally suppressed, or when they come to 
 his knowledge are so grossly misrepresented, 
 that the whole blame is thrown on the Euro- 
 peans, who neither are permitted, nor know how 
 to defend their cause in this country. Where- 
 fore, if they would one and all resolve to rouse, 
 reduce things to a proper system, and free them- 
 selves from their present slavery, they might 
 adopt one of the following plans, which appear 
 to me the only permanent ones, and agreeable 
 to every law. The difficulty would princi- 
 pally consist in bringing the different nations 
 to be of one mind and to act in concert. 
 
 " Plan 1 . That all the nations who trade to
 
 INTRODUCTION. xli 
 
 Canton unite, and send, in the joint name of 
 their respective Princes, an Ambassador or En- 
 voy to the Court, who should represent to the 
 Emperor the necessity of having a person either 
 at Pekin or Canton, who should present to the 
 Emperor himself all memorials or petitions, and 
 not to inferior mandarins (as this mode is liable 
 to much abuse) : to demand likewise the con- 
 firmation and enlargement of certain privileges 
 which might be easily managed and obtained, 
 provided that no mention be made of past abuses, 
 to avoid the opposition which would be made 
 by the guilty ministers and mandarins. 
 
 " It would be necessary to find out an inter- 
 preter, who, void of partiality to any particular 
 nation, would sincerely aim at the advantage of 
 the Europeans in general, and still better if any 
 European, perfect master of the language, could 
 be found to accompany the Embassy. With 
 regard to the expenses which might be incurred 
 by such a step, I am of opinion they would be 
 amply repaid by one year's savings of the ex- 
 tortions of the mandarins and frauds of the 
 Chinese merchants. In case any particular 
 nation would undertake such negociation, clear
 
 xlii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 and open instructions can be sent, and a secure 
 place may be asked and obtained for carrying 
 it on. 
 
 " Plan 2. To transport all the European 
 trade to Macao, come to an agreement with the 
 King of Portugal, and enact European laws. 
 The Chinese would certainly come to trade with 
 the Europeans not only at Macao, but on any 
 of the neighbouring islands where they might 
 choose to settle ; nor would they despise Macao 
 when they found it patronized by all nations. 
 Respecting the duties and anchorage, it might 
 be wholly saved or paid by the Chinese, to 
 whom the commerce is more beneficial than to 
 the Europeans. 
 
 " These are the two modes which have 
 hitherto occurred to those who wish to remedy 
 the insupportable impositions which daily grow 
 more intolerable. 
 
 " More distinct and clear instructions shall be 
 sent, in case the business should be seriously 
 taken in hand, either according to the one or 
 the other plan." 
 
 The third paper is more elaborate. It was 
 the production of Dr. John Ewart, whose heart
 
 INTRODUCTION. xliii 
 
 was in the work. He was attached to the Mis- 
 sion of Colonel Cathcart, and might have been a 
 member, with advantage, of Lord Macartney's. 
 The following are extracts from Dr. Ewart's 
 
 " Facts and considerations relative to the 
 proposed Embassy to China.* 
 
 " It is probable that an Embassy may easily 
 procure admittance into China, because we have 
 authentic journals of successive Embassies to 
 Pekin from the beginning of the fifteenth down 
 to the middle of the present century. Though 
 from powers less considerable than England, 
 they have been uniformly received with every 
 mark of distinction, and it is not presumable 
 that the only exception will be made to one 
 from this country, which shall be properly ap- 
 pointed, and conducted according to the forms 
 required by the Chinese Government. 
 
 " It is possible to obtain leave for the Em- 
 bassador to sail directly to the north-east coast. 
 The Emperor of China requires likewise marks 
 of submission, not conceded by the Erabassadors 
 
 * Records of the Board of Control, vol. 148, p. 137
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 of a Sovereign to any other Prince, such as pros- 
 trating before him and beating the forehead 
 nine times on the floor; and without these 
 condescensions no Embassador was ever received. 
 They are nevertheless considered more as a 
 form than a submission, for the Emperor's 
 prime minister returns the same marks of reve- 
 rence to the credential letter presented by the 
 Embassador to the Sovereign. 
 
 " It is to be feared that the chief obstacles to 
 the success of the mission will be raised by the 
 Mandarins at Canton, who would lose immense 
 profits if part of the commerce of Europe were 
 to be transferred to other ports. The interests 
 of the northern provinces, in which the Court 
 resides, and those of the empire at large, are, 
 however, directly opposed to the private and 
 local advantages of the Mandarins and mer- 
 chants at Canton. It is chiefly and almost 
 solely in the former, that our woollen manu- 
 factures and our furs from Nootka are wanted 
 for clothing, on account of the coldness of the 
 climate. If the ports of these provinces were 
 opened, the expense of those articles would be 
 diminished, by the whole saving of land-car-
 
 INTRODUCTION. xv 
 
 riage through an extent of twenty-four degrees 
 of latitude. Our tin, for which the demand 
 increases daily, would be landed at once in the 
 province of Fokien, where it is chiefly wanted 
 for packing the teas, and so on with respect of 
 other commodities. 
 
 " By the same means the Chinese would ex- 
 port their own productions to better advantage, 
 and a much greater extent. The province last- 
 mentioned lies immediately upon the coast, and 
 supplies the best teas. Adjoining to it is the 
 province of Kiansi, where the best porcelain is 
 manufactured ; the exports of which could not 
 fail to be much increased, when freed from the 
 expense and risks of transporting such frangible 
 ware overland to Canton. On the coast still 
 farther to the north-east, is the province of Che 
 Kiang, which yields the best and most extensive 
 productions of silk, another of their staple 
 exports. 
 
 " It is a matter for the consideration of this 
 country, whether permission should be given to 
 import the silk stuffs of China into England 
 on paying an extreme duty that would raise 
 their price to the value of our own manufactures,
 
 xlvi INTRODUCTION. 
 
 to be drawn back, however, on their being ex- 
 ported again for the continent. 
 
 " Without hurting our own weavers, w r e might 
 thus supply all Europe with silks cheaper than 
 France or Russia could bring them to market. 
 The best Chinese satins and silks can be sold in 
 Europe one half cheaper than what are manu- 
 factured at home. 
 
 " It is probable that many other means might 
 be pointed out to the Chinese, whereby their 
 exports would be greatly increased, and their 
 manufacturers assured of regular employment 
 and subsistence. All the accounts we have of 
 China, how contradictory soever in other respects, 
 agree in this one fact, that in no country are 
 the labouring poor so uncertain of finding em- 
 ployment, and from this circumstance so fre- 
 quently exposed to want. The demand for, and 
 quantity of, labour is quite unequal to employ 
 those who depend on their industry for their 
 bread, which singular disproportion is no doubt 
 owing to their neglect of encouraging a foreign 
 trade. It appears hardly credible that the 
 human mind, however prejudiced, can refuse a 
 conviction of the benefits which the individuals
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 of that great empire, and the nation itself, must 
 derive from giving an outlet to its productions, 
 and employment to its productive labourers, 
 when the means of doing it to advantage are set 
 before them. 
 
 "The Chinese are likewise subject to the 
 calamity of frequent famines, from a failure of 
 their crops ; by which thousands are starved 
 every three or four years, upon an average. 
 Placed at the extremity of Asia, and cut off 
 from all possibility of supply from the countries 
 around them, by extensive barren deserts, the 
 Chinese can look for succour, in such distress, 
 only to the European settlements in India. 
 Bengal, the most fertile, is likewise the best 
 situated to give them relief. The Chinese may 
 be, therefore, induced to form an alliance with 
 the English, as being the only nation capable of 
 supplying them in times of famine. 
 
 " The encroachments and designs of the Rus- 
 sian governmenton China, afford likewise a means 
 of convincing the latter of the importance and 
 advantage to them of the friendship of England. 
 A Russian army maintained on the west frontiers 
 of China, and ships of war building on the coast
 
 xlviii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 of Kamschatka, can hardly have any object in 
 view but the annoyance of the Chinese, or the 
 forcing them again to admit caravans from 
 Siberia. The inability of the Chinese to defend 
 their coast against a Russian fleet, should they 
 be seriously threatened, must undoubtedly make 
 them desirous of our naval aid ; the advantages 
 to be gained by which are too obvious to re- 
 quire comment. The enmity which the Chinese 
 bear at this moment to the Russians is so great, 
 that they scruple to receive the furs brought 
 in English ships to Canton, from a suspicion 
 that we are become carriers of Russian goods. 
 
 " As the Chinese have on different occasions 
 sent ambassadors to distant nations, perhaps 
 they might be prevailed upon to return one to 
 England, which would certainly have a good 
 effect in cementing an alliance." John Ewart.
 
 INTRODUCTION. xlix 
 
 VI. 
 
 The Honourable Colonel Charles Cathcart's Mission to 
 Pekin in 1787. 
 
 THE utter neglect of the French and British 
 peaceful and invited missions to China in 1698 
 and 1787 by all historians, is a fact which 
 demonstrates that more is needed by us to 
 link the hopeful present with the rich past, 
 than turning over the pages of the most indus- 
 trious chroniclers. The tens of thousands of 
 folios of correspondence mouldering in the State 
 Paper Office, at the India House, and at the 
 Board of Control, leaving nothing unrecorded 
 in some shape, must be surveyed and analyzed. 
 For the mqst part the classification of these 
 papers is perfect. They contain the internal 
 proofs of the brave way taken by our fathers to 
 build up Britain beyond sea ; of our errors not 
 a few ; but, on the whole, the proofs are abun- 
 dant and strong that our boast is not unseemly 
 of those fathers having been worthy to teach the 
 
 c
 
 1 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 nations how to live. It is suicidal to our fair 
 fame to leave such historical treasures to accu- 
 mulate undigested ; but to lose their lessons and 
 their warnings, so useful to our future guidance, 
 must bring upon us speedy and merited punish- 
 ment. Long acquaintance with the character of 
 Colonial and Indian records enables us to speak 
 positively of their great value. The late learned 
 George Chalmers, then at the Board of Trade, 
 had published two useful volumes of legal ex- 
 tracts from them ; and he permitted the perusal 
 of the originals, with the advantage of his 
 personal comments on their history. His vo- 
 lumes belong to our classical colonial times the 
 times in which, from Somers and Jones to Ryder, 
 Yorke, and Lord Mansfield, every great colonial 
 question came under the consideration of real 
 lawyers. 
 
 For several years past the Direetors of the 
 East India Company have also given free access 
 to their China papers ; and recently those of the 
 Board of Control have been liberally opened by 
 the noble Secretary for India. 
 
 The French case belongs to the most painful 
 phase of the commerce of France in the East
 
 INTRODUCTION. H 
 
 the period immediately preceding the fall of that 
 commerce; and the case, with its proper ante- 
 cedents and consequents, would fill the most 
 valuable chapter in the history of that commerce 
 from Colbert to Turgot. 
 
 Our own case of Colonel Cathcart's incomplete 
 mission is of even more urgent interest ; and it 
 is matter of surprise more than of reproach, that 
 the pains-taking recorders of Scottish worthy- 
 hood should have left Charles Cathcart out of 
 its catalogue, 'when he was the able leader of the 
 best design ever planned to open the Court of 
 Pekin freely and fairly to us. 
 
 The actors in the case were of the highest 
 dignity ; its immediate circumstances of the 
 greatest weight. 
 
 The Parliamentary resolution of 1783 against 
 territorial aggression by our Indian governors, 
 was a fitting homage to the spirit of the times, 
 and in harmony with Lord Chatham's indig- 
 nant rejection of Lord Clive's scheme for attack- 
 ing the Chinese. 
 
 The Emperor of China had invited a mission 
 of compliment, in a perfectly friendly spirit, 
 from the representatives of the East India Com- 
 
 c 2
 
 Hi INTRODUCTION. 
 
 pany in Canton. They had failed from various 
 motives to meet that invitation, like prudent 
 men ; and a casual death in the harbour, leading 
 to an utterly unjustifiable judicial murder by the 
 Chinese, seems to have paralyzed them, although 
 in the person of Mr. Bevan, one of the super- 
 cargoes, they had a Chinese scholar of the first 
 class, capable of conversing in the court lan- 
 guage of Pekin. 
 
 George III., however, saw that the Emperor's 
 call was really an indication of a good spirit, 
 to be hailed with the warmest acceptance ; and 
 his Majesty's sensible views were powerfully 
 seconded by Mr. Pitt and Mr. Dundas, the 
 ministers, and as warmly met by their rivals, Mr. 
 Fox and Mr. Burke. Not the slightest difference 
 of judgment prevailed on the subject. 
 
 This great matter had a wider range in Euro- 
 pean and American sympathies. Leading minds 
 in all quarters were bent upon effecting the good 
 of humanity at large. The King of France, 
 poor Louis XVI., was a sincere philanthropist. 
 The Emperor of Germany was a philanthro- 
 pist, and as sincere. Washington and Frank- 
 lin were philanthropists. Negro slavery was
 
 INTRODUCTION. liii 
 
 then trembling in its chains. The whole Chris- 
 tian world was repenting of that sin, as we 
 were repentant of our special wrongs to India. 
 Sanguinary punishments were going out at 
 home. Howard reigned in all hearts. Philo- 
 sophy triumphed ; and for once the common 
 family of man seemed about to share the com- 
 mon blessings of Providence without envy and 
 without stint. Herder and Robertson, and 
 speedily after them Cowper and Thomas Camp- 
 bell, bards of all humanity and hope, were but 
 the exponents of one universal, practical faith in 
 our happy destiny. At that time, none wished, 
 or was able to say of us islanders that " the 
 wealth, the dominion, and greatness of England 
 must be accepted only along with its cruelty, its 
 nationality, and its poverty." * 
 
 But there is even more of special good than 
 this in the basis of the Chinese mission of 
 1787. Among the traders of the far East, 
 well-founded recent traditions prevailed to justify 
 confidence in the .sympathy of the Court of 
 Pekin with the whole human family. An active 
 body, connected with the trade of the Empire 
 
 * Memoirs of Perthes, 8vo. 1856, vol. ii. p. 306.
 
 Hv INTRODUCTION. 
 
 and the ports of Malaya, had long been per- 
 suaded, that the Court, properly approached, 
 was accessible. They maintained, what Lord 
 Macartney afterwards held to be correct, that 
 the spirited attempt of 1759 by Mr. Flint to 
 reach Pekin by the Peiho would have succeeded, 
 had it been made by a royal envoy. Between 
 that time and 1698 the visit of Commodore 
 Anson had favourably impressed the authorities 
 of Canton with the courage and good faith of 
 our people. 
 
 In all quarters, under such fair influences, 
 Chinese enterprise expanded ; and there was a 
 prospect of the Chinese people recovering the 
 way they lost through the atrocious buccaneering 
 of the Portuguese in the fifteenth century ; and 
 the unscrupulous scandals of the Dutch and 
 English in the century following. 
 
 One of the instructions to Colonel Cathcart 
 was to discover what had been the character 
 of previous diplomatic communications with the 
 Court of Pekin. That there had been such 
 communications there was no doubt, and they 
 were maintained from the first reign of the 
 Tartar conquerors of China early in the seven- 
 teenth century. It was even believed, upon pretty
 
 INTRODUCTION. lv 
 
 good grounds, that a Chinese ambassador had, at 
 some time in this period, been sent to Lisbon. 
 
 A mystery hung over all these transactions. 
 The Roman Catholic ecclesiastics of different 
 nations, French, Italian, Spanish, and German, 
 seem to have exercised at Pekin a sort of stand- 
 ing diplomatic representation of their several 
 countries. They were all hostile to the Pro- 
 testants ; so that the Dutch first, and after them 
 the English, were in this respect at great disad- 
 vantage in China. One of the objects of the 
 Cathcart mission was to put an end to this 
 unsatisfactory state of things. The Latin letter 
 from the Emperor of China to George III.,* 
 at the time of Lord Macartney's embassy, is 
 obviously the production of one of those eccle- 
 siastics, made up of genuine Chinese views and 
 such evasive turns as a crafty pen would give 
 to a communication entrusted to a European. 
 Under these circumstances, the selection of 
 Colonel Cathcart for the new British mission 
 may well have excited strong hopes in the Court 
 of George III. His personal qualifications for 
 the mission were beyond the ordinary rate ; and 
 
 * Appendix, E.
 
 Ivi INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the principles upon which the King presented 
 his envoy to the Emperor were worthy of the 
 occasion and of all the actors in it. 
 
 The secrecy with which the Chinese mission of 
 1787, entrusted to the Honourable Charles 
 Cathcart, was planned, seems to have thrown 
 it unfairly into the shade. Although in conse- 
 quence of the deaths of its leader, and two of its 
 chief members, on the voyage out, they had not 
 the honour to carry out the design entrusted to 
 them, their preparations for it seem to have 
 been judicious and complete. The scale was 
 not so magnificent as that of Lord Macartney's 
 embassy ; but its spirit was to the full as lofty 
 and humane. It originated almost concur- 
 rently with the resolution of parliament against 
 territorial aggression in India, embodied in the 
 statute of 1783. 
 
 VII. 
 
 Lord Macartney's Embassy, 1792. 
 
 THIS mission was an extended resumption of 
 Colonel Cathcart's. The disappointment caused
 
 INTRODUCTION. Ivii 
 
 by the decease of that officer did not weaken 
 the determination of our government to per- 
 severe in the attempt to establish friendly 
 intercourse with the Court of Pekin. The 
 choice of the new Ambassador was singularly 
 judicious. Lord Macartney had already given 
 good proof of ability during his public services 
 in America, and in Russia ; and as Governor of 
 Madras. He appears to have combined suf- 
 ficient personal dignity, with an uncommon con- 
 ciliatory demeanour ; and crowned that difficult 
 union of divers qualities by unquestionable 
 integrity. He was well seconded by Sir George 
 Staunton, whose son, one of the ambassador's 
 suite, at a very early age acquired so familiar a 
 knowledge of the Chinese language as to attract 
 the Emperor's kindly notice. One of the junior 
 members of this Embassy, the late Sir John 
 Barrow, gave in after-years ample proof of the 
 propriety with which its staff was selected. 
 
 To the ample accounts of this Embassy long 
 before the world, there may be added with 
 advantage two letters written by Lord Macart- 
 ney on his way home to Mr. Dundas, and to 
 the directors of the East India Company.
 
 Iviii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The letter to Mr. Dundas sets the prospect of 
 future diplomatic intercourse with Pekin itself in 
 strong colours. It also explains what has always 
 caused some hesitation in accepting the frank 
 civilities of the Emperor to Lord Macartney 
 personally, at their true value. There was a 
 serious obstacle to the mission altogether, irre- 
 spective of the enmity of the great functionaries 
 who were disposed unduly to countenance 
 their friends, the too greedy officials at Canton. 
 This obstacle was an apprehended military 
 movement on the frontier of Thibet ; and our 
 growing gigantic armaments in India. It 
 would not be difficult for an experienced minister 
 in any court, to exaggerate the danger of en- 
 couraging so powerful a neighbour; and an 
 honest one might be excused if he gave even 
 undue weight to appearances which we had not 
 been too careful to soften by a resolutely peace- 
 ful demeanour in India. 
 
 The friendship of Lord Macartney with 
 Chinese nobles, the intermediaries between his 
 Lordship and the Emperor, as set out in the fol- 
 lowing paper, is among the most interesting things 
 recorded in the history of the Embassy. This do-
 
 INTRODUCTION. lix 
 
 cument will, it is believed, much increase the inte- 
 rest of that embassy, sometimes called a failure. 
 
 " Extract of a letter from Lord Macartney, 
 dated Canton, December 23d, 1793, to 
 the Right Honourable Henry Dundas.* 
 
 " Upon this occasion the Viceroy opened 
 his mind, as I thought, very sincerely to 
 me. He considered, as he said, that not only 
 justice to us, but the honour of his own 
 country, required a change in its conduct towards 
 the English ; that he would be happy to be the 
 instrument of effecting such a change ; yet 
 considerable as was the authority entrusted to 
 him, and firm as his footing, being a kinsman 
 of the Emperor, might be supposed, yet his 
 situation was not without danger, nor the conduct 
 to be held by him without its difficulties. He said 
 that besides the men in office at Canton, inte- 
 rested in preventing the redress of the grievances 
 occasioned by themselves, and accustomed to 
 treat our nation with contempt, as well as with 
 injustice, we had prejudiced enemies at court 
 particularly his own predecessor, who might 
 consider reform as a censure on himself as having 
 * Records of the Board of Control, Vol. 150, p. 221.
 
 Ix INTRODUCTION. 
 
 suffered the abuse. But besides all these, 
 there was another consideration of serious 
 weight upon his mind. He was aware of the 
 peremptory style in which our requests were 
 refused by the Colao ; he knew not how such 
 a refusal might be represented by me to the 
 court of Great Britain, and if I endeavoured to 
 excite resentment there, any future appearance 
 of such resentment against his country, would 
 render him criminally answerable in the eyes of 
 his own Government for any favour shewn by 
 him to us in the mean time. He wished to be 
 fully satisfied in this respect. I was not quite 
 certain that this apprehension sprang from the 
 Viceroy's own mind. It might have arisen 
 from a still higher source ; but at any rate it 
 was some indication that from a fear of our 
 land forces in India, and of our strength every- 
 where by sea, the British nation was felt to be 
 too powerful not to require some management 
 even from this proud empire. I acknowledged 
 to the Viceroy that the first perusal of the 
 answers from the court of Pekin made an im- 
 pression on my mind which would naturally 
 have led me to represent the Chinese Govern-
 
 INTRODUCTION. Ixi 
 
 ment as indifferent if not inimical to that of 
 Great Britain, but that the explanations which 
 the Emperor's Minister who accompanied me 
 to Han-choo-foo, as well as he, the Viceroy, 
 gave me of his Imperial Majesty's real senti- 
 ments, (often too, as I was informed, in the 
 words of his own letters), had fully reconciled 
 my mind ; that I perfectly relied on the assu- 
 rances that were thus solemnly made to me of 
 a particular attention to the interests of the 
 British subjects in China ; and had expressed 
 this reliance in the accounts which I rendered 
 of my negociation to the English Government, 
 which I doubted not would confide in the ac- 
 complishment of the promises made to me. 
 The Viceroy then asked if I could authorize 
 him to assure the Emperor that the King would 
 give a proof of the continuance of his good 
 disposition, by writing again soon to His Im- 
 perial Majesty ; and by sending a minister to 
 China, if the Emperor were disposed to allow 
 of such, not with the parade and expense of the 
 present Embassy, but simply as a testimony of 
 the subsisting friendship of His Britannic Ma- 
 jesty."
 
 bdi INTRODUCTION. 
 
 " I ventured to say, that the King would have 
 no difficulty in writing to the Emperor, to ac- 
 knowledge the presents sent by the latter to 
 him ; and to thank him for the honourable re- 
 ception of the embassy. A circumstance (dis- 
 tinct from the objects of it) I still hoped might 
 be brought about in time, and which his 
 Majesty had from the beginning intended, was 
 to have, if not constantly, at least occasionally, 
 a minister resident in China. On the Vice- 
 roy's desiring to know when such minister and 
 letter could be expected to arrive, I observed 
 that the distance of the two empires, and the 
 uncertainty of sea voyages, rendered it im- 
 practicable to ascertain the time. He then told 
 me that he would immediately despatch a cou- 
 rier to court mentioning the substance of my con- 
 versation, together with such other suggestions 
 from himself, as would, he trusted, give perfect 
 satisfaction to the Emperor on all points. Soon 
 afterwards it occurred to him, that it would be 
 agreeable to the Emperor if I were to take occa- 
 sion of the solicitude expressed in his late letters 
 about our treatment through the journey, to 
 address to him a few words of general compli-
 
 INTRODUCTION. Ixiii 
 
 ment and thanks, according to the Chinese mode; 
 which I readily did accordingly. A copy of 
 which address is enclosed. As we approached 
 Canton, the Viceroy went on before, to prepare 
 for my reception there in a manner suitable to 
 the dignity of the embassy. And the un- 
 common honours paid to us by his directions, 
 and his own personal attention, have had not the 
 mere effect of idle and transitory show, but 
 have taught the inhabitants of Canton to alter 
 their tone already towards our people ; and to 
 consider them no longer as destitute of pro- 
 tection. An answer is also come from the 
 Emperor to the Viceroy's dispatches, of which 
 answer I have the honour to enclose, a Latin 
 translation, made from the original Chinese. 
 This answer is considered as particularly gracious 
 on the part of his Imperial Majesty ; and his 
 desire to have an English minister in China, 
 after the arguments in his former letter against 
 such a measure, shows a favourable change in 
 his sentiments towards the British nation, and 
 is no ill-omen of what may be obtained from 
 him in other respects. It might be one object 
 of the minister at Pekin, fully to undeceive the
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 government there in relation to our supposed 
 assistance to the enemy of the Chinese in 
 Thibet, by relating the transactions which must 
 have given rise to such a misrepresentation of 
 our conduct. The real fact appears in the 
 mutual correspondence of the Governor General 
 of Bengal, the contending Rajahs of Nepaul 
 and Lassa, and the commander of the Chinese 
 forces, which I received only on my arrival in 
 Canton both from Bengal and England. The 
 Chinese commander must have attributed hos- 
 tility to us in order to enhance the estimation of 
 his own merit in overcoming it ; and he was, I 
 doubt not, among the chief causes of restrain- 
 ing our communication with the administration 
 at Pekin, and of hastening our departure from 
 thence, in order to avoid the detection of his 
 falsehoods. I have fully satisfied the Viceroy 
 on this subject, since I was possessed of the 
 materials to enable me to do so ; having been 
 until then obliged to have recourse to mere 
 general arguments to repel any such injurious 
 suppositions. But as it is a matter not imme- 
 diately in his province, he has much reluctance 
 to explain the matter to the Emperor, and
 
 INTRODUCTION. IxV 
 
 thinks it will be more becoming from the King's 
 own representative, who may from thence lay 
 the foundation of an alliance, of which every 
 advantageous condition in our favour, or cession 
 of territory for the convenience of our trade, 
 may be gained by promise of support on the 
 side of India." 
 
 The letter* from Lord Macartney, when in 
 China, to the directors of the East India Com- 
 pany, differs from the despatch to the minister ; 
 and illustrates advantageously the versatility of 
 his lordship's talents. It is dated, Canton, 23rd 
 December, 1793, and contains the following 
 passages : 
 
 " I now seize the first occasion, as becomes 
 me, of acknowledging your letter of instructions 
 of the 8th September, 1792, when you can 
 best judge how far I have endeavoured to con- 
 form my conduct to them. You justly considered, 
 that ' the first and most important object was 
 neither to impair nor injure the actual situa- 
 tion of the company, thereby checking those 
 prospects which were decidedly in view.' The 
 Embassy was certainly not exempt from the 
 
 * Records of the Board of Control, vol. 149, p. 567.
 
 Ixvi INTRODUCTION. 
 
 risk attending all considerable undertakings, of 
 leaving matters, in case of failure, worse than 
 they had been found ; and in the present in- 
 stance, beside the obstacles to our success which 
 were possible to foresee, from the opposition 
 and intrigues of rival companies trading to 
 China, of the Canton officers and merchants, 
 and from the suspicions and jealousies of the 
 Court of Pekin, on account of our Indian 
 possessions, all which are observed upon in Mr. 
 Dundas's instructions, other difficulties occurred 
 out of the reach of probability, and some be- 
 yond all human foresight. It was not to be 
 foreseen that while our troops were really em- 
 ployed in the peninsula of India against Tippoo 
 Sultan, the Chinese should fancy we were 
 assisting their enemies in Thibet ; feeling, 
 though concealing their alarm and resentment 
 for such a procedure, it was not likely that their 
 aversion to the revolution in France should so 
 suddenly indispose them against any connection 
 with the Western World ; and it was not 
 natural to expect that the Portuguese, whom we 
 take every occasion to assist and protect in 
 Europe, and who have no commercial com-
 
 INTRODUCTION. Ixvii 
 
 petition with us in this country, should suffer 
 their religious bigotry and local jealousy to 
 operate upon their conduct to our prejudice. 
 Having such difficulties to encounter, all of 
 which were not to be surmounted but by the 
 gradual operation of time, aided by much pru- 
 dent management, your admonition became ne- 
 cessarily of the first consequence in my eyes. 
 I felt under circumstances of strange and incon- 
 sistent conduct in particular instances on the 
 part of the Chinese relative to my negociation, 
 as well as sometimes of personal provocation to 
 myself, the absolute necessity of uncommon 
 caution and forbearance on my part. By these 
 means not only the main object of your in- 
 structions has been perfectly secured ; but the 
 way to attain the prospects before you is ren- 
 dered clearer, and the prospects themselves 
 enlarged. Not only the Emperor declared at 
 the time when he was under impressions the 
 least favourable to our views, that he would 
 treat the English merchants trading to Canton 
 with justice and benevolence ; but he has since 
 signified by one of his ministers who accom- 
 panied me as far as Han-choo-foo, and also by
 
 Ixviii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the new Viceroy of Canton, who was chiefly 
 with me afterwards, that a particular enquiry 
 should be made into the duties and fees actually 
 levied upon the English trade, in order to re- 
 move every kind of extortion, and that such 
 indulgence should be shewn as might be con- 
 sistent with the laws and customs of the 
 Chinese. The circumstance of the communica- 
 tion being now opened with Pekin, for our re- 
 presentations, may check the disposition of the 
 Canton officers to impose. In general, I have 
 found no people more curious, more greedy after 
 novelty. The Chinese have copper mines, 
 though I fancy they are very imperfect metal- 
 lurgists, and consequently work their mines to 
 disadvantage ; but I understand they send every 
 year twelve large Chinese junks, each of several 
 hundred tons burthen, to Japan for some of the 
 finest copper of that country. Of tin, when beaten 
 into thin leaves, the consumption is so general 
 throughout the empire, that scarce a village is 
 to be found without a shop where those leaves 
 hang for the daily and nightly use of the 
 people in their temples. The Malay tin has 
 indeed been found more easily reducible into
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 those minute divisions ; but as I suppose the 
 metal of both countries is intrinsically the same, 
 the accidental quality must probably be derived 
 from some variety in the process of the reduc- 
 tions of the ore (such as using fuel perfectly 
 freed from the smallest mixture of any par- 
 ticles of sulphur) which the advanced state of 
 chemistry in England might enable the artists 
 there to find out and imitate, as a means of ex- 
 tending very much the sale of that article in 
 China. The Chinese are yet so much behind 
 Europeans in regard to many conveniences and 
 luxuries of life, though far from being in- 
 different to the enjoyment of them, that the 
 supply of such would swell the catalogue of 
 articles likely to be called for. * * * 
 
 "1 do not mention sugar as a permanent article 
 of export from hence, because I trust your own 
 territories will come to supply it in plenty as 
 long as it will bear the freight of an East India 
 voyage. Though I have seen numberless plan- 
 tations of the sugar cane in the provinces of 
 Chansi and Canton, and though it be sold at a 
 price that will admit of considerable profit in 
 Europe under the present state of St. Domingo,
 
 Ixx INTRODUCTION. 
 
 which abounded with so much sugar, yet a con- 
 siderable quantity is imported here from Cochin 
 China, and especially from the Western coast 
 of the island of Formosa, in which places con- 
 sequently it must be still cheaper. The Chinese 
 seem to understand the advantage of the division 
 of labour in their great manufactures, by which 
 means, though daily wages be not very much 
 inferior to what they are in England, yet by 
 always employing the same individual to one 
 species or sub-division of work, the whole is 
 perfected with a dispatch that reduces the price 
 much below the apparent pains bestowed upon 
 it, so that it is not improbable that any Chinese 
 article of general manufacture, which would 
 suit our taste, might be afforded upon terms that 
 would admit of reasonable profit. I must observe 
 further, that there seems no political prejudice 
 to have existed here against the exportation of 
 bullion, in return for acceptable imports ; when, 
 therefore, the rate at which it passes at Canton 
 is such as to make it advantageous to accept it 
 as a remittance, none of the risks or difficulties 
 attendant upon drawing bullion from European 
 nations are likely to take place on similar occa- 
 sions in this country. Of all methods indeed
 
 INTRODUCTION. Ixxi 
 
 of procuring Chinese commodities on terms 
 nearer to their original cost, none can certainly 
 be so effectual, as that of our being allowed to 
 send our ships in quest of them to the ports 
 nearest to their growth. It must be confessed 
 that it might be a dangerous experiment to take 
 any advantage of that permission, if it had 
 already been obtained, until such a subordina- 
 tion shall be established by law among the 
 British sailors and subjects frequenting the 
 Chinese ports, and such other precautions taken 
 jointly by the administration and the company as 
 may most effectually tend to prevent those dis- 
 orders among our people which are likely to 
 break out while left without control. The 
 nearer such disorders happen to the capital of 
 the empire, the more alarm they would excite 
 and the more mischief they might occasion by 
 some desperate resolution against our trading 
 on the part of the Chinese government. But if 
 the lower ranks of our people can be brought 
 within proper regulations, so as not to offend 
 the Chinese manners, and if some sort of 
 connection is contrived to be established with 
 the superior Mandarins, I am inclined to be- 
 lieve that it is within our power so to gain
 
 Ixxii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 gradually upon them as successively to obtain 
 from them most of the advantages they have 
 hitherto refused us. / do not find that there 
 is in fact any fundamental regulation of the 
 empire prohibitory of foreign commerce with 
 their northern ports. Such a reason is put 
 forward only to conceal the real motive which 
 they do not choose avowing, and which is their 
 apprehension, lest too great a communication 
 with strangers should interfere with that pro- 
 found tranquillity and that awful submission 
 among all classes of men, the maintenance of 
 which is in truth the ever present and only un- 
 alterable maxim of this government. Those 
 apprehensions will gradually give way before 
 the personal good opinion which men in autho- 
 rity will learn to conceive of us when a familiar 
 intercourse shall for any length of time be 
 established with them. I have succeeded in 
 obtaining the Viceroy's permission to send in 
 search of some of the tea plants of which I have 
 now in my possession several young growing 
 trees, as well as several seeds fit for growth, and 
 I have got also some of the flowers, which are 
 sometimes mixed, as I am assured, with the tea,
 
 INTRODUCTION. Ixxiii 
 
 to increase its fragrance. Among your in- 
 structions you mention how extremely desirable 
 it would be that the tea could be produced 
 within the territories of the company in India, 
 and you recommend the circumstance in the 
 strongest manner to my attention. 
 
 " I send a tree of that species of mulberry, of 
 which the leaves become the food of the silk- 
 worm in China. What that species was, has 
 been a matter of some uncertainty, and any 
 particular relative to the culture of silk in China, 
 is become interesting to you on account of the 
 improvement you desire in what your own terri- 
 tories produce. The tree is allowed in China 
 to attain its full growth, and flourishes most in 
 a flat and loamy soil, as the tea- tree seems to 
 do on dry and rising grounds. I have em- 
 ployed a friendly Mandarin to make enquiries 
 into every part of their silk manufacture, agree- 
 able to the queries you enclosed to me ; and I 
 shall send the result to Sir John Shore, together 
 with a few of the eggs of the Chinese silkworm, 
 which I had some difficulty in obtaining, as the 
 people who rear them have a superstition of 
 losing the whole brood, if they part with the 
 
 d
 
 Ixxiv INTRODUCTION. 
 
 smallest portion of them. I understand that a 
 late celebrated naturalist of Sweden has asserted 
 that the insect bred in Japan and China for the 
 sale of its cocoons, is somewhat different from 
 those who answer that purpose elsewhere. It 
 may be useful to ascertain the fact, and the 
 worm I send to Bengal will answer that purpose, 
 as well as serve to propagate a new breed, if it 
 should happen to be different from what is 
 already reared there. After the pains which 
 were taken to procure from our cotton and 
 porcelain manufactures persons conversant in 
 those branches, and who might have been 
 capable of observing with what difference, either 
 of improvement or inferiority, the same were 
 carried on in this country, I am not surprised 
 you should have supposed that I had the advan- 
 tage of such persons with me in the embassy ; 
 but, notwithstanding my own, and the repeated 
 applications of others to Manchester, and to the 
 porcelain manufactories in Staffordshire and 
 Shropshire, I was disappointed in my expecta- 
 tions, and I at last found that the failure arose 
 in some degree from a jealousy, which arose in 
 some men's minds of any tradesmen sent with
 
 INTRODUCTION. IxXV 
 
 me remaining in China, and communicating 
 some of the most valuable processes of their 
 art, instead of returning home fraught with 
 new lights from hence. I do not pretend to 
 judge of the propriety of this cautious pro- 
 cedure, but it certainly deprived me of the 
 assistance you were aware was necessary, to 
 enable me to collect any very accurate or im- 
 portant information relative to those branches 
 of manufacture in this country. Cotton is, 
 indeed, an object of immense consumption in 
 China, where it forms, generally dyed blue, the 
 universal wear of the lower orders of the people, 
 who add to its warmth in the winter by quilting 
 shreds of wool between its folds, though in the 
 colder provinces the skins of sheep, with their 
 fleeces on, are used as an outer garment, for a 
 greater shelter against the severity of the season. 
 The Chinese account for the late increased de- 
 mand for cotton from abroad, by the increased 
 population of the country, and the supply of 
 cotton cloth to their late extensive conquests; 
 but they do not mention the exportation of any 
 out of their own dominions, and their chief 
 manufacture is of the coarser sort, unsuited to 
 
 d 2
 
 Ixxvi INTRODUCTION. 
 
 foreign consumption. I hope to be able to 
 send you specimens and prices of their different 
 piece goods. Though there are plantations of 
 cotton in most of the provinces in China, and 
 many new ones, I am informed, lately under- 
 taken, if I may judge from what I had an oppor- 
 tunity of observing in travelling through the 
 country, its cultivation answers less the labour 
 than in other parts of the world where I have 
 seen it flourish. The plant is here of the 
 diminutive species, called, I understand, the 
 herbaceous cotton plant, very different from the 
 cotton shrub of the West Indies, which answers 
 best in a dry and sandy soil not distant from 
 the sea, and where the periodical rains do not 
 interfere with the time of the plant's flowering 
 and expanding with full effect that downy sub- 
 stance adhering to the seed which constitutes 
 the staple of the cotton. Those circumstances 
 being less favourable in China, particularly in 
 the interior provinces, the demand for that 
 article from abroad, notwithstanding any efforts 
 of the Chinese planters to cultivate a sufficiency 
 at home, is not likely soon to cease. Of the 
 earthen manufacture, I should without the assist-
 
 INTRODUCTION. Ixxvii 
 
 ance of people bred to that business, have been 
 able to give no minute or accurate account, even 
 if the opportunity had been afforded me, but the 
 Viceroy has been so good as to send a special 
 messenger for specimens of the different materials 
 used in the composition of porcelain, and if his 
 orders have been punctually obeyed, those speci- 
 mens which I shall forward to Sir Joseph 
 Banks, with the view of having them com- 
 pared under the eye of chemists and skilful 
 artists, with the materials used in England for 
 the same purpose, may afford an opportunity of 
 judging if any improvement yet remains to be 
 made in our own manufactures of the same 
 kind. No inconsiderable quantities of China 
 porcelain, together with other commodities of 
 this country, are exported in their own vessels to 
 Manilla, Borneo, and Batavia, and other places 
 in the Chinese seas, principally for the con- 
 sumption of their countrymen settled in those 
 places, and whose industry and ingenuity con- 
 tribute much to the prosperity of every place 
 where they reside in numbers. Their vessels 
 carry back spices of various kinds, and other 
 productions of the warmer climates, and this
 
 Ixxviii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 interchange forms the principal foreign com- 
 merce carried on by the Chinese in their own 
 cottons, as far as I have been able to learn. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 The success of Lord Macartney's Embassy to Pekin 
 ' in 1792. The results. 
 
 LORD MACARTNEY succeeded completely in 
 his Embassy to China ; the conduct of that 
 mission deserved, and received, very great credit. 
 At Canton, the representatives of the East India 
 Company, who had watched it with the natural 
 anxiety of men deeply interested in its success, 
 but doubting its prudence, hailed its result with 
 eager satisfaction. "The common opinion," 
 they wrote to the Company at home, " is now 
 refuted, that the Court of Pekin is inimical to 
 foreigners, or difficult to be approached in a dig- 
 nified and suitable manner, as the artifices and 
 self-interest of the mandarins had suggested."* 
 
 * Records of the Board of Control, vol. 149, p. 79
 
 INTRODUCTION. Ixxix 
 
 Not the " mandarins" only in Canton, with 
 whom the Company was in frequent adverse 
 relations, but its representatives themselves, had, 
 as Mr. Fitzhugh's letter above quoted (p. xxxii) 
 shews, suggested that the Court of Pekin would 
 not grant access to the northern part of Tsien- 
 sin, and refused the easy approach to the capital 
 from their port. The suggestion was specially 
 founded upon the failure in 1759, when Mr. 
 Flint, with more spirit than prudence, attempted a 
 passage that way to the Emperor ; and although 
 there existed an interesting paper,* by a 
 former member of Canton Board, Mr. Pigou, 
 shewing clearly that the Court of Pekin was really 
 open to proper diplomatic communication from 
 the Crown of England, unreasonably difficult 
 as it might be to secure intercourse with a body 
 of merchants. Lord Macartney confirmed this 
 opinion of Mr. Pigou, by insisting that this 
 mission of 1759 would not have failed, if it 
 had been conducted in " a dignified and suitable 
 manner, by a royal ambassador as from sove- 
 reign to sovereign." 
 
 The records attest the readiness with which, 
 
 * Dalrymple's Repository, 1792, Vol. ii. p. 290.
 
 1XXX INTRODUCTION. 
 
 in 1795, the foregoing communication for the 
 friendly Viceroy of Canton, and the Court of Pekin, 
 was sent by the King and our ministers at home. 
 
 His Lordship's arangement with the Viceroy 
 of Canton was promptly adopted by the King ; 
 and fresh letters were despatched to China 
 one from his Majesty to the Emperor, 
 another from Mr. Dundas, President of the Board 
 of Control, to the Viceroy. The language of 
 these letters is frank, and entirely in the spirit 
 which had guided the embassy throughout. In 
 reference to the delicate point of our aggressive 
 progress in India, to which the Chinese on the 
 side of Thibet looked with so much uneasi- 
 ness, our assurances were solemn, that no appre- 
 hension ought to be felt on that head. Without 
 doubt, at the date of that assurance, 1795, we 
 were sincere. The statutory declaration of 1783 
 against Indian wars for territory was just re- 
 newed by the act of Parliament of 1793 ; and 
 the lofty principles which had dictated that 
 policy, still influenced us. 
 
 Before the death of Mr. Pitt, who had zea- 
 lously sanctioned these wise measures towards 
 China, as well as our improved Indian policy,
 
 INTRODUCTION. Ixxxi 
 
 another communication of friendship was made 
 with the Court of Pekin. Again the King 
 wrote to the Emperor, and again the President 
 of the Board of Control, Lord Castlereagh, 
 addressed the Viceroy of Canton in terms of 
 confidence and friendship, acknowledging the 
 fidelity of the Chinese to their engagements, and 
 earnestly asking for the continuance of their 
 good will. 
 
 The King's letter to the Emperor stated his 
 Majesty's " extreme desire that the same re- 
 lations of peace and amity which existed 
 with the Emperor's ancestor should continue ;" 
 and he acknowledged " the justice and kind- 
 ness with which our people were treated in 
 China." 
 
 The Emperor's reply to the King's letter of 
 1804 acknowledges the favour of the present 
 " We have received your gift, and will treat 
 your merchants justly and kindly." 
 
 The words in his letter are translated as if a 
 tribute from beyond sea was meant ; but Sir 
 John Barrow proves clearly that the expression 
 is not used in an offensive sense ; and on all 
 other points the Emperor replied in a friendly 
 
 d 3
 
 Ixxxii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 spirit to theKing's letter, which thus con- 
 cluded : 
 
 " But other opportunities may offer for main- 
 taining an amicable intercourse between us, as 
 your Majesty, immediately before the departure 
 of our late ambassador from the boundaries of 
 your empire was pleased to convey to him your 
 desire to have again a representative from us to 
 China."* 
 
 In fact, all was hopeful in this quarter, and to 
 the deaths of Mr. Pitt and Mr. Fox, when Mr. 
 Burke was gone, our own Indian and Chinese 
 peaceful policy, of which they were the most 
 powerful advocates, was little changed ; and in 
 1807, just after their deaths, Sir John Barrow 
 declared, in his biography of Lord Macartney, 
 that to that time the Chinese had faithfully kept 
 their treaty. 
 
 In India, however, a whole change was fast 
 coming ; and in the fresh acts of Parliament, 
 renewing the East India Company's Charter, the 
 self-denying provision against conquest disap- 
 peared. The French war and the struggle against 
 
 * The Record Papers in the Board of Control, Vol. 
 193.
 
 INTRODUCTION. Ixxxiii 
 
 Bonaparte brought their difficulties to affect 
 our policy all over the globe ; and our success in 
 both flattered our pride without reviving the 
 good resolutions of better days. 
 
 IX. 
 
 Lord Amherst's Embassy to Pekin, in 1816. 
 
 THIS mission, from its imperfect preparation, 
 to its unsuccessful close down to the very wreck 
 of the frigate which carried our ambassador to 
 the Pehio, seems to have been under peculiar 
 deficiencies. The head of the embassy, Lord 
 Amherst, did not possess the great diplomatic 
 and administrative talents of Lord Macartney ; 
 but he was not inferior to those who ordinarily 
 preside in such cases, less by the recommendation 
 of their personal merit, than by that of their 
 station at home. If his Lordship was not the 
 best informed, as he ought to have been, of all 
 the members of his mission, upon the chief cir-
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 cumstances which were to determine its success, 
 he appears to have exercised the prudent con- 
 sideration for his advisers, calculated at least to 
 make them sharers of his mistakes, and not 
 likely to lead him into error by an obstinate 
 confidence in his own insufficiency. 
 
 The members of the mission from the En- 
 glish Factory were men of rare experience, and 
 unusual qualifications. Sir G. T. Staunton had, 
 in Lord Macartney's embassy of 1792, twenty- 
 four years previously, taken an honourable degree 
 as a Chinese linguist, when a boy. In that capacity 
 he had received from the Emperor of China 
 marked kindness and no light proof of approval, 
 and he had persevered ever since in success- 
 fully studying the language and constitution of 
 China. 
 
 The Rev. Dr. Morrison also had already given 
 proof of the high attainments in the literature 
 of the country, which had gained for him an 
 universal reputation. 
 
 Mr. Manning, one of the Company's agents 
 at Canton, was well known for his familiarity 
 with the speech and manners of the Chinese, 
 among whom he meditated travels in the in-
 
 INTRODUCTION. IxxXV 
 
 terior, such as have since secured the highest 
 reputation to Mr. Fortune and others. 
 
 The present Sir John Davis had already, by 
 his diligent study of Chinese, got a reputation 
 that removed all objections made, on account of 
 his youth, to his being attached to the mission ; 
 and he has since fully justified the confidence 
 thus placed in his linguistic acquirements. 
 
 Still there was exhibited, in the mismanage- 
 ment of the embassy, strong evidence of its 
 members, one and all, having got a false esti- 
 mate of the Chinese character, and an insuffi- 
 cient acquaintance with the light in which the 
 Chinese court looked upon such overtures from 
 a powerful western state. It is obvious that 
 Lord Amherst's embarrassments began by the 
 slightness of his acquaintance with the pro- 
 ceedings of former diplomatic missions from 
 European sovereigns to China. He was strongly 
 inclined to give way to the urgent requisitions of 
 the Court of Pekin in regard to the humiliating 
 ceremony of the Ko-tou, by which we should 
 have become objects of derision not only in 
 China, but in other countries, as in France, 
 when it was discovered that a precedent exists,
 
 1XXXV1 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 showing that an Emperor, distinguished in 
 Chinese history, Kang-hi, had admitted the 
 representative of Lewis XIV. upon terms of 
 mutual and suitable respect. Everything in the 
 particular case of Lord Amherst turned upon 
 precedent. The great minister, Ho, with whom 
 Lord Amherst had to treat on the point, said 
 " that the ceremony could not in the smallest 
 degree be dispensed with ; that all nations per- 
 formed it ; that there was one Heaven above, 
 and one Emperor upon earth, who was the uni- 
 versal master of all nations; none, therefore, 
 could hold themselves exempt from the obliga- 
 tion of performing the homage required. We 
 English had been treated with many favours and 
 distinctions not accorded to other nations. As 
 for the ceremony of the Ko-tou, it must abso- 
 lutely be complied with." * 
 
 The Emperor of China received some of our 
 presents, to show " we had parted in amity," f 
 notwithstanding the difficulties attending the 
 requirement of our ceremonial humiliation ; and 
 even that requirement would probably have 
 
 * The British Embassy to Pekin in 1816. By Sir 
 G. T. Staunton. 8vo. 1824. p. 79. f Ib. p. 133.
 
 INTRODUCTION. Ixxxvii 
 
 given way to a judicious display of authorities 
 which gainsaid the erroneous assertions of the 
 Minister, Ho. 
 
 But neither our ambassador nor his advisers 
 knew the strength of their position in the past 
 history of China, or the dictates of human 
 reason which prevail in every nation upon 
 earth. 
 
 At the time of Lord Macartney's mission, 
 great difficulties arose in consequence of our 
 supposed aggressions from India towards the 
 Thibet frontiers of China ; and nothing will 
 allay jealousies on that head except a persevering 
 conformity to the peaceful and anti-aggressive 
 declaration of the statutes of 1783 and 1793. 
 On the present occasion, part of the difficulty 
 arose from intrigues at Canton, and those jea- 
 lousies * which the different nations of the West 
 have long been too prone to indulge in, and 
 which recently have not been without serious 
 embarrassments. 
 
 But on both heads we are now opening 
 a new era. The Queen's assumption of 
 direct authority in India is accompanied by a 
 * The British Embassy to Pekin, p. 87.
 
 Ixxxviii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 solemn declaration against extending our terri- 
 tories there; and the resolution not to make 
 any conquests in China, whatever may be done 
 with a little island like Hong Kong, may be said 
 to be a settled extension of that good principle 
 to the far North-East. 
 
 If from 1793 this resolution had been repeated 
 in the renewals of the East India Company's 
 charter, and wisely acted upon, we should have 
 escaped far graver evils than the mortification 
 of our ambassador's most uncourteous repulse at 
 Pekin. 
 
 X. 
 
 Gio Ghirardini's Residence in China in 1698. 
 
 WHAT our diplomatists in China, after Lord 
 Macartney's embassy, lost for want of proper 
 information respecting a French mission, which 
 confirms the propriety of his Lordship's pro- 
 ceedings, and offers much to account for his
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 success, will be understood upon reading the 
 accounts of that mission still extant. 
 
 A member of this French mission of 1698, 
 an Italian painter of reputation, named Gio 
 Ghirardini, wrote an account of his voyage to 
 Canton in a private letter, thought at the time 
 to be sufficiently interesting to be published in 
 Paris.* 
 
 This letter contains a description of the usual 
 troubles of the fresh-water voyager at the outset, 
 with disquietudes belonging to the time, from 
 pirates along the coast of Africa and in the 
 eastern seas, as well as hazards of wreck in the 
 Malayan and Chinese Archipelago. The intel- 
 ligent artist, however, from sunny Italy, did not 
 fail to find many compensations for his alarms, 
 in the beauty of tropical waters and skies, 
 and from the picturesque scenes of the islands 
 threaded in this voyage. 
 
 Three passages from his letter are introduced 
 at proper places, to illustrate incidents recorded 
 in the sea-officer's more technical journal, on 
 
 * Relation du Voyage fait a la Chine sur le Vaisseau 
 1'Amphitrite en 1698. Par le Sieur Gio Ghirardini, 
 Peintre Italien, a Paris, 12rao. 1700. p. 7194.
 
 XC INTRODUCTION. 
 
 points which might well strike the imagination 
 of the lively Italian. Another passage is here 
 added in order to bring his impartial testimony 
 in favour of the Chinese to support the object 
 of the present volume, namely, to show that the 
 friendly intercourse of that remarkable people 
 with the western world, depends essentially on 
 our sincere observance of every measure that 
 ought to be introduced by both nations in fur- 
 therance of humane policy in the East. 
 
 Signor Ghirardini closes his letter with the 
 following sketch of China and the Chinese, as 
 he found both after leaving the ship at Wham- 
 poa: 
 
 " On the 31st of October, at evening, I left 
 the ship, my prison for the last eight months, 
 and accompanied the Reverend Father Bouvet 
 to Canton. All the honours of the royal ser- 
 vice were displayed at our departure, crowned 
 with three hearty Vives le Roi ! Our boat was 
 lighted up with two lanterns inscribed with the 
 titles of the Reverend Father as the Emperor's 
 Envoy. On our way, every military post by the 
 river saluted us with discharges of their cannon, 
 which are but little better than our musketry.
 
 INTRODUCTION. XC1 
 
 The Chinese, indeed, must be confessed to be by 
 no means thunderbolts in war, and their forts 
 made us smile. They are ludicrously like those 
 little bulwarks a country curate raises round his 
 garden ; and you discover creeping over them 
 two or three one-pounders, pointed high, for 
 fear the discharge might do mischief. But the 
 Chinese do not spare big words. The entrance 
 into their river is guarded by two formidable 
 castles called Hou-mouen, the Gates of the Tiger. 
 
 " At Canton I lodged in a cong-koen pre- 
 pared for Father Bouvet. It is a sort of hotel 
 appointed for the great Mandarins and the Em- 
 peror's envoys, who are provided with every 
 necessary at the public expense. 
 
 " Their gongs and their wind instruments 
 with which we were saluted morning, noon, and 
 night, are somewhat too much like the baying 
 of mastiffs and the mewing of cats, to be plea- 
 sant. 
 
 " Great honours are paid to Father Bouvet. 
 
 " Our Chinese repasts suit me, they are quite 
 Italian. I manage the little sticks used at table 
 as well as others do ; but who would have 
 thought of eating rice and green peas with two
 
 Xcii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 pencils instead of a fork and spoon ? One thing 
 must be frankly admitted our napkins should 
 be introduced here; and it is really astonishing 
 that people so cleanly and civilized as the Chi- 
 nese, should suffer the bones and all the un- 
 eatable bits which we studiously keep upon our 
 plates, to be laid upon the table. 
 
 " Canton is a vast city, full of great crowds, 
 who are whipped off by guards when the man- 
 darins pass through the streets. The streets 
 are well paved, and covered with the finest 
 shops, like a French fair. Neither carriages 
 nor carts are to be met, but the rich are carried 
 in sedans. 
 
 " All this falls short of Paris and Turin. 
 Italy beats the Chinese sadly in all that concerns 
 the fine arts. They know as little about archi- 
 tecture and painting as I do about Greek and 
 Hebrew. They, however, greatly admire a fine 
 drawing or a clearly-designed landscape in its 
 natural perspective, but they have not the least 
 notion how to do such things themselves ; that 
 is not their business. They can weigh silver, 
 and cook rice ; so they have eternally in their
 
 INTRODUCTION. XC111 
 
 hands the little sticks for the one, and their 
 scales for the other. 
 
 "To sum up all in one word, the Chinese 
 seem to me excellent people, polished, and 
 highly civilized. Their dispositions are mild 
 and peaceable. The servants are particularly 
 docile, but not to be too much trusted. The 
 great men are amiable and obliging. The vice- 
 roy and the Tsong-tou, his superior, have often 
 visited Father Bouvet. The latter, especially, 
 has shown me attentions I could not have ex- 
 pected. I know not how they behave to each 
 other, but their treatment of us French has 
 been kind without being troublesome. 
 
 " Our ship has been excused from the Cus- 
 toms. It is the first French ship come to 
 Canton, and the first foreign ship ever so ex- 
 cused. The mandarins did us this favour be- 
 fore the Emperor's order arrived. 
 
 " His Majesty has signified his great impa- 
 tience to see Father Bouvet; and the heir 
 apparent, who is governor of Pekin, is delighted 
 at our arrival. ' What,' he is reported to have 
 exclaimed, ' what, have we a ship here 
 from the King of France, with a mandarin to
 
 XCJV INTRODUCTION. 
 
 command her ? such a thing never before hap- 
 pened in China.' 
 
 " At receiving intelligence from the Emperor 
 by the hands of their great officers of state, 
 Father Bouvet turned towards Pekin, and per- 
 formed the ceremony of the Ko-tou, ' kneeling 
 on both knees three times, and bending his 
 forehead nine times to the earth.' One of the 
 great officers, a Tartar mandarin, announced 
 that ' the Emperor had resolved to have some 
 of the newly-arrived Fathers about his person, 
 and to send the others all over China, to preach 
 the law of the Lord of Heaven.' 
 
 "The same Tartar mandarin, who spoke 
 Chinese fluently, afterwards declared, in the 
 presence of a numerous assemblage of the 
 people, that the Emperor loved above all things 
 virtue, and after that the fine arts, to improve 
 his people. 
 
 " The ceremony of homage to the Emperor 
 was repeated on this occasion. 
 
 " But when the commander of the French 
 ship, the Chevalier de la Roque, came to offer 
 his acknowledgments of all the honours and 
 liberalities shown to him, he was allowed to do
 
 INTRODUCTION. XCV 
 
 so in the French way by three low bows. This 
 distinction is a most extraordinary event here, 
 and the French may be proud of being the only 
 nation that can boast such a reception. 
 
 " The viceroy afterwards gave a banquet to 
 our officers, when the Chinese observed the 
 same ceremonies, which the French were again 
 excused from. Even our merchants shared this 
 liberality in relief to the amount of fifteeen 
 thousand crowns of Customs, and in a per- 
 mission for them to buy a house for their busi- 
 ness. 
 
 "I am on the point of setting out for Pekin 
 with Father Bouvet." 
 
 It is expected that further traces of the re- 
 sidence of Gio Ghirardini in China may be met 
 with. So agreeable a correspondent must 
 have been encouraged, to repeat his letters. 
 During twenty years more, the intercourse of 
 he Europeans in the interior of the country 
 was encouraged, until the extravagance of the 
 Jesuits occasioned their fall, only not so dis- 
 astrously and completely as the misconduct of 
 the Portuguese long before caused their expul- 
 sion from Japan.
 
 XCV1 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 XL 
 
 Father Bouvet, the Jesuit, in China, 1698. 
 
 So much is here to be said of the proceed- 
 ings of this eminent ecclesiastic in China as 
 concerns the important ceremony of the Ko-tou. 
 He was eminently qualified for his task of in- 
 troducing the Chinese to our civilization. The 
 northern languages, Chinese and Tartar, were 
 familiar to him; and whilst his sagacity, sci- 
 ence, and integrity had secured the entire confi- 
 dence of the Emperor, his conciliating manners 
 and good sense won universal respect. His ac- 
 count of the waiver of the humiliating cere- 
 mony in favour of the French officers, is stated 
 in one of the later books of Sir John Francis 
 Davis, who might with much advantage have 
 become acquainted with the French mission of 
 1698, and its successful proceedings before he 
 accompanied Lord Amherst from Canton on 
 the embassy of 1816. 
 
 In the " Sketches of China," published in 
 1841 (vol. ii. p. 184), Sir John Davis says
 
 INTRODUCTION. XCV11 
 
 " A French ship of war, L'Amphitrite, was 
 sent to Canton in 1699, under the command 
 of the Chevalier de la Roque, to carry back 
 the Jesuit, Pre Bouvet, who had been de- 
 spatched on a particular mission to France by 
 the Chinese emperor. The ship, on her arrival, 
 was exempted from duties and port charges, 
 and the viceroy gave an entertainment to the 
 commander, who, at the same time, was told 
 that the Tartar prostrations would be rigorously 
 required. 
 
 " As the thanksgivings," says the Jesuit 
 Bouvet, " take place in China with certain 
 ceremonies which savour of submission and 
 homage, we represented that the captain of the 
 ship, being an officer of the greatest and most 
 powerful monarch of the West, who was accus- 
 tomed to receive homage without rendering it 
 to any one, could not perform the ceremony in 
 the Chinese manner. The mandarins, who 
 wished to do honour to our nation, and not to 
 displease us, replied, that it would be sufficient 
 if it were done in a manner creditable to both 
 nations." 
 
 Few works respecting China and Japan are
 
 XCV111 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 more wanted than candid and complete narra- 
 tives of the rise and fluctuating progress of the 
 Papal Church in both countries, accompanied 
 by a careful estimate of its present influence and 
 prospects there. 
 
 XII. 
 
 British Antecedents to the French Mission of 1698. The 
 Letters of King Edward the Sixth, in 1553, to the 
 Emperor of Cathay. 
 
 THE success of the French was simply in 
 harmony with earlier intercourse of western 
 nations with China and Japan. The failure 
 of the Portuguese in both countries was fully 
 answerable to the character of their own con- 
 duct ; and they had no just cause of complaint 
 against the government or people of either. 
 
 The opening of our own communication with 
 China under Edward the Sixth was laid upon 
 grounds all will approve. The wisest and most 
 philanthropic of our modern addresses to the 
 Emperors of China, falls short in principle and 
 in right feeling of the letter of King Edward to
 
 INTRODUCTION. XC1X. 
 
 the same potentate. All the circumstances of 
 that incident in the young king's life are well wor- 
 thy of consideration ; his personal interest in it 
 as he was hastening to the grave at so young an 
 age ; the career of its chief adviser, Sebastian 
 Cabot, who cheered the departing adventurers by 
 joining in a dance at eighty years of age, and the 
 awful death of these adventurers in the ice of the 
 north-east sea ; but it is, above all, to the wis- 
 dom and humanity of the principles of the letter 
 from the Western king to his fellow sovereign 
 of the East, that the most serious attention will 
 be given. 
 
 The occasion and character of that address 
 were not more remarkable than the long series 
 of events which led to it. The Venetian, Marco 
 Polo, and an English knight, Sir John Mandevile, 
 had in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries 
 displayed the wonders of the same China 
 real and fictitious before our ancestors. The 
 writings of the eminent travellers were more 
 eagerly read than any other books of the time 
 except the Holy Scriptures. The effect produced 
 by those writings upon the enterprise and legis- 
 lation of the west, deserves a special study. 
 
 e 2
 
 C INTRODUCTION. 
 
 With the decline of our crusades in the East, 
 there succeeded an even more mischievous spirit 
 in the west, which for nearly two hundred years 
 ravaged it with wars abroad, and sanguinary 
 dissensions at home. All Christendom seems at 
 that time to have been passing, after great cor- 
 ruptions, through great trials, to prepare us for 
 the revival of learning and of religion in the 
 fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. 
 
 For the renewal of such enterprizes towards 
 the remotest countries of the earth, clear traditions 
 pointed uniformly to the rich regions and cities 
 made known by Marco Polo and Sir John 
 Mandevile their Cathay and its capital Can- 
 balu. Columbus sought them by the west ; 
 and Cabot by the north-east, even fifty years 
 later, when advising the young king to furnish 
 the British voyagers of 1553 with the following 
 most remarkable recommendations : 
 
 Wishing "peace and honour to the kings, 
 princes, and other potentates in the northern 
 parts of the world toward the mighty Emperor 
 of Cathay," King Edward declared that the 
 great and Almighty God hath given to mankind, 
 above all creatures, the heart and desire to good
 
 INTRODUCTION. Cl 
 
 friendship with other, to give and receive mutual 
 benefits ; and that, therefore, it is the duty of 
 all to increase this desire by well deserving 
 especially to show this good affection to such as, 
 being moved by the same desire, come to them 
 from far countries. " The examples of our fa- 
 thers," it is added, " invite us also thereto, having 
 ever gently entreated such as came to them. If 
 it be right to show kind humanity to all, the 
 same should be chiefly so showed to merchants 
 who scour the land and sea to carry profitable 
 things from their own countries to remote re- 
 gions, and bring therefrom things commodious 
 for their own countries. 
 
 "The God of heaven and earth, greatly pro- 
 viding for mankind, would not that all things 
 should be found in one region, to the end that 
 one should have need of another, that by this 
 means friendship might be established among 
 all men, and every one seek to gratify all. 
 
 " For the furtherance of that universal amity, 
 certain men of our realm," says the King, 
 " have taken upon them a voyage by sea into 
 far countries, to the intent that between our 
 people and them a way may be opened to bring
 
 Cll INTRODUCTION. 
 
 in and carry out merchandize, desiring us to 
 further their enterprise. 
 
 " So the King has assented to their petitions, 
 that not only commodity may ensue to those 
 connected with us, but also an indissoluble and 
 perpetual league of friendship be established be- 
 tween us and you. Therefore, the kings and 
 princes addressed are prayed to grant a free 
 passage to the adventurers, who would do 
 nothing against the good will of the people 
 visited. 
 
 " Consider you," the King concludes, " that 
 they are men. If they stand in need of any 
 thing, we desire you of all humanity, and by the 
 nobility that is in you, to help them with what 
 they lack, receiving from them the things they 
 can give you in recompense. Show yourselves 
 towards them as you would that we and our 
 subjects should show ourselves to your servants, 
 if at any time they should pass by our regions. 
 
 " Thus doing, we promise you by the God 
 of all things in heaven, earth, and the sea, and 
 by the life and tranquillity of our kingdom, that 
 we, with like humanity, receive your servants, 
 coming to our kingdom. They shall be so
 
 INTRODUCTION. Clll 
 
 gently entertained as if born in our domi- 
 
 nions."* 
 
 The dreadful fate of this expedition by the 
 death of Sir Hugh Willoughby, its commander, 
 and his men in the ice, only anticipated its 
 failure from a miscalculation of the distance of 
 Cathay, and from the then unknown difficulties 
 of the north-east passage. It was not until a few 
 years later that the identity of Cathay with China, 
 and of Canbalu with Pekin, was established. 
 This is shown in an interesting " News-letter" 
 of Lord Carew,f in 1576, to Sir Thomas Roe, 
 then residing at the Court of the Great Mogul. 
 That news-letter from a secretary of state 
 one of a series, intended, it is hoped, to be soon 
 published explains the interior trade between 
 India and Pekin, and so corrects the geography 
 of the east from the most authentic materials 
 then extant. From this perfect discovery of 
 China arose new enterprizes thither; and in 
 1583, Queen Elizabeth addressed another letter 
 in the same terms with King Edward's, to pro- 
 pitiate the Emperor of China. 
 
 * Hakluyt, vol. i. p. 257. 
 
 f State Paper office, Domestic Elizabeth. Mr. 
 Lemon's Calendars.
 
 CIV INTRODUCTION. 
 
 In the thirteenth century, Genghis Khan, 
 the first Tartar conqueror of that empire, 
 and his successors, had spread alarm over Eu- 
 rope by threats of invasion ; and with Tamerlane 
 at a later age, the danger seemed to recur. Com- 
 mitting the highest crimes with the impunity 
 which make all conquerors scourges, they pos- 
 sessed great qualities, and adopted much of the 
 ancient institutions of China from their con- 
 quered subjects. In those days, the prejudice 
 of colour nowhere prevailed, however barbarous 
 Europe then was in many other respects ; and 
 we might, with no extreme difficulty, have en- 
 tered into relations of perfect equality with our 
 fellow-men in the further East. So the address 
 of King Edward is by no means in the spirit 
 of a superior to an inferior, as white men even 
 religious white men are at this moment dis- 
 posed to treat all Asiatics. That address is in 
 the spirit which so nobly prevailed among us 
 towards the end of the last century, when the 
 statutes were passed by Parliament against ter- 
 ritorial aggressions in India ; a spirit re- 
 vived of late, after half a century of reaction in 
 violating our first duty, and to the perilling of 
 our best interests.
 
 INTRODUCTION. CV 
 
 XIII. 
 
 The Law of Administrative Justice in China. 
 
 THERE are strong tendencies at this moment 
 among us, towards a thorough reformation in 
 our administrative establishments. The attacks 
 made upon the Privy Council, thirty years ago, 
 by Sir James Graham and others, began this 
 modern reformation ; and in 1852 the Earl of 
 Derby's ministry announced their intention to 
 advise the appointment of a royal commissioner, 
 with the support of Parliament, to carry out a 
 work not to be long delayed with impunity. 
 Under these circumstances, a short notice of the 
 administrative institutions of China in contrast 
 with our actual practice, will be acceptable. That 
 practice is extensively a gross abuse ; but in 
 principle also we have something to amend in 
 our state proceedings, for which the Chinese 
 books furnish good models. 
 
 The recent plan of examining only privileged 
 candidates for the public service, is a substantial 
 instalment as a system to open that service to
 
 CV1 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the best man ; and then to secure their fit treat- 
 ment and promotion. But that plan does not 
 suppress illegal patronage, inasmuch as favour, 
 and it may be " brocade," can still be used in 
 settling the lists of candidates for employment. 
 Still less does it pretend to provide for the sub- 
 sequent stages of the service, either in regard to 
 advancement or reward for approved merit, or 
 to removal for proved incompetency, or to the re- 
 dress of official grievances. Yet all official records 
 abound in cases urgently calling for a better 
 system to place the public administration under 
 reasonable conditions of efficiency to the nation, 
 and security to individuals. 
 
 The ancient laws of China, which enjoin that 
 personal merit shall be the sole step to adminis- 
 trative employments, need not be insisted upon ; 
 nor the test of literary examination, by which 
 that personal merit is ascertained. In Sir George 
 Staunton's translation of a code of the Chinese 
 administrative laws, there are other regulations 
 admirably adapted to our own system of govern- 
 ment, inasmuch as the provinces of the empire 
 to which those regulations apply, bear strong 
 analogies to the dependencies grouped round the 
 realm of England, from the conquest of Ireland
 
 INTRODUCTION. CVll 
 
 by Strongbow to the acquisition of our nume- 
 rous colonial and Indian possessions. 
 
 " If," says the Chinese lawgiver, " any officer 
 of the State solicit place or employment, he 
 shall be punished with one hundred blows." 
 
 Again : " Civil officers not distinguished by 
 great services, recommended to the Emperor, 
 shall suffer death with the persons who recom- 
 mend them." 
 
 Again, provision is made for the redress of 
 individual grievances for which we have no 
 remedy except at the discretion of ministers : 
 " When," says the law of China, " any officer of 
 government is injuriously treated by his supe- 
 rior, he is at liberty to submit a faithful state- 
 ment to the Emperor as accusation of such su- 
 perior." 
 
 A like provision is found for cases of general 
 mal-administration, whereas with us a denouncer 
 of public abuses is a marked man, whom public 
 delinquents understand perfectly how to destroy. 
 " Whatever is erroneous," says the law referred to, 
 " in the general administration of public affairs, 
 shall be inquired into, and the result personally 
 communicated to the Emperor by the officers of 
 the six departments of State."
 
 cviii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 How confidently the experienced British mer- 
 chants in Canton relied upon the effect of these 
 ancient Chinese laws is evident from the perse- 
 verance with which these merchants sought the 
 benefit of them for the redress of their own ad- 
 ministrative grievances. 
 
 The provincial authorities in Canton habi- 
 tually injured our traders by arbitrary adminis- 
 trative acts. A chief object of Lord Amherst's 
 embassy was to obtain a guarantee against their 
 repetition, by access to the Emperor, respecting 
 which Sir George Staunton's remarks are clear 
 and positive on the head in question. 
 
 " One of the questions to be brought under 
 the notice of the Emperor, connected with the 
 commercial intercourse between the two coun- 
 tries, was the establishment of a direct channel 
 of communication between the chief of the 
 English factory (at Canton) and one of the su- 
 preme tribunals at the Emperor's court, through 
 which an appeal might always be made to Pekin, 
 against any act of injustice which his Britannic 
 Majesty's subjects trading to Canton might ex- 
 perience from the provincial officers. The reason- 
 ableness of this proposition was evident. The 
 Emperor had always professed to extend his re-
 
 INTRODUCTION. C1X 
 
 gard and protection to foreigners ; and nothing 
 was now desired on their behalf, than what 
 was already according to the Chinese laws, 
 enjoyed by the meanest of the Emperor's own 
 subjects, who had a legal right of appealing 
 from one tribunal to another, up to the highest, 
 and ultimately to the throne itself."* 
 
 Sir George Staunton has recorded a solemn 
 adjudication of the Emperor in his own time, 
 carrying beyond the grave the legitimate respect 
 enjoined to personal merit by the laws of China ; 
 and showing under what severe responsibility 
 the provincial authorities discharge their duty on 
 that head. In China there is a law, that " the 
 names of all natives of a district, whose merits, 
 character, or services during their lives, had en- 
 titled them to the honour, should be enrolled on 
 certain tablets, as the temple of Confucius the 
 hall of worthies." 
 
 At Canton, says Sir George Staunton, a most 
 remarkable instance occurred of the opposition 
 that may be made to an undue award of this 
 honour. In 1812, a mandarin obtained it for 
 
 * Proceedings during the British Embassy to Pekin, 
 in 1816. By Sir G. T. Staunton. 8vo. 1824. p. 97.
 
 CX INTRODUCTION. 
 
 his brother, a Hong merchant, who had died 
 most respected. He effected it by money and 
 personal influence at Pekin. At Canton, how- 
 ever, the literary class murmured at the intro- 
 duction of a name which they considered un- 
 worthy of a place in the illustrious list recorded 
 in the temple. One individual, a graduate, took 
 up the cause with the hottest zeal. 
 
 " After urging arguments to prove the Hong 
 merchant deficient in the required qualification, 
 and failing to induce the Viceroy of Canton to 
 rescind the nomination, he printed and circulated 
 his petition. The affair then made so much 
 noise, that a revision of it by the Emperor was 
 secured ; and in 1815 the tablet was solemnly 
 ejected from the temple."* 
 
 This is a meagre catalogue of most salutary 
 administrative regulations doing honour to Chi- 
 nese legislation. But it is enough to throw 
 our practice into the shade, and to excite strong 
 curiosity to obtain fuller details upon a system 
 which probably is the cause of durability in a 
 body of institutions respected by one fourth of 
 
 * Proceedings during the Embassy to Pekin, in 1816. 
 By Sir G. T. Staunton. 8vo. 1824. p. 345.
 
 INTRODUCTION. CXI 
 
 the human race from the time when our own 
 British forefathers were painted barbarians, and 
 Greece and Rome not yet aspiring to rule the 
 world. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 The corruption of opinion, and of our home colonial ad- 
 ministration from 1806 to 1858. Convict colonies. 
 Conquests. Colonial patronage. Illegal delegation 
 of authority by the Colonial Secretaries. The Colo- 
 nial Office. Despotism in our Colonial Government. 
 Ignorance and intrigues of the Colonial Office ; and 
 its admitted incapacity legitimately to extend our 
 colonies. The Privy Council. The struggle of the 
 free Colonial spirit from 1825 to 1858. 
 
 THE pitiable failure of Lord Amherst's mis- 
 sion sprang from causes which lie deep in the 
 maladministration of our affairs beyond sea 
 during the last fifty years, and which are now 
 in considerable activity. The firmness of Sir 
 George Staunton and his colleagues at Canton, 
 saved us from the national disgrace to which 
 the ambassador's eagerness to submit by the
 
 CX11 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 performance of the Kotou, must have exposed 
 the British name in China. We seem at that 
 time to have lost the spirit and personal re- 
 sources in our representatives of the crown 
 abroad, which had for ages distinguished them 
 so worthily in the most highly civilized courts, 
 and among the rudest foreign chiefs. Even our 
 literature at the beginning of the century abounds 
 in evidence discreditable to the national feeling 
 on the subject of China. The life of Mr. Pitt, 
 by Giffard, is a prodigious monument of two 
 thousand elephant folio pages, intended to com- 
 memorate all that in the judgment of the zeal- 
 ous biographer could do honour to the deceased 
 minister ; but not one laudatory word can be 
 found upon that minister's noble efforts to re- 
 deem our good name in the east. The China 
 missions, so perseveringly and so well pursued 
 for eighteen years, are not even mentioned by 
 Mr. Giffard, who took a lead in abandoning the 
 high ground won by Lord Chatham and his 
 followers on this head. 
 
 In another work of a very different character, 
 the writings of Peter Pindar, which so long en- 
 joyed disgraceful popularity, every topic is rudely
 
 INTRODUCTION. CX111 
 
 pressed against those enlightened missions; whilst 
 their utter failure is predicted with a hardihood 
 only commensurate to the historical shallowness 
 of the work, and the gross vulgarity of the in- 
 tended satire. We may smile at the extrava- 
 gancies of the doggrel Pindar, to whom our 
 judicious Punch is as superior in ability as in 
 taste ; but that a sober historian and acute 
 writer like Mr. Giffard should have passed the 
 three Chinese missions of his period over in 
 silence, indicates a deplorable indifference to 
 what, at this moment, is clearly perceived to 
 have been a decisive means of largely advancing 
 civilization in the world. Such gross ribaldry 
 on the one hand, and grosser neglect on the 
 other, is much attributable to the bad habit of 
 official secrecy. If the successful Chinese Em- 
 bassy of 1792 had been duly described to par- 
 liament in the way enjoined by Lord Somers 
 for such events even a century before, its chief 
 incidents must have become well known. 
 
 But those symptoms of a diseased press bore 
 upon great administrative corruptions at that 
 time fast growing up in the country, and which 
 by too long endurance have spread wide in
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 society, and taken singularly mischievous 
 forms. 
 
 A better result was reasonably to be expected, 
 when great experience seemed to have exhausted 
 all the evil contingencies belonging to the consti- 
 tutional conditions of our Indian and colonial 
 systems of government up to the end of the 
 eighteenth century. 
 
 Lord Macartney, a model of provincial 
 rulers, had witnessed in America the course and 
 consequences of colonial misgovernment. In 
 India he was faultless ; he had won golden opi- 
 nions in a minor presidency, and was intended 
 to be promoted to the supreme authority of Cal- 
 cutta, when diverted to his successful mission 
 to Pekin. He closed this admirable career at 
 the Cape of Good Hope, with an administration 
 not distasteful to the conquered Dutch, and so 
 humanely addressed to the border barbarians as 
 to establish treaties of peace when all was con- 
 fusion in the interior. He even brought most 
 hopefully under observation the barbarous Caffre 
 chiefs, who for fifty years since have offered to 
 our view one of the hardest of social problems, 
 namely, how their peaceful and improving inter-
 
 ^r INTRODUCTION. cxv 
 
 course with more civilized men can be well se- 
 cured. 
 
 The way had been prepared for receiving this 
 people into fitting relations with us, by the 
 reports of enlightened impartial travellers, such 
 as Le Vaillant and Sparrman; whilst Baron 
 Von Hogendorp, afterwards Governor- Gene- 
 ral of Dutch India, had given a glowing 
 picture of what a wise administration at the 
 Cape of Good Hope might accomplish in its settle- 
 ments bordering on the Caffres in the interior. 
 
 Lord Macartney's principle of shaping our 
 relations with such neighbours by the rules of 
 justice, went far to solve this problem. 
 
 But no such simple measure of justice was to 
 be followed for the half century following Lord 
 Macartney's decease, when our colonial minis- 
 ters gradually became entangled in a maze of 
 secret and parliamentary influences, and when 
 they submitted the Colonial Office, of which 
 they were nominal heads, to unscrupulous vio- 
 lations of long-established constitutional usages. 
 
 The unchecked single Secretary of State for 
 the Colonies, set up since 1784, was then a 
 complete novelty among us. Cromwell's Coun-
 
 CXV1 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 cil of Plantations was composed of appointed 
 statesmen and delegates elected by London and 
 other trading towns. Lord Clarendon's similar 
 council in 1660 was formed of statesmen named 
 by the crown, and of delegates elected by the 
 City of London and several London companies. 
 The order in council summoning this body is 
 preserved in the library of the City of London in 
 Guildhall* Sir William Temple's scheme of 
 plantation government in London in 1670, was 
 simply a committee of the Privy Council, named, 
 of course, by the crown. Copies of the commis- 
 sion, and important instructions for its guidance, 
 are preserved in the British Museum ; and 
 extracts from them were published in the report of 
 the Committee of the House of Commons, which 
 enquired into the state of our Colonial Abori- 
 gines in 1835, 6, and 7. After the revolution, 
 in 1696, when Parliament pressed hard for a 
 more popular Council of Plantations than had 
 been set up by Charles the Second, King Wil- 
 liam, in some jealousy for the prerogative, per- 
 severed in that plan of exclusive nomination of 
 the Council by the crown. But among the mem- 
 * Appendix.
 
 INTRODUCTION. CXV11 
 
 bers of this board are found Lord Somers, John 
 Locke, and Matthew Prior, and no one at that 
 time would have borne a sole Secretary of 
 State to rule the Colonies. What nobler sub- 
 ject, indeed, could an historical painter take than 
 King William the Third's Board of Plantations 
 graced by such men, busy in examining Dam- 
 pier and Lionel Wafer upon the capability of 
 Darian for the settlement, which the Scots had 
 planned so boldly under the guidance of William 
 Paterson, but which the English coveted. 
 
 This Board held out for eighty years against 
 all seductions. It fell at last under its own 
 grievous errors, which helped bring on the 
 American revolution. 
 
 All that time, as at all times, the Crown was 
 at the head of our Colonial administration, 
 subject to Parliament, and with proprietary 
 grantees in high authority. The Secretary of 
 State for the South was Colonial minister with 
 the Lords of Trade in effect for his council ; so 
 absurd were the objections made last year to the 
 India Bill on the ground of novelty in its pro- 
 visions for a council to the Indian Secretary of 
 State.
 
 CXV111 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Secrecy, however, had become a fatal official 
 rule ; arid Horace Walpole's ludicrous descrip- 
 tion of the accumulation of unread Colonial 
 despatches in the Duke of Newcastle's hands for 
 some twenty years, throws a clear light upon 
 the way by which a corrupted administration 
 was then preparing for us the disastrous events 
 of 1776 in America. 
 
 In matters of justice to individual appellants 
 to the Crown, nothing could be better settled 
 than the proceedings in such appeals at the 
 Cock-pit. It was ever in the discretion of the 
 Crown, at the advice of a Minister, to refer the 
 petitions to the Privy Council ; but the refusal 
 of a reference was understood to be unconstitu- 
 tional ; and if any obstacle impeded a hearing of 
 the appellant, Parliament habitually interposed, 
 as the journals, as well as the register of the 
 Council, abundantly testify. The most eminent 
 names among our lawyers for a century, from 
 Somers and Jones down to Yorke and Murray, 
 are guarantees to the dignity of those proceed- 
 ings ; and the Colonial agents of those days 
 were colonists and statesmen of historical name, 
 such as Franklin and Edward Burke. How
 
 INTRODUCTION. CX1X 
 
 long and how firmly correct principles prevailed 
 at the Privy Council on this head, will be under- 
 stood by those who have not forgotten that Sir 
 William Grant, the Master of the Rolls, and 
 Sir William Scott, Lord Stowell, closed their 
 honoured career as active members of it. 
 
 The fall has been complete from an order of 
 things which, with all its faults, was a rule of 
 the colonies by ministers deliberately advised by 
 statesmen of various eminence ; and which the 
 Cromwells, the Clarendons, and the Somers of 
 six generations moulded with various effect. 
 Instead of that constitutional rule, we have set 
 up a colonial office of permanent under-secre- 
 taries and clerks sometimes with a lawyer to 
 advise, sometimes with none ; and the single 
 Secretary of State for the Colonies has armed 
 the whole with a degree of inefficiency that 
 would be incredible, did we not know that from 
 Mr. Huskisson to Sir Bulwer Lytton, the colonial 
 business of this country has for thirty years been 
 frittered away in the hands of twenty-seven 
 members of Parliament, one after another, without 
 any of them pretending to a competent know- 
 ledge of colonial affairs. They have all beep
 
 CXX INTRODUCTION. 
 
 in the hands of three or four under-secretaries, 
 or clerks, who, as was declared truly in the 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer's financial state- 
 ment of 1852, stand in the way of the best 
 improvements of our policy. A few cases will 
 show the enormity of the evils produced by a 
 system which gives to men much out of sight 
 the conduct of immense affairs, not subject to 
 any direct opinion at home, and to which Par- 
 liament has a distaste near to loathing. These 
 are cases within the personal experience of the 
 editor of this journal ; and, doubtless, they fall 
 much short in force of what better-informed 
 persons could produce. 
 
 The fate of the Indians of America has ever 
 deeply interested us. The appeal of the Mohi- 
 cans, which was pending for seventy years in 
 the Privy Council, in the reigns of our three 
 first Hanoverian sovereigns, at least proved the 
 perseverance with which their presumed rights 
 were investigated before that tribunal. Divines 
 never wearied of advocating the cause of the 
 Indians of the Plantations ; and poets made 
 them heroes, however administrations might 
 neglect them. At the end of the American
 
 INTRODUCTION. CXX1 
 
 war of 1812, the Indian department of the 
 Canadas was the occasion of a liberal expendi- 
 ture, often abused, and capable of improvements, 
 in which, with economy, the interests of our 
 numerous Indian pensioners might have been 
 much consulted. Upon the occasion of an 
 appeal by the Mohawks against gross injustice re- 
 specting their land in Upper Canada, a thorough 
 reform of the whole Indian department was 
 resolved upon by the Secretary of State for the 
 Colonies. The Honourable Dr. Stewart, after- 
 wards Bishop of Quebec, examined the plan 
 with great care, and gave it his warm approval. 
 All was settled for its execution ; but the mea- 
 sure found opponents in the Colonial Office; 
 and was abandoned, to the extreme damage of 
 the public interests, which thus gave way to a 
 continuance of the old system of jobs. 
 
 In another part of our colonial world, a com- 
 mission of inquiry, and an able commissioner, 
 Mr. John Thomas Bigge, produced in 1824 a 
 plan of legal government by act of Parliament in 
 the place of proceedings for the previous thirty 
 years, of which illegality and discontent were the 
 chief features in the settlement. But the Co-
 
 CXXll INTRODUCTION. 
 
 lonial Office thwarted this reform by excusing 
 the torture of converts, ordering the military 
 execution of black natives, and sheltering from 
 condign punishment a governor deficient in all 
 the qualities required in the ruler of such a 
 colony. 
 
 In New Zealand, the same Colonial Office 
 stretched the plainest doctrines of international 
 law out of their propriety, in order to give that 
 British colony to France ; and the intrigue must 
 have succeeded, but for the energy of a few 
 enterprising individuals, who saved the honour 
 of the country when it was shamefully sacrificed 
 by one of its own departments. 
 
 The Colonial Office hated the founders of the 
 New Zealand enterprise. Their success was to 
 be a sure signal of a colonial reformation that 
 would thoroughly sweep that office of its evil 
 spirits. So those evil spirits intrigued with the 
 mistaken supporters of the missionary bodies, 
 and with the habitual partisans of ministers ; 
 and so defeated a better colonising bill than had, 
 perhaps, ever been submitted to Parliament ; as 
 it contained a regard for all interests ; and care- 
 fully provided for the guardianship of the deceived
 
 INTRODUCTION. CXXlll 
 
 philanthropists for the natives, as well as for the 
 prudent application of the new modes of co- 
 lonisation to the settlement. 
 
 But it is in South Africa that the Colonial 
 Office has done, and is at this moment doing, 
 the most frightful wrong; and that upon a 
 deliberate, mischievous principle, which Parlia- 
 ment is bound, by every sense of duty, to bring 
 under the most rigorous scrutiny ; for not only 
 is the principle referred to adverse to universal 
 right, but it is opposed to the decisions of Par- 
 liament itself. 
 
 The contrast between the South Africa of 
 Lord Macartney, with its fair prospects of every 
 good upon the Caffre borders, and the frightful 
 ruin the Colonial Office has brought upon these 
 borders, and is carrying far and wide into the 
 interior, among an hundred tribes, makes the 
 heart sink. 
 
 It is the work of just twenty-two years' false 
 policy stealthily pursued by the Colonial Office ; 
 but of which the ministers whose names have 
 sanctioned it must bear the reproach, so far as 
 ministers are grievously guilty who leave their 
 duties to their subordinates. 
 
 /2
 
 CXXiv INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Upon several points comparatively only less 
 important than the affairs here referred to, the 
 Colonial Office had misled the Colonial Secre- 
 taries who blindly trusted to it. 
 
 Lord John Russell was thus misled to exclude 
 South Africa from our fields of colonisation as 
 if it were a region of unprofitable deserts. Yet 
 Sir John Barrow and other sage authorities 
 well understood its capabilities ; and Lord John 
 Russell may now be aware that the export of 
 fine wool alone, last year, from South Africa, was 
 twenty millions of pounds weight ! Again, the 
 Earl of Derby, at a time when promptitude 
 might have given peace and a beginning of 
 union to the distracted interior, dependant on 
 the pacification of Natal, was made to sign a 
 despatch declaring that he had not sufficient 
 information upon the country and its inhabitants 
 to form the proper measures to meet the case. 
 Yet, at that very moment, the shelves of the 
 Colonial Office were groaning under the best 
 information upon every doubtful point in the 
 Natal and Cape Interior case which it had 
 never suited the Colonial Office to lay before 
 Parliament.
 
 - INTRODUCTION. CXXV 
 
 The crowd of the like instances of neglect 
 that could be produced, are utterly insignificant 
 before the matter of our TREATIES with the South 
 African tribes, and that of the spread of our people 
 into a fruitful interior to the tropics, in harmony 
 with those tribes. 
 
 A thick volume might be filled with reason- 
 able South Africa treaties, and the diplomacy 
 that preceded them. They constitute, beyond 
 all doubt, an important element in the civili- 
 zation of men. 
 
 In 1836, a body of such treaties settled an 
 immense difficulty on the Caffre frontier, under 
 the able management of the most experienced 
 Cape-born officer, Sir Andries Stockenstrom, 
 whose merit obtained for him the rare dis- 
 tinction of a baronetcy as a reward of his 
 long and faithful services to the Crown. Up to 
 that time there might be differences of opinion 
 respecting the terms of particular treaties with 
 the Caffres, if the reports of our officers did not 
 always give the words which the chiefs insisted 
 upon, as the true conditions of their agreements. 
 But to reject all treaties with the barbarians what> 
 ever, was never hinted at until the year 1837,
 
 CXXV1 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 after Sir Andries Stockenstrom's remarkable 
 success. His mission took place pending the 
 sitting of the Aborigines' Committee of the 
 House of Commons. And the friends of pro- 
 gress made common cause in support of the 
 humane principles he acted upon. The draft 
 of the committee's report made in its third 
 year, faithfully embodied those principles as 
 resolutions, and provided most wisely for en- 
 forcing them in all the colonies. That draft, 
 however, was tampered with in the Colonial 
 office ; and whilst its recommendation of treaties 
 with the barbarians was suppressed, the mis- 
 sionaries were inveigled into the position of 
 political agents, so as to destroy their genuine 
 missionary character, and make them tools of 
 the Colonial Office. 
 
 Such an act as the misdealing with the 
 draft report of the Commons' committee, was 
 less an abuse of the imprudent confidence of 
 that committee, than a fraud upon Parliament 
 and upon the cause of philanthropy which Parlia- 
 ment at that time sincerely supported; and it is not 
 too late to scrutinize the grounds upon which this 
 charge is made. A practical reaction followed
 
 INTRODUCTION. CXXVll 
 
 immediately upon the occurrence; and if the 
 remarkable circumstances of the time rendered 
 the philanthropists helpless against the blow 
 struck at their cause, we are now in a condition 
 to make a profitable searching inquiry into the 
 delinquency. The men who were the most 
 abused in this business, the numerous class 
 of ministers to whom the colonies are given for 
 their brief trusts have begun to open their eyes 
 upon the intrigues of the colonial office, and may 
 join a vigorous movement to clear it of every 
 abomination. 
 
 Sir Andries Stockenstrom's noble mission was 
 suppressed ; and Parliament kept in the dark for 
 ten whole years upon South African interior 
 affairs. Two Caffre wars were brought upon 
 us at the cost of millions sterling, inaudited 
 to this day. So we have conquered the Caffres, 
 and got their country at a price five-fold its 
 intrinsic value, to give away to our settlers. 
 
 The same thing, substantially, is doing upon 
 a neighbour frontier, even more interesting, if 
 possible, than that of the Caffres. This is the 
 frontier of the Basootus, who, under an able 
 chief, Moshesh, and most enlightened French
 
 CXXVlii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Protestant missionaries, have much advanced in 
 the power, as well as in other attributes of civi- 
 lization. 
 
 Their case is at present at the climax of 
 difficulty, and needs no further notice than to 
 give breadth to the following explanations of the 
 proceedings of the Colonial Office in these im- 
 portant affairs. 
 
 The present governor of the Cape has betrayed 
 the secret when assuring the Colonial Office 
 that he has no desire to make TREATIES with 
 barbarous chiefs ; and he says this after getting 
 into our Colonial prisons a crowd of those chiefs, 
 with whom our treaties were solemn as the 
 oldest recorded in Holy Writ, and after our breach 
 of those treaties has plunged the Caffre people 
 into the deepest distress. 
 
 The Governor's assurance plainly refers to 
 orders he had received from the Colonial Office ; 
 and we know that hostility to treaties of this 
 character was declared by that office in its im- 
 proper interference with the report of the Abo- 
 rigines' Committee of the House of Commons 
 in 1837; as we also know that the suppression 
 of Sir Andries Stockenstrom's mission of that
 
 INTRODUCTION. CXX1X 
 
 time, was attributable to intrigues fostered by 
 that office, which at last succeeded in throwing 
 the Caffre frontier into the confusions leading 
 to the present unhappy results. 
 
 Here are grave charges to be made good 
 whenever Parliament shall resume its bounden 
 protectorate over the interior of South Africa, 
 and stay the crying abuses of that region. 
 
 The Colonial Office has taken care to avert 
 the legitimate control so long exercised over its 
 acts by the Privy Council. In the case of New 
 South Wales above set forth, the illegalities of 
 the Governor were withstood with great mode- 
 ration by the Attorney-General. Therefore the 
 office ruined him, and defeated his appeal to the 
 Privy Council, first by making the Secretary of 
 State assert in the House of Commons that the 
 case had been heard and settled in the Privy 
 Council against the complainant, whereas there 
 was no hearing of the case there at all, and no 
 condemnation. Afterwards, when the case was 
 going to the House of Lords, a reference of it 
 to two Peers was agreed to by the Secretary of 
 State, but upon the two Peers awarding a con- 
 siderable sum of money to the complainant 
 
 f 3
 
 CXXX INTRODUCTION. 
 
 against the crown; the Colonial Office per- 
 suaded the minister not to acquiesce in that 
 ward. Lastly, when the Queen referred a peti- 
 tion in the case to the Privy Council by the ad- 
 vice of Mr. Secretary Walpole, the Colonial 
 Office opened its opposition by impounding the 
 petition itself, so that no legal action could be 
 taken upon it ; and now that the record is got 
 back, with much perseverance, into the Privy 
 Council Office, the clerks of the council insist 
 that the board has no jurisdiction in the case, 
 although they themselves declared before that a 
 solemn judgment was once given against the 
 complainant upon a solemn hearing of it ! 
 
 The truth is not to be disguised. The Privy 
 Council is become an offset of the Colonial 
 Office, and the Secretaries of State have long 
 been its agents. Hence the scandal of such 
 proceedings as the foregoing. Ministers have 
 lost the habit of doing justice in individual 
 cases ; never thinking of hearing a complainant 
 when their impressions are against him. To 
 what monstrous injustice this must lead, needs 
 no proof, or how much it entourages vice. 
 Well, indeed, did Sterne prove his knowledge
 
 INTRODUCTION. CXXX1 
 
 of human nature, when he drew the warning to 
 " Poor Yorick" against the works of malice. 
 " Revenge from some baneful corner shall level 
 a tale of dishonour at which no innocence of 
 heart or integrity of conduct shall set right. 
 The fortunes of thy house shall totter. Thy 
 character shall bleed on every side. Thy works 
 belied thy learning trampled upon. Trust 
 me, Yorick^ says his friend, when, to gratify a 
 private appetite, it is at once resolved upon that 
 an innocent and helpless creature shall be sacri- 
 ficed, 'tis an easy matter to pick up sticks 
 enough from any thicket, to make a fire to offer 
 it up with." 
 
 The sagacious Jeremy Bentham, who drew 
 his views of the Colonial Office from other tra- 
 ditions, and from the minutes and details of its 
 doings recorded in the early history of New 
 South Wales, expressed the same judgment in 
 another form, when he said that according to 
 the corrupt system begun to be set up in 
 his early days, " the best-grounded Colonial 
 appeals, weakened by the remoteness of the 
 colonies, meet with the most treacherous eva- 
 sions in the cabinet of the minister. There are,
 
 CXXX11 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 too many ways to deceive him, and give intrigue 
 its triumph." 
 
 Happily we British people are not for ever to 
 be the objects of such abuses. Individuals may 
 be their victims, but public indignation at length 
 defeats the basest intrigues. In the present 
 case a struggle from about 1825 has ended in 
 establishing free constitutions in all directions, 
 and this nation has crushed the attempts of the 
 Colonial Office to perpetuate despotism in the 
 colonies. Moreover, we have burst the bonds 
 with which that office long sought to bind down 
 our colonization. The insolence, too, of the 
 chief agent in these abuses, has betrayed him 
 into the avowal of principles so immoral, and 
 into legal and historical oversights so glaring, 
 that it is in no sanguine spirit we anticipate 
 a speedy and thorough reformation in the home 
 administration of our colonies. We shall never 
 hear more of sending our convicts thither, after 
 their rejection by every denomination of colonists 
 in South Africa. Nor after the universal satis- 
 faction with which Dr. Livingston's efforts have 
 been received for the civilization of the people 
 he has visited, will it be tolerated that the means
 
 INTRODUCTION. CXXX111 
 
 of improving the more southern countrymen of 
 those Africans by the just execution of reason- 
 able treaties, shall be rejected because the Colo- 
 nial Office is incapable of carrying them out. 
 
 Above all, the British people will reject with 
 scorn, when thoroughly understood, an influence 
 which, after a domination of thirty years, has 
 declared to the government, in order to stand in 
 the way of the claims of merit, that this world 
 of ours is ruled by " good luck." Christianity 
 has cast down the Goddess Fortune from an hun- 
 dred thrones. Her worship, indeed, still clings to 
 our weakness, and pervades our vulgar speech ; 
 but the deliberate restoration of it in high places 
 in the nineteenth century is an impossibility.* 
 
 So the day of sciolists and impostors will 
 not much longer sway the prodigious destinies 
 of Britain beyond the seas. They may hold 
 on by unholy ties where the indolence of our 
 ministers gave them illegitimate resting-places, 
 but their moral influence is gone, and we can 
 wait in patience their disappearance from society 
 
 * See an address to the Lords of the Treasury, signed 
 James Stephen, published in Papers on the Reorganiza- 
 tion of the Civil Service, 1855, p. 74.
 
 CXXX1V INTRODUCTION. 
 
 now that their evil principles are known, and 
 since wholesome changes of policy are certain 
 in the beautiful regions of this earth which they 
 have desecrated. 
 
 XV. 
 
 British Conquests, or British Commerce in China. ? ; 
 
 WHETHER it is visionary to or not suppose that 
 the institutions of China have had any influence 
 upon Europe in other times, it is not to be 
 doubted that the power and superior civiliza- 
 tion of Europe will henceforward decidedly ad- 
 vance or retard the well-being of China ; and 
 it is a matter of which the importance cannot be 
 exaggerated, to settle the principles correctly by 
 which our policy there shall be guided. 
 
 A numerous body among us advocate con- 
 quests in China, and the notion has not the 
 merit of novelty. Allusions have already been 
 made to Lord Olive's plan to carry out in that 
 country his daring scheme of eastern domina-
 
 INTRODUCTION. CXXXV 
 
 tion ; and to Sir Home Popham's proposal to 
 sack Pekin. Religious' men are not wanting to 
 favour something very like those designs, by en- 
 couraging modern pretensions of a pseudo An- 
 glo-Saxon race to procure its civilization at the 
 bayonet's point from Calcutta to every region 
 between the Bay of Bengal and the Yellow Sea. 
 During two years many tried hard to induce 
 the United States to swallow up their wes- 
 tern world British North America being 
 scarcely excepted from the plan provided they 
 would let us quietly annex the whole east, 
 meaning especially, along with India, China, 
 Tartary and Japan, with as many of the Asiatic 
 islands as we may lay our hands upon. 
 
 There is reason to fear that the instigators of 
 the last Chinese war had these modest doings in 
 view, although they were too cautious or too 
 timid to go so far in written engagements. Lord 
 Elgin says he had confidential instructions, which 
 seem too much opposed to the specific orders given 
 to Colonel Cathcart and to Lord Macartney by 
 Mr. Pitt, not to be looked at with extreme sus- 
 picion. The conquests making by the French 
 in Cochin China upon their own account, little
 
 CXXXV1 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 as those conquests are likely to profit them, 
 justify the demand of the fullest explanations on 
 the subject of our first operations in China. 
 Are we prepared to set up filibustering in those 
 seas with the pretence of a " manifest destiny," 
 of which we quickly denounce the iniquity, when 
 our business is to mark the mote in our brother's 
 eye ? The thing is manifestly spreading fast, 
 when a cold speculator upon politics like the 
 writer in the " Saturday Review," closes his 
 apology for the filibusters of the United States, 
 by declaring that " with Asia, Africa, and Aus- 
 tralia open to colonization, and occasional con- 
 quests, England may reasonably relinquish to a 
 kindred nation the pursuit of aggrandizement 
 in South America. The task of maintaining 
 the balance of power in Europe is burthensome 
 enough, without the further enterprize of erect- 
 ing a non-existing equilibrium in the west."* 
 
 Parliament once solemnly adopted a nobler 
 principle for the pole-star of British policy be- 
 yond sea. The " wishes" of the people of these 
 islands were then declared to be adverse to terri- 
 torial aggression, especially in the east. To this 
 * Saturday Review, 1858, p. 636.
 
 INTRODUCTION. CXXXVH 
 
 declaration we must cling, and work it out 
 worthily. 
 
 About the time of the passing of the first act 
 of Parliament in which that declaration was made, 
 the Anglo-American, who, of all others, was en- 
 titled by his success as a soldier, to indulge in 
 the dreams of ambition, devoted himself with 
 the zeal of a true patriot to pursuits of peace, 
 and studiously repudiated whatever could divert 
 him and his countrymen from these pursuits. 
 " The more," said General Washington, to an 
 English correspondent, Arthur Young, " the 
 more I am acquainted with agricultural affairs, 
 the better I am pleased with them. I can no- 
 where find so great satisfaction as in these in- 
 nocent and useful pursuits. With these feelings 
 I am led to reflect how much more delightful 
 to an undebauched mind is the task of making 
 improvements on the earth, than all the vain 
 glory which can be acquired by ravaging it in 
 the most uninterrupted career of conquerors." * 
 
 Whatever the Earl of Elgin's discretion may 
 
 * Letters from his Excellency General Washington to 
 Arthur Young, Esq., F.R.S., containing an account of 
 his Husbandry. London, 1801, 8vo. p. 16, A.D. 1788.
 
 CXXXV111 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 have been in other respects, it is just to his 
 lordship to rest upon his declaration to the 
 merchants of Shanghae in January, in favour 
 of moderate counsels, after the legitimate 
 wars of force and diplomacy have been ex- 
 hausted. The question then remains to be set- 
 tled, how we shall best carry out practically, what, 
 in the abstract, is approved by the wisest; and 
 it is great gain to find the letter of our statute 
 law in harmony with the injunctions of our 
 religion, which, if it do not prohibit the soldier's 
 trade, has proclaimed its own mission to be to 
 bring peace upon earth and good will among 
 men. 
 
 To this it is a triumphant commentary, that 
 the ordinary ways of commerce tend to esta- 
 blish an universal respect for peace, and to pro- 
 duce benefits in which all can largely share; 
 whereas the forcible occupation of territory gene- 
 rates hostile feelings rarely appeased until after 
 ages of enmity, and often the occasion of fresh 
 ruinous wars. 
 
 If, as may be reasonably hoped, our fixed de- 
 termination shall be to reject territorial aggres- 
 sion as a means of our progress in China ; and
 
 INTRODUCTION. CXXX1X 
 
 if in future any war with that country shall be 
 avoided by us as we would eschew what we 
 hold to be fatal to our national well-being, 
 and opposed to our most urgent duty, a few 
 grave questions must be settled before we can 
 hope to place our commercial relations with the 
 Chinese upon a proper footing. The opium 
 trade presents the first great difficulty in the 
 case. The amount of profit to be given up by 
 us by agreeing to the reasonable demands of the 
 Chinese government, is more than Jive millions 
 sterling per annum. It does not, however, fol- 
 low that the upright sacrifice of this Indian 
 revenue will not have compensations ; and the 
 instructions of the President of the Board of 
 Control, in 1787, to Colonel Cathcart when 
 setting out for Pekin, cannot be without weight 
 even now. " If," says the Minister of George 
 the Third, " the Chinese government insists 
 upon our abandoning opium smuggling, we 
 must yield."* 
 
 A great compensation was once offered us 
 to help suppress the use of opium. Commissioner 
 
 * See these instructions in the Appendix.
 
 Cxi INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Lin, who must have been sincere, and have had 
 good grounds for saying so, declared, that if we 
 would but support his government in that object, 
 and obey the law, " our trade should be more 
 flourishing than ever."* To the profit to arise 
 from this source, must be added the advantage 
 of giving a better cultivation to the parts 
 of India where there is at present a pri- 
 vileged growth of opium, to the general 
 injury. 
 
 Other difficulties, and very grave ones, have 
 been raised by American writers upon the occa- 
 sion of our late treaties with China. Those 
 writers insist, that the conditions of the treaties, 
 especially the conditions of Lord Elgin's of 
 Fieutsin, must ruin the commercial resources 
 and the finances of the Chinese. This is said 
 reproachfully to us, but at the same time our 
 transatlantic brethren are told by those of their 
 countrymen who make the charge, that they 
 must unhesitatingly share the profit for which 
 the British are stipulating at the point of the 
 
 * On the Life of Lin, by Sir John Bowring. Trans- 
 actions of the Chinese Royal Asiatic Society, Art. VII. 
 Hong Kong, 8vo. 1852.
 
 INTRODUCTION. cxli 
 
 bayonet, and disregard the iniquity of the pro- 
 ceeding. Under such circumstances, the only 
 remedy is to fall back upon the high-minded 
 principles to which Lord Elgin alluded before 
 his recent success, and to be guided by a rule 
 of conduct which shall override all temporary 
 incidents, when we are laying foundations of 
 a friendly and mutually beneficial intercourse 
 for ages. 
 
 XVI. 
 
 Christianity in China. 
 
 THE record of the primitive testimony to the 
 credit of our fathers, " How those Christians 
 love one another !" is assuredly less the record 
 of a fact we may dwell upon with becoming 
 pride than the declaration of a duty none can 
 fail in without a deep responsibility. Christians 
 in China, of all denominations, have long grossly 
 neglected this duty of mutual charity ; and, by
 
 CXlii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 that simple neglect of one great obligation of 
 their faith, they must have grievously damaged 
 its acceptance among a people whose sense of 
 the kindly affections is, perhaps, keener than 
 that of any other nation. 
 
 A new field, however, is here opened to all 
 Christian ministers and Christian men among 
 this people ; and it is to be expected that in 
 proceeding upon the labours of that field, we 
 should arm ourselves with the safeguard of 
 Christian charity, which can smooth so many 
 of the rugged paths of life in every re- 
 gion. 
 
 Since the promulgation of the Queen's direct 
 government of India, the conditions upon which 
 we shall regulate our religious views in China 
 are simplified. Without fearing to offend the 
 government or people of that country by honestly 
 and zealously advocating what we believe to be 
 religious truth ; and, without the return of the 
 days when a party of the Society of Friends were 
 refused leave to go out to China at their own 
 expense in order to impart that truth, we have a 
 clear prospect of being free from the influence of 
 the self-satisfied spirit which leads well-meaning
 
 INTRODUCTION. Cxliii 
 
 men to consent to the most evil acts as if utterly 
 unconscious of the guilt. 
 
 It is urgent, at the present beginning of the 
 vast work of evangelising China, that one pro- 
 digious error on this head be guarded against. 
 
 The monstrous doctrine that religious con- 
 versions will repair the most violent aggressions, 
 is now put forth in reference to China, in a way 
 to invite, in new forms, a repetition of horrors of 
 which Montezuma and the Indians of the days 
 of Popish propagandism were victims at the 
 hands of a priesthood at the least as sincere as 
 ours. The design is rife in our periodical litera- 
 ture. It is condensed in the following extract 
 from an essay on " The Future of China," in 
 the Church of England Quarterly Review.* 
 
 " We cannot withhold the expression of our 
 deep conviction/' says the subtle writer of this 
 Essay, " that ' The Future of China' rests with 
 England. Is the Chinese empire destined, like 
 that of the Great Mogul, to come beneath the 
 sceptre of a British sovereign? Is all Asia 
 about to become a dependency of Britain ? We 
 are startled to see the words we have written ; 
 * November, 1858, p. 262.
 
 CX.1V INTRODUCTION. 
 
 and yet, remembering history, and knowing the 
 extraordinary influence of the Anglo-Saxon mind 
 over the Asiatic, we cannot withdraw those 
 words. How got we possession of India ? It 
 is a long story, but two words will answer by 
 commerce or WAR; commerce necessitating 
 treaty ; war punishing the breach of treaty, and 
 the gradual cession of districts and kingdoms, to 
 atone for breach of faith, to be a material gua- 
 rantee for the future ; and now the Indian empire 
 is ours. But as we began and went on in India, 
 so have we begun, and so far gone on in China. 
 Commerce and war! commerce necessitating 
 treaty : war punishing the breach of treaty, and 
 the cession of districts to atone for breach of 
 faith, and to be a material guarantee for the 
 future. 
 
 " Now the question arises, have we seen the 
 limit of this in China? In other words, will 
 the Chinese observe the Elgin treaty ? We un- 
 hesitatingly say, they will not. What Epi- 
 menides quoted by St. Paul said of his coun- 
 trymen, may with equal truth be said of Asiatics 
 in general ' The Cretans are always liars.' 
 The morality of heathenism knows nothing of
 
 INTRODUCTION. cxlv 
 
 the sacredness of truth. It is only at the can- 
 non's mouth that allegiance of international 
 treaty can be enforced in the East." 
 
 " That the treaty will be respected by China 
 for a time is clear enough, but the constitu- 
 tional indolence and the habitual falsehood cha- 
 racteristic of rulers and ruled, will lead her to 
 evade its stipulations at the first favourable op- 
 portunity, and then war again, to be followed as 
 before, with new concessions and larger slices of 
 the empire being handed over to the terrible 
 British. 
 
 Then, adverting to the possible alternative 
 that the Chinese prove faithful to the Elgin 
 treaty, the essayist concludes : " One thing is 
 clear, if we may reason from history, and from 
 what the ANGLO-SAXON race are doing at this 
 moment all over the globe, we must make way 
 in China AS MASTERS our ideas, our enter- 
 prise, our commerce, and our civilization will 
 make way. It cannot be otherwise. GOD 
 
 9
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 HAS GIVEN TO THIS RACE HIS OWN TRUTH, 
 WITH A CHARGE TO MAKE IT KNOWN TO ALL 
 NATIONS." 
 
 Surely they who thus dwell upon the in- 
 evitable necessity of aggression, and war, and 
 territorial aggrandizement on our part, are very 
 far gone in their patronage of the schemes meant 
 to be rebutted by the Parliaments of 1783 and 
 1793. This readiness to share the spoil betrays 
 a strong sympathy with the plunderer. But 
 not to impute impiety to the bold claim of ex- 
 clusive favour at the hands of the Supreme 
 Being the Gracious Creator who " hath made 
 of one blood all nations of men," this harsh 
 judge of the Eastern World must be told, that 
 he has but superficially read history when as- 
 serting, as he does, that it is only in 1858 that 
 China opens her gates to the people of the 
 West. He forgot, too, when quoting St. Paul's 
 reference to an heathen poet to the disadvantage 
 of the Cretans, that the same apostle had relied 
 upon another heathen poet in support of the 
 more consolatory opinion that " all are the Cre- 
 ator's offspring ;" * and we may safely trust, 
 
 * The Acts of the Apostles, ch. xvii. v. 28, and 2nd 
 Epistle to Titus, ch. i. v. 12.
 
 INTRODUCTION. Cxlvii 
 
 that if our government will but firmly adhere to 
 its ancient declaration of the better policy that 
 is to rule our relations with the Chinese, 
 our practical missionaries actually engaged in 
 their brotherly work in the country, will be 
 among the first to repudiate the dangerous 
 schemes of theorists at home for its subjuga- 
 tion. 
 
 Dignitaries of our Church, the Bishops of Lon- 
 don, Oxford, and Victoria, and ecclesiastics whom 
 all honour, such as the Reverend Peter De la 
 Trobe, are actively engaged in the new Chinese 
 missionary movement. They cannot be in- 
 sensible to the serious aspect belonging to it. 
 They are men capable to look upon the four or 
 five hundred millions of the human race being 
 brought into immediate communication with us 
 as a capital fact in the history of the world. 
 Seen from every side, it is a fact of im- 
 mense consequence. Those Right Reverend 
 and Reverend persons cannot be unaware of 
 the bearing of the Earl of Elgin's remark, that 
 there is far more to learn in the present condition 
 of the Chinese people, as well as in the policy of 
 their government, than we have yet gained an 
 
 9*
 
 Cxlviii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 adequate notion of, if we would bring our policy 
 into harmony with theirs. 
 
 XVII. 
 
 The ceremony of the Kotou. 
 
 UPON the return of Lord Amherst's em- 
 bassy from Pekin through the country to 
 Canton, as Mr. George Staunton tells the story, 
 an incident occurred well worth considera- 
 tion. This incident, which occurred after 
 his Lordship's discourteous dismissal for re- 
 fusing to perform the humiliating ceremony of 
 the KOTOU, brings that case within an exact 
 parallel to the French mission of 1698, when 
 the humiliation was excused. According to 
 Chinese ideas, the actual presence of the Em- 
 peror does not affect the character of the obei- 
 sance paid. If that obeisance be refused at a 
 remote distance, the imperial displeasure is in- 
 curred. If it be submitted to, however far 
 off, it is a fitting compliance with the law. So
 
 INTRODUCTION. Cxlix 
 
 as in the French case of 1698, the waiver of 
 the ceremony at Canton was equivalent to its 
 waiver at Pekin. 
 
 In the case of Lord Amherst in 1816, our 
 unsuccessful embassy had reached a principality 
 half-way to Canton, and a great festival was 
 contemplated in the local viceroy's palace in 
 honour of the Emperor's birthday. Here, then, 
 from Pekin a proposal was to be made to the 
 English envoy to agree to " the important con- 
 cession to gratify the Emperor's wounded pride." 
 The resolution of the English not to perform 
 the ceremony of the Ko-tou, prevented the 
 meeting being held."* In 1698, the French 
 envoy obtained at Canton a waiver of it ; and a 
 similar waiver at Nan-tchang-foo would have 
 saved us from mortification, and many evil 
 results. 
 
 These facts afford valuable illustrations upon 
 the point of ceremony to the Emperor of China, 
 which may be held to be now absolutely waived 
 in compliance with our opinions. But the 
 
 * Proceedings during the Embassy to Pekin in 1816. 
 By Sir G. T. Staunton (for private circulation). 8vo. 
 1824, p. 350.
 
 d INTRODUCTION. 
 
 subject is of deeper significance than is com- 
 monly supposed ; and it is very far from being 
 limited in its influence to the Chinese. Mr. 
 Cornwallis witnessed in Japan the respectful 
 humiliation of the inferior officers of the 
 government, when presenting written reports of 
 ordinary occurrences to their superiors,* and in 
 Goethe's discussion upon the Kotou, he treats 
 the ceremony as a permanent obstacle to the 
 diplomatic intercourse of Western States with 
 all the East, and as founded on the unchangeable 
 nature of the oriental mind. 
 
 " The people of the west," he says, " can 
 never admit as a rule of life, the spiritual and 
 corporeal submission which the orientals have 
 paid to their sovereigns from the earliest ages 
 when they first set them upon the throne of the 
 deity. The Kotou, the reverential bowing, nine 
 times repeated, was then ordained. How many 
 embassies to Eastern monarchs, have made a 
 difficulty in submitting to this ceremony ; and 
 the poets of Persia cannot be thoroughly under- 
 
 15 Two Journeys to Japan, by Kinahan Cornwallis, 
 London, 1859, Vol. i. p. 23.
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 stood by us, without a clear appreciation of the 
 subject."* 
 
 The important objection to be made to 
 this view of the case is, that experience shews 
 the orientals to be really ready to abandon their 
 absurd pretensions of superiority, if we approach 
 them under suitable conditions; and the 
 Chinese government has undoubtedly long ago 
 given us and the French, proofs of its reason- 
 able appreciation of the western world, when 
 meriting its confidence. That government is 
 not unaware of its need of our friendship to 
 avert its own internal difficulties. 
 
 Goldsmith's estimate of the state of China 
 was probably correct when, in his agreeable 
 memoir of the travelling Chinese Citizen of the 
 World, he made him say that " his country was 
 degenerating. Her laws," he adds, " are more 
 venal, her merchants more deceitful than for- 
 merly. Her porcelain, once so famous, is in- 
 ferior to what it was. Europe begins to excel us." 
 " There was a time when China was the re- 
 ceptacle of strangers, when all were welcome 
 
 * Goethe's West-Eastern Divan, Works, 8vo., Vol. i. 
 p. 388, Stuttgard, 1836.
 
 clii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 who came to improve the state, or admire its 
 greatness. Now the empire is shut up from 
 every foreign improvement ; and the very in- 
 habitants discourage each other from prosecuting 
 their own internal advantages."* It is then for 
 us to deal with the case as we find it, in a way 
 becoming our own rank, and our own character 
 among the nations of the earth, without regard 
 to the slightest selfish considerations. 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 JAPAN. 
 
 IN the reign of James the First, the first East 
 India Company sent ships to trade with Japan ; 
 and one of the captains brought home so highly 
 coloured an account of the riches of the people, 
 and the good prospects of the trade, that a mer- 
 chant in the city of London read that account 
 to King James. His Majesty, however, declared, 
 roundly, that he did not believe a word of it. 
 Nevertheless, our adventurers were not dis- 
 
 * The Citizen of the World, Letter Ixiii.
 
 INTRODUCTION, cliii 
 
 couraged; and, probably, only our disastrous 
 disputes with the Dutch in the East, together 
 with the interruption of our distant enterprises 
 by the civil wars, prevented the European Pro- 
 testants of that time repairing the mischiefs 
 which the outrageous conduct of the Portuguese 
 had done in Japan. In those early days it is a 
 favourable incident, that our captains in the 
 Japanese ports received pressing, friendly invita- 
 tions from Chinese merchants who traded thither, 
 to extend their voyages to the great northern 
 towns of China. " Their government and their 
 people," said these Chinese outside merchants, 
 " would give such strangers a hearty welcome." 
 These satisfactory facts are recorded in unpub- 
 lished state-papers ; and distinct traces of them 
 may be found in " Purchas," and other printed 
 books of the seventeenth century. They are 
 not inconsistent with anything in the foreign 
 writers upon Japan ; and they confirm Sir S. 
 Raffles' views respecting that country, and even 
 <jf those of Marco Polo and Mandevile. 
 
 At length, it is fairly opened to the enter- 
 prise of the Western World ; and under cir- 
 cumstances as favourable to us as could be de-
 
 cliv INTRODUCTION. 
 
 sired. The concurrence of absolutely friendly 
 Japanese treaties with those made with China 
 upon compulsion, may be expected to take off 
 the irritation and suspicions natural in the latter 
 case, whilst the conduct of our two embassies 
 must be open to comparisons not useless to the 
 conduct of men in such novel circumstances. 
 
 In the absolutely friendly disposition of the 
 Japanese people, as testified to by a competent 
 witness, the late Dr. Gutslaff, we have a gua- 
 rantee that, if we treat them fairly, no un- 
 reasonable jealousies on the part of the native 
 government will disturb our relations. In ad- 
 dition to this testimony of the deceased Prussian 
 missionary, we possess excellent late accounts of 
 the Japanese, who, if not quite of the character 
 of Captain Hall's people of Loo Choo, are en- 
 titled to be treated by us with prudent confidence. 
 
 The Bishop of Victoria has published an 
 important appeal in support of these views, with 
 the important intelligence that in our treaty 
 with Japan we have expressly stipulated, not to 
 let our opium be imported into their country.
 
 THE JOURNAL 
 
 OP TItB FIEST 
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA, 
 
 IN 1698, 1699, AND 1700. 
 
 ACCOUNT OF THE FIRST VOYAGE OF THE FRENCH 
 TO CHINA IN 1698, 1699, AND 1700, IN THE AM- 
 PHITRITE, ARMED WITH THIRTY GUNS, OF 
 FIVE HUNDRED TONS BURTHEN; AND WITH 
 A CREW OF ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY MEN, 
 COMMANDED BY CHEVALIER DE LA ROQUE 
 REMARKS BEING ADDED UPON TRADE, UPON 
 THE PROPER SEASONS FOR SUCH EXPEDITIONS, 
 AND UPON OTHER INTERESTING MATTERS. 
 
 (The following journal was kept on board the 
 ship.) 
 
 I. 
 
 FROM LA ROCHELLE TO THE CAPE OF GOOD 
 HOPE. 
 
 6lH OP MARCH TO THB 7lH OF JUNE, 1698. 
 
 MARCH, 1698. The 6th March, 1698, at 
 about nine A.M., we set sail from the road of 
 
 B
 
 2 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 La Rochelle. But the wind shifting from north- 
 east to east-south-east, and at noon it falling 
 dead calm, we were compelled to anchor again 
 till next day. 
 
 Our second captains were MM. Geraldin, 
 Salioz, and La Rigaudiere ; the lieutenants were 
 M.M. de Boissy and Barilly ; and the midship- 
 men, MM. Sabrevois, La Grange, Beaulieu, 
 Geraldin the younger, and Filye. 
 
 The company's chief director on board was 
 M. Benac, with M. Poullesel under him as a 
 director and cashier; M. Boisar as a director 
 and superintendent ; M. Francia as supercargo ; 
 La Garde as secretary ; two clerks, and eight 
 artisans. 
 
 We had also two clerks of the East India 
 Company on board, whose duty it was to be 
 privy to all our transactions, and to prevent our 
 trading anywhere in the East. This was a 
 condition made by the two companies with each 
 other. 
 
 The Reverend Father Bouvet took out with 
 him in the ship seven missionary Jesuits, a Bro- 
 ther, and an Italian painter, named Ghirardini. 
 We got under way at seven A.M., and passed
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 3 
 
 through the Channel of Antioche, with a mode- 
 rate breeze from east-south-east. Towards four 
 P.M. we lost sight of land. 
 
 On the 9th, in latitude 45 deg. 30 min., and 
 longitude 15 deg. 6 min., when we had made 
 ninety leagues, M. de Benac produced his sealed 
 instructions, which had been ordered to be 
 opened in that latitude, and which he had 
 brought with him from Paris. 
 
 But M. de la Roque, on commencing the con- 
 sultation, claimed to be entitled, as the com- 
 mander, to have possession of those sealed in- 
 structions. On the other hand, M. de Benac 
 urged, that as representative of the company, and 
 its chief director, he ought to keep them. When 
 they could not agree, a new council was held, 
 which decided unanimously in favour of the 
 claim of the captain. The missionary Jesuits 
 were allowed two votes at this council. 
 
 This incident proves the utility of such con- 
 sultations ; as it often happens that, in long sea 
 voyages, serious misunderstandings arise from 
 unforeseen difficulties, apparently of little import- 
 ance, and which would be easily settled if the calm 
 opinions of experienced sea-officers were taken. 
 
 B 2
 
 4 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 The intention of the company, as declared 
 in its first orders, was, that we should sail 
 direct to within one hundred leagues of the 
 Cape of Good Hope, and there open our second 
 orders. 
 
 On the 10th and llth March, the wind 
 veered round to the south, the sea rose, and the 
 ship laboured greatly. Early on the eleventh 
 we saw a small ship with her foretop-mast gone. 
 The wind then changed to a gale from, west- 
 north-west, so that we lay to all night. 
 
 The 13th and 14th the gale abated, and 
 the wind shifted to north-east and east- south- 
 east; during this we saw a sloop standing 
 north. 
 
 Towards 6 A.M. of the 15th, when we were 
 in about the parallel of Cape Finisterre, we 
 saw two vessels coming down upon us with a 
 free wind. They made us out only within gun 
 shot and half distance, when they hauled up, 
 and made sail close to the wind. This led us to 
 suppose that they were Sallee rovers, or people 
 not aware of the peace.* 
 
 * Signer Ghirardini's account of this alarm is in his 
 usual witty strain. "The 15th of March," says he, " I
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 5 
 
 From the 15th to the 18th the wind kept 
 
 made the discovery that more is to be dreaded at sea 
 than to be eaten by the fish. We approached the coast 
 of a piratical people called Saltins, a barbarous race the 
 corsairs of Sallee, subject to the King of Morocco ; 
 Di cui 1'antica legge ogn'un ch' arriva 
 In perpetuo tien servo 6 che 1'occidi ; 
 who, of old, make slaves of all they meet, or put them 
 to death. 
 
 " To be taken by such wretches would assuredly be 
 a greater evil than to perish in the sea. 
 Voglio che inanzi il mar m'affoghi, 
 Chio senta mai di servitute i gioghi. 
 
 " I would rather be ingulphed in the ocean than be 
 for ever in bondage. 
 
 " As I was in the midst of these melancholy specula- 
 tions, two ships were seen right astern, coming down 
 upon us hand over hand. These must be our formidable 
 Sallee rovers. ' Beat to quarters,' shouted our Com- 
 mander. ' We must fight for our liberty, we must conquer 
 or die. To become slaves will be worse than death.' 
 Hereupon every soul on board was assigned his post. 
 
 ""For my part, I could not comprehend the nature 
 the ill-breeding of these Africans, who were ready to 
 make so unreasonable an attack upon a harmless ship 
 that had not offered them the slightest offence. My 
 mind was, however, made up to fight it out, when the 
 intelligence that the supposed Corsairs had hoisted a 
 white ensign, and were standing off on their own course, 
 as we pursued ours, permitted us to breathe again freely. 
 Heaven be praised for this escape with the penalty of the 
 fright."
 
 6 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 shifting from south- south-west to north-east, 
 but fresh; and the weather was fine. Father 
 Bouvet now began his lessons in the Chinese and 
 Tartar languages. 
 
 The whole morning of the 21st we saw por- 
 poises, and numerous birds ; and a little after 
 twelve we sighted Madeira, above fifteen leagues 
 to the south-south-west. According to the reck- 
 oning of our pilot, we ought to have passed that 
 island at a distance of forty leagues, if the current 
 setting in to the Mediterranean had not carried 
 us out of our course to the eastward. At four 
 P.M. we saw five ships in shore, standing north. 
 The wind, at east-north-east, was fair and fresh. 
 
 At sunrise, the 22d, we sighted the Ferro 
 islands, thirteen leagues to the east-south-east ; 
 and we began to bear due south, in order to 
 leave Cape de Verd to starboard. 
 
 Until the 31st, the wind continued east-north- 
 east ; and then north and north-west. All the 
 while the fog was so thick that the sea looked 
 quite altered and muddy. In latitude 17 deg. 
 30 min. we saw cuttle fish and sea-weed, not- 
 withstanding we were sixty leagues' distance from 
 the nearest of the Cape de Verd islands.
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 7 
 
 The 1st of April we saw turtle, dolphin, and 
 shoals of flying fish. We were now in latitude 
 10 deg. 32 min. north, and longitude 35 deg. 
 31 min. by reckoning. We therefore changed 
 the course to 8 j south east, in order to cross the 
 line between 35 deg. and 36 long. 
 
 The 2d we observed vast breadths of current, 
 setting due south as far as we could judge. 
 
 It became exceedingly hot on the 5th and 6th, 
 with much thunder and lightning, the wind 
 still blowing from the north-west and the sun 
 vertical. 
 
 From the 6th to the 12th the weather was 
 foggy, with rains and thunder ; and the wind 
 variable from north-west to the south-west, and 
 from south-west to south-east. 
 
 On the 1 1 th, shortly after twelve, we saw, at 
 three leagues to the westward, four ships in the 
 same course with ourselves. We immediately 
 stood towards them to make them out ; and 
 about five P.M. we showed our flag. Following 
 their lights all night, we perceived at daybreak 
 it was the squadron commanded by M. des 
 Augers, namely, the ships Le Bon, Zealand, 
 the Indian, and the Castricon ; Captains des
 
 8 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 Augers, Modene, Pradine, and La Roche Hercule. 
 We first neared the Zealand, which was astern, 
 and then the Commodore, whom we saluted with 
 eleven guns. He returned the salute. They 
 had sailed from Port Louis on the 21st of Fe- 
 bruary, and remained eight days at Cape de Verd. 
 Our latitude this day was 3 deg. 34 min. north. 
 
 All night of the 12th we had squalls from 
 the north-west to south-west, much rain, 
 and light winds, but a heavy sea from south- 
 east. 
 
 On the evening of the 14th, M. de la Roque 
 went on board the Zealand to take leave of M. 
 de Augers ; and we immediately made all sail 
 seaward with very light winds from south-south- 
 east. 
 
 By day-break on the 15th we had made two 
 leagues ; and in the evening, towards five o'clock, 
 we lost sight of the squadron. 
 
 At noon the 18th we were north of the line> 
 which we crossed at about longitude 35 deg. 
 50 min., when the usual ceremonies took place.* 
 
 * " They shaved each other, then baptized each 
 other, that is to say, they drowned each with sea-water, 
 but all in good humour. Some were plunged headlong
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 
 
 The wind freshening from the south towards 
 evening, we took in a reef in our top-sails. 
 
 On the 2 1 st we caught more than one hundred 
 bonitoes. The sea was quite black with them ; 
 and the crew had as many cooked as they 
 pleased. 
 
 From the 22d to the 28th a light wind blew 
 from the south-east ; the weather was fine and 
 the sea smooth. We bore south-west and south- 
 south-west close to the wind. 
 
 On the 29th the wind veered round to 
 east-south-east, and the 30th to east and east- 
 north-east. We were now in latitude 17 deg. 
 17 rnin. south, and, as we reckoned, twenty-nine 
 leagues north of Trinity Islands. Towards 
 night we saw some booby birds, and a water- 
 spout. 
 
 The 1st of May, when in the latitude of the 
 Trinity Islands, 18 deg. 37 min., our pilots 
 expected to make them. They are lofty, and 
 the day was clear. But we did not see them, 
 so that the distance must have been more than 
 
 into a tub, and one hundred buckets of brine were showered 
 upon the heads of others. This must be borne by all, or 
 a fine paid." Ghirardinis Voyage, p. 23. 
 
 B 3
 
 10 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 fifteen leagues. It was generally thought we 
 had left them far at a distance. 
 
 From the 1st to the llth of May the wind 
 remained steady and strong, at east-north-east 
 to north-north-east. It was also rainy and 
 
 f ggy- 
 
 On the llth the wind shifted to north-west, 
 in latitude 31 deg. 10 min., longitude 17 deg. 
 49 min. 
 
 Towards evening we caught a little bird which 
 seemed to have been blown by the westerly 
 gale off the Island of Tristan da Cunha. The 
 current also came from that direction. 
 
 The 12th and 13th we had the wind from 
 west-north-west to west-south-west, but very 
 light. It was, indeed, almost always a calm. 
 
 From the 14th to the 19th the wind again 
 veered to the north-east and some time to north- 
 north-west, but always very light, and, for the 
 most part, a dead calm. 
 
 The 20th, at about 150 leagues from land, 
 M. de la Roque called his council together, to 
 open the company's second secret orders, in- 
 structing us to put into an island, if possible, 
 about twenty leagues from the Cape of Good
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 11 
 
 Hope. If refreshments could be got there, we 
 were not to go to the Cape at all, nor, under any 
 circumstances, to remain there more than twelve 
 to sixteen days. The island here referred to by 
 the company seems to be Saldanha Bay, there 
 being no other suitable harbour along the whole 
 of that coast. The incident justifies the remark 
 I made in the opening of this journal, about the 
 propriety of letting the sea-commander, M. 
 de la Roque, have possession of the packet of 
 secret orders. 
 
 From the 20th to the 23rd, the wind ranged 
 from south-south-east to east-south-east, with a 
 cloudy sky, but strong. Between the 24th to 
 the 29th it changed to north-north-east and 
 north-west, and still strong. 
 
 The 26th we saw pipes floating, a sure sign 
 of land within forty or fifty leagues. These 
 pipes are stems of seaweed, a fathom or a fathom 
 and half long, curved like trumpets,* from which 
 form they are called in French " Trompes." 
 We also saw more albatrosses than before, which 
 are met nowhere but near the Cape of Good 
 
 * These pipes, when dried and fitted with a mouth- 
 piece, are really musical trumpets.
 
 12 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 Hope; they wander, however, sometimes two 
 hundred leagues from it. 
 
 At daybreak the 29th, we saw a large ship 
 two leagues to windward, and upon our course. 
 At the same time, also, we sighted land ten leagues 
 off, east-south-east. The wind was north and 
 north \ north-east, but a thick fog came on. 
 Towards 10 A.M. the ship above mentioned hoisted 
 the Dutch flag, which we saluted. At noon 
 we stood out to sea to catch a wind behind the 
 Lion's Rump, a mountain at the entrance of the 
 road of the Cape of Good Hope, then five 
 leagues off, east north east. The Dutchman, 
 alarmed at our manoeuvre, and supposing that 
 we did not know of the peace, pursued his 
 course, and anchored a league and a half from 
 the shore, south of the Lion's Head.
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 13 
 
 II. 
 
 TABLE BAY AT THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE. 
 
 27lH OF MAY TO THE 6lH OF JUNE, 1698. 
 
 ALL night of the 27th it was a dead calm, and 
 a very thick fog. At two in the morning of the 
 28th, the Dutchman fired from fifteen to twenty 
 guns of distress, which made us suppose the ship 
 was certainly going down. Where she had 
 anchored, the coast was covered with rocks ; and 
 a terrible swell came in from the west. At eight 
 in the morning the ship's boat came on board 
 us with twenty men in great disorder and alarm, 
 like people at their wit's end. The captain had 
 ordered them to look out along the shore, 
 for a spot where the crew might land. But these 
 twenty men seeing themselves out of the jaws of 
 death, from which their comrades could not 
 possibly escape, only thought of getting away 
 safe. M. de la Roque sent the Dutch boat back 
 with several of his own people, to see how 
 the case stood ; and he offered every assist-
 
 14 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 ance in his power, engaging to stand off and 
 on until they should come to him again. 
 
 The ship, the Gravestein, belonged to the 
 Dutch East India Company. She had sailed 
 from Middleburg in January, was quite new, 
 and could carry sixty guns, but only thirty were 
 mounted, with a crew of 320 men. She had 
 only a cargo of eighteen chests of silver. The 
 rocks in the bay had cut her cables through, and 
 she had drifted with the swell of the sea to- 
 wards the shore, the thick fog preventing her 
 people seeing ahead. It must be added, that 
 they had been guilty of a degree of negligence 
 too common in the navy of Holland. 
 
 Towards noon, as it blew from the south-south- 
 east, we thought it dangerous to remain out at 
 sea only two leagues off a lee shore. Besides, 
 there was little hope of saving the Dutch 
 ship. We therefore stood into the Bay, pass- 
 ing between the Lion's Rump and Roben island, 
 where we found twenty-five, twenty, and fifteen 
 fathoms water, with a rocky bottom. We beat 
 up till night without being able to reach the 
 roadstead, and finding no holding ground there, 
 we were obliged to anchor off Roben island about
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 15 
 
 half-past five o'clock, in fourteen fathoms, in a 
 fine sandy bottom. The guard upon this island 
 stopped us three quarters of a league from the 
 shore to the west-south-west. 
 
 The 29th, the wind being still contrary, we 
 landed upon Roben island. 
 
 The Commandant received us on landing, 
 and with much ceremony took us into his quar- 
 ters. He informed us that they had heard of 
 the peace so long ago as the 1 3th of January ; 
 and that two of the French East India Com- 
 pany's ships, the Etoile and the Phelyp- 
 peaux, had already touched at the Cape on their 
 voyage out. 
 
 Roben island is two leagues and a half round. 
 It is unapproachable on account of several rocks, 
 which run out a considerable distance into the 
 sea. To the south there is a sand bank called 
 the Whale, extending out a long quarter of a 
 league. The breakers upon this bank are seen 
 at a great distance. The landing place itself is 
 so much covered with sea- weed a musket-shot off, 
 that even small boats can scarcely be got ashore. 
 The island is flat and sandy, without any wood, 
 and with little water. It is a sort of convict
 
 16 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 station, or galley, where the deserters are confined 
 for life to collect shells to be carried to the Cape 
 for lime. On our visit, there were about twenty 
 men on the island some of them deserters, 
 some their guards. They showed, us the ruins 
 of a house on the south side, formerly built here 
 by the French. There is one gun mounted at 
 this station, to give notice to the authorities at 
 Cape Town when ships are seen at sea. The 
 Commandant saluted us with his whole force 
 on our departure. 
 
 The same day, the 29th, A.M., two English ships 
 arrived. Another of that nation, then at anchor 
 before the castle, set sail as soon as the other two 
 were seen, and about noon passed near us. M. 
 de la Roque sent his boat to her with letters for 
 France. She saluted us with five guns, which 
 we returned with as many, and she gave her 
 farewell with three. The ship belonged to the 
 East India Company. She had come laden 
 from Bombay on the Malabar coast, and was 
 going home to Europe by way of St. Helena, 
 having touched at the Cape only to hear if the 
 peace was settled. She informed us that 
 the two ships just arrived at the Cape were
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 17 
 
 Interlopers, which had taken in cargoes in 
 Bengal. 
 
 The 30th we intended to weigh anchor at 
 day-break, but the wind blowing a gale from 
 south-south-east, hindered it. At ten A.M., MM. 
 Geraldin, La Rigaudiere, and Boissy went to Cape 
 Town in the boat : M. de la Rigaudiere being 
 ordered to get our stores ready for embarcation 
 as soon as the ship should reach the road. He 
 was also ordered to arrange the salutes with the 
 Governor, and to learn whether his excellency 
 would return gun for gun. 
 
 The same day, towards noon, as the wind had 
 moderated, we weighed anchor and tacked to 
 and fro till night, in eight, ten, thirteen, fifteen, 
 and eighteen fathoms, generally with a rocky 
 bottom. Towards nine P.M. we anchored in 
 eighteen fathoms, within a league and a half of 
 the castle, which bore south-south-west i south. 
 The ground was rock, sand, and shells. 
 
 At every tack we were within a half league of 
 land, and with eight or nine fathoms water. It is 
 safer, however, to skirt the main land than 
 Roben Island, since, in the latter case, the 
 bottom is full of rocks, and in the former there
 
 18 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 is sand and some gravel, where you may cast 
 anchor if absolutely necessary. Besides, dead 
 calms are less frequent in shore where it is flat, 
 and the wind hardly ever fails when Table Moun- 
 tain is covered with fog. The currents are not 
 worth attention in Table Bay, running regularly 
 north-east % north, and south-west south. 
 The variation of the compass this year was 10 
 deg. north-west. 
 
 At eight P.M. on the 3 1st we stood in near 
 the shore, with the wind still south-south-east, 
 and we were in seventeen, sixteen, fourteen, and 
 twelve fathoms. The bottom was good. About 
 noon a summons was sent from the governor, 
 requiring us to deliver up sixteen Dutch sailors 
 on board the Amphitrite, since their ship, the 
 Gravestein, was stranded between two rocks, 
 which prevented her sinking. The crew had got 
 ashore safe, and it was expected to recover all the 
 cargo. Only a few chests of silver were plun- 
 dered by a body of seamen, who escaped with it 
 into Table mountain. 
 
 The two English ships saluted our flag with 
 seven guns as they neared the road ; we returned 
 the same number, and then received three more.
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 19 
 
 The castle, mistaking the salute as if made to it, 
 answered us with seven guns. We anchored, 
 and then saluted the castle, it being usual to make 
 salutes to fortresses before which you anchor. 
 The compliment was paid to us the second 
 time. We were now anchored at a long half 
 league from shore, in nine fathoms water, with 
 a fine sandy bottom. We then moored east 
 and west, the castle bearing south-west |- south. 
 To have a good anchorage, the coasts should be 
 brought to bear more to the west- south-west, be- 
 cause the north and north-west winds are some- 
 times so violent and raise so heavy a sea, that 
 the boats cannot land. 
 
 There was only one very small Dutch ship in 
 the road. It carried a square pendant at the 
 main. At the end of April a numerous fleet from 
 Batavia had sailed for Europe, and at the same 
 time another from Europe had passed by for Ba- 
 tavia. Together they amounted to nineteen sail. 
 
 On board one of the English ships we found two 
 members of the Paris Seminary of Foreign Mis- 
 sions, namely, M. Labe, lately appointed a bishop, 
 and M. de la Vigne. The former was returning 
 from Cochin China, the latter from Siam. Both
 
 20 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 were going home upon their mission business. 
 They had left Father Tachard in Bengal, where 
 he awaited the royal ship despatched for the 
 negotiation with Siam. 
 
 The 3rd of June, at about three P.M., M. des 
 Auger's squadron entered the road. They had 
 met with better weather than we had, as we 
 reckoned upon leaving Table Bay before his 
 arrival. We saluted him with eleven guns, 
 which he did not return lest the castle might 
 take his salute as meant for them. The English 
 captain saluted him with five guns, which was re- 
 turned with three, and he replied with one. 
 
 M. des Augers, at four P.M., saluted the 
 castle with seven guns, which were answered by 
 the same number. The governor was all the 
 time at Constantia, a country house he had built 
 three leagues from the Cape. He remained 
 there whilst we were in Table Bay, and did 
 not seem to be so well disposed towards the French 
 as when the fleet with M. de Chaumont, on his 
 mission to Siam, was there. It is said he had 
 special orders on the subject. 
 
 There is no trade at the Cape of Good Hope. 
 The company monopolise every thing, so that
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 21 
 
 all provisions are exceedingly dear to foreigners. 
 Cattle cost us fifteen crowns a head, sheep two 
 and a half. Wood is particularly dear, being 
 scarce, and brought in from eight or ten leagues 
 off. There had, indeed, lately been a severe 
 drought in the country, and a great mortality in 
 cattle and sheep, for want of pasture. 
 
 We found many French of the Reformed 
 Church settled here, at twelve leagues from 
 Cape Town. They had a district of twelve 
 leagues in circuit, along a considerable river. 
 They are more than two hundred and fifty 
 souls, almost all peasants from Languedoc and 
 Gascony. I shall say nothing more of the 
 Cape ; as former accounts have exhausted the 
 subject, so as to excuse further details. 
 
 The English ships sailed the 7th, the one at 
 daybreak, the other at noon. They did so, "in 
 order not to embarrass each other, but arrive 
 home before the company's ships, and so get a 
 better market for their merchandise. M. Labe 
 took despatches from M. de la Roque, and from 
 the directors to the government and to the 
 company.
 
 22 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 III. 
 FROM THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE TO ACHEN. 
 
 ?TH OF JUNE TO THE 24tH OP JULY, 1698. 
 
 AT day-break on the 1 Oth we weighed anchor 
 with only a light southerly breeze, but we were 
 able to pass between Roben Island and the 
 coasts towards Saldanha Bay. M. des Augers 
 returned our salute of eleven guns, and was 
 ready himself to set sail. That night we re- 
 ceived thirteen Dutch seamen from the wrecked 
 crew of the Gravestein. Father Bouvet also 
 obtained two missionary priests from the French 
 squadron. We might have very well made the 
 passage out between Roben Island and the Lion's 
 Rump ; but it is not commonly taken, for fear 
 of the dead calms, in which ships might be 
 drifted upon the Whale Bank. 
 
 We were becalmed from the 10th to the 12th, 
 in sight of the Table Mountain, the swell carry- 
 ing us back to the northward. 
 
 On the 13th, as the breeze freshened to the
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 23 
 
 south-south-east and south-east j south, we bore 
 away to the south-west and south-west south, 
 as near the wind as possible. 
 
 The 14th, in latitude 34 deg. 40 min., and 
 at about thirty-four leagues from the Cape, our 
 third secret orders were opened. They in- 
 structed us to proceed direct to Batavia for 
 pilots to the coast of China, unless they could 
 be found in any ships we might meet on the 
 voyage. At thirty leagues from Batavia the 
 fourth secret orders were also to be opened. 
 
 The wind changed on the 1 6th to east-north- 
 east, and north-east, but it was light. This was 
 in latitude 36 deg. 46 min., and longitude 37 
 deg. 40 min., by reckoning. From the 16th 
 to the 22nd we had heavy gales from north to 
 west-north-west, with rain and thunder. We 
 steered east ^ south-east, and east-south-east, 
 which was equivalent to a course due east 
 would have done, as from the direction of 
 north-west there was 15 deg. to 20 deg. of 
 variation to allow for. 
 
 From the 23rd to the 25th the wind veered 
 strong to north-north-east and north-east, with 
 rain and a very heavy sea. We laid-to all
 
 24 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 night of the 25th, the wind setting to north- 
 north east, and we could not carry sail. 
 
 The 26th, early, the wind chopped suddenly 
 round to west-north-west. Towards ten A.M. 
 it fell calm, with a short cross sea, so that 
 several times our course had to be changed, lest 
 in the rolling of the ship she should be dis- 
 masted. The latitude was 38 deg. 16 min., 
 and longitude 71 deg. 30 min. by reckon- 
 ing. 
 
 From the 27th to the 30th the wind ranged 
 from west to south-south-west, fair and strong, 
 with light rain. Our latitude was 35 deg. 
 40 min., longitude 82 deg., with 29 deg. of 
 variation from the north. This variation after- 
 wards became much less. 
 
 The 1st and 2nd of July the wind shifted to 
 north-west and north-north-west ; light, with fine 
 weather. The latitude 35 deg. 58 min., and lon- 
 gitude 85 deg. 47 min. We changed our course 
 to east-north-east, expecting a north-west wind to 
 the tropic. All, however, did not agree to that 
 manosuvre, seeing that we had not got longitude 
 enough to make so much westing safe. Those 
 on boardwho objected, thoughtwe might miss the
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 25 
 
 south-east trade, and fall in with the gales from 
 the Straits of Sunda, which happened. 
 
 The 3d and 4th the wind shifted from 
 north-west to south-west and south-south-east. 
 Our course was still east-north-east and north- 
 east ^ east. 
 
 On the 5th the wind blew steady south-east. 
 The sea rose in latitude 29 deg. 48 min., longi- 
 tude 93 deg. 25 min. by reckoning. 
 
 Until the 15th, the wind kept from south- 
 east to east- south- east, but more steadily south- 
 east ^ south-south-east, and south-east half 
 east. Birds have never left us all the way from 
 the Cape of Good Hope ; so that it is probable 
 there are in these seas some undiscovered islands 
 which they frequent. 
 
 Much rain fell on the 1 6th and 1 7th, the 
 wind being then south-east. The currents set 
 north. Our latitude was 13 deg. and 14 deg.; 
 the longitude 109 deg. 
 
 From the 18th to the 20th the wind freshened 
 south-east and south-east % east ; and we had 
 a heavy sea with much rain. 
 
 On the twentieth we saw the trunk of a tree 
 and some branches, apparently from the Straits 
 
 c
 
 26 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 of Sunda. Our latitude was 9 deg. 48 min,, 
 longitude 111 deg. 22 min. 
 
 On the 20th a reed floated by. The prevail- 
 ing winds were south east, and still strong. We 
 were all day long under close reefs. 
 
 All night of the 21st and 22nd we stood south, 
 the wind was east, and east ^ north-east, strong 
 with rain. At day-break we lay-to north- 
 north-east. 
 
 The 23d, we were in latitude 7 deg. 36 min., 
 and longitude 114 deg. 56 min. Our chief 
 pilot made it 1 19 deg., and calculated upon seeing 
 land to-day. But there were no signs of it, no 
 birds, no seaweed, the tree and bamboos we 
 saw before came from the Cocos Islands, which 
 we had left to larboard. 
 
 The 24th, and no sight of land. Latitude 
 6 deg. 13 min. We had been drifted by the 
 current from the Straits of Sunda far to the north- 
 west ; and that current was the stronger for the 
 south-east wind. We sailed as near the wind 
 as possible in order to sight Sumatra, where 
 it was expected we should have a fair wind 
 to make up our lee-way. 
 
 The whole of the time from the 25th to the
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 27 
 
 28th, we ran north-east and north-east % east. 
 We saw some bamboos, a live snake, and 
 many boobies, but still no land. The currents 
 must have been very strong to carry us so far to 
 the west and west-north-west ; all our pilots 
 must have been two hundred leagues out in their 
 reckoning, according to the observation of certain 
 Jesuits, who fix Java Head seven degrees more 
 to the west than the Dutch charts do. 
 
 The chief cause of our error was not having 
 taken proper advantage of the winds. I advise 
 all future navigators who would pass through the 
 Straits of Sunda, to run down their latitude to 40 
 deg. and 41 deg. south as far as 98 deg. long., 
 then to steer east ^ north-east and east-north- 
 east to longitude 110 deg. and 112 deg., or 
 even to sight Terra Australis to the south. By 
 this course you have the full command of the 
 wind, and cannot possibly miss the Straits. 
 
 In the night of the 27th and the next, we 
 ran north-east till midnight ; and then tacked 
 seaward. This precaution was taken because 
 the islands west of Sumatra are low. The sky 
 was cloudy, it rained incessantly ; and we might 
 have easily grounded. 
 
 c 2
 
 28 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 A council was held on the 29th, at which it 
 was determined to change our course to Achen, 
 and to pass by the Straits of Malacca. There 
 seemed no prospect of making the Straits of 
 Sunda. No land could be seen, and the south- 
 east wind was still dead against us. Now we 
 stood north, and north- north-east by day ; and 
 north-west, north-west ^ west by night, not to 
 risk anything. This course would carry us to 
 the latitude of Acheen, even if we did not make 
 the land ; and the west wind or the west-south- 
 west, always met north of the line at this season, 
 could take us into port. 
 
 Our holy fathers, the Jesuits, offered vows in 
 the name of the crew, that if Heaven should 
 vouchsafe to grant our arrival this year in any 
 part of China, we would build upon the tomb of 
 St. Francois Xavier, in the island of Sanciam, a 
 chapel, to be for ever a monument of the piety 
 of the first Frenchmen who navigated those 
 seas. 
 
 All the morning of the 30th it was a calm, 
 and the sea smooth. The wind was east-south- 
 east ; and we ran to the northward. At about 
 two P.M. a squall came from north-north-west,
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 29 
 
 which suddenly filled our sails. This squall 
 formed a furious whirlwind, which passed the 
 ship a pistol-shot astern, raising across our 
 course a prodigious water- spout. A sort of 
 hurricane followed, and kept up till noon next 
 day ; and we lay-to all night, for fear of running 
 ashore. The wind ranged from west-south west 
 to north-west, and heavy rain as sharp as hail 
 fell the whole time, from seven to eleven A.M. 
 The squalls were so violent, and the sea was so 
 high, that we were obliged to be under bare 
 poles. 
 
 The same day, the 31st, at about two o'clock 
 P.M., we at last saw land. It was a low island, 
 bearing north-north-east, a place that must have 
 been a few minutes south of the line, so far as we 
 could reckon, for during the last six days we had 
 not been able to take an observation. There was 
 no change in the depth of the water, as at three 
 leagues and a half off the shore we paid out 
 one hundred and thirty fathoms of line, without 
 gaining bottom. 
 
 The night of the 3 1 st was calm and very 
 fine. At daybreak the island sighted bore 
 east \ south east, and we saw another island
 
 30 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 to the north. Both seemed to be covered with 
 trees. At noon the latitude was 30 min. south. 
 All our pilots had made us out north of the 
 line ; the currents must have carried us south. 
 The first island we had seen was Pulo Mintao 
 (Pulo meaning, in the Malay language, an 
 island). It lies 35 or 40 min. south of the 
 line, and may be about ten to twelve leagues 
 long. The other is Pulo Nyas. It lies north- 
 west of the other, and is about eight leagues 
 long. 
 
 During the night of the 1st of August and all 
 next day we had very little wind, and kept in 
 sight of the two islands. At noon we found our- 
 selves 5 min. more to the south than the day 
 before, although by reckoning we had made 
 eight leagues to the north-west. We had also 
 neared the land, although the current certainly 
 drifted us towards the south-east. 
 
 During the day, the 3rd and 4th, we had 
 light winds from seaward ; and so made five 
 or six leagues way. But we lost it by the calms 
 and currents at night, and every morning we 
 were in the same place, only nearer land. At 
 daybreak, the 5th, we were within two leagues of
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 31 
 
 it, all we could do to get out at sea, and M. de la 
 Roque determined to anchor. We began to 
 want water and wood. We were still far off 
 Achen, and the continuance of the calm was to 
 be feared. 
 
 M. de la Rigaudiere went in the boat well- 
 armed, to find a good anchorage, where we might 
 conveniently wood and water, and, if the island 
 was inhabited, get some refreshments. I went 
 with him, by M. de la Roque's order, to sound 
 along shore, and survey the shoals. In leaving 
 the ship we ran upon a point of land bearing 
 north-east 5- east, and two leagues off. 
 Behind this bank there seemed to be a deep in- 
 let, and, accordingly, we found a very fine bay 
 and good anchorage there. An extensive island 
 at the entrance shelters it from the ocean. We 
 stretched somewhat wide of the bank to clear a 
 reef, running a quarter of a league into the 
 water. Outside of this harbour the soundings 
 were ten to twenty-five fathoms, with a coral, 
 stony, and rocky bottom ; within from twenty 
 to three fathoms, with a bottom of coarse and 
 fine sand. I took a plan of the soundings and 
 dangers of this bay.
 
 32 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 The shore is everywhere pleasant, and covered 
 with large trees of various sorts. We could 
 only land in a deep sandy cove, where we saw 
 five men, who ran away along the shore, and 
 plunged into the wood. We anchored at half a 
 musket-shot from the shore, and hoisted our 
 flag, to signify to the men that we had no ill 
 intentions. For half an hour we saw nothing 
 of them, but then these men came forward, and 
 sat down upon the sand. We approached them, 
 and made signs that we wanted water. They 
 forthwith guided us to a little stream close by, 
 and drank some of the water themselves first. 
 They then made signs to us to go round a point 
 to another bay, where we should get refreshments. 
 We gave them tobacco and brandy, knives and 
 needles, which delighted them greatly. One of 
 the three went away, and brought some arrack, 
 betel-nuts, cocoa-nuts, and an agouly, which he 
 gave us. 
 
 We re-embarked towards half-past five, with 
 a light wind, and joined the ship, which had 
 anchored a league from the bay, in 25 fathoms 
 with a sandy bottom. M. de la Roque would 
 not enter the bay, because there was no sign of
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 33 
 
 our finding good water. What the Malays 
 had shown us was brackish. 
 
 The ship's long-hoat and jolly-boat went to 
 the bay again, the 6th and 7th, for wood. We 
 could not communicate with the natives without 
 difficulty ; and, at last, they took fright and 
 escaped, leaving their poor utensils on the shore. 
 We found a large canoe forty-five feet long, and 
 a little canoe. They appeared to sleep there, as 
 no trace of a habitation could be discovered. 
 
 We weighed anchor on the morning of the 
 8th, with a south-east wind, and sailed west- 
 north-west, to get clear of the land. The same 
 day, M. de la Roque caused the fourth packet of 
 sealed orders to be opened, as it ought to have 
 been read thirty leagues from Batavia, in case 
 the ship had gone by the Straits of Sunda. Our 
 instructions were to buy a small vessel at Ba- 
 tavia, or further on, in order to take soundings, 
 ahead of the Amphitrite, and proceed by the 
 best possible route to Ningpo, as the nearest 
 port to Pekin. 
 
 The 9th, standing fifteen leagues off the coast, 
 we steered north-west, to clear Pulo Nyas and 
 the Cocos Islands. Towards evening, we crossed 
 
 c 3
 
 34 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 the line, running to the parallel of Achen 
 without seeing land. It was very calm and 
 cloudy. 
 
 The 16th,* at day-break, clouds were seen 
 upon the horizon like high land. But the sky 
 thickened, and nothing could be distinguished. 
 We steered all day north, and north-north-east, 
 till morning. During that night, being by our 
 reckoning in north latitude 4 deg. 20 min., we 
 saw this supposed land a-breast of the ship. 
 Her sails began to fill with a fine wind, west- 
 south-west. We steered east ^ south-east, 
 and about three in the afternoon we made the 
 high peaks of Sumatra, and the islands north of 
 the road of Achen. We sailed to within a 
 league of those islands without finding soundings. 
 
 * There seems to be an error in the date, a week from 
 the 9th being left out.
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA.. 35 
 
 IV. 
 
 ACHEN. 
 THE 17TH TO THE 23RD OP AUGUST, 1698. 
 
 DURING the night the wind changed from 
 south-west to south-south-east ; so that we 
 stood out to sea until three A.M. of the 18th, 
 and then we tacked towards the land. The 
 current had so much drifted the ship, that we 
 were six full leagues at sea at dawn. Towards 
 eleven A.M. we entered the Bengal Passage. 
 There was much rain, squalls, and a thick fog. 
 At a q arter of a league from the shore we found 
 soundings in forty fathoms, with a grey sandy 
 bottom. The current ran still west-south-west. 
 As soon as we had doubled the Bengal Passage, 
 we saw lofty trees on both sides of the river of 
 Achen a safe sea-mark and guide to the road. 
 They look from a distance like ships at anchor. 
 We steered on south-east, and anchored at 
 about six P.M in nine fathoms, with a bottom of 
 slimy sand. The bar of Achen bore east 
 north-east at a quarter of a league off. 
 
 In the road there was a ship of the King of
 
 36 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 Siara ; two Arab vessels from Surat ; three more 
 belonging to an old English merchant named 
 Delton, long settled at Acheen ; three Chinese 
 junks, several Portuguese barks from Malacca, 
 and a small French vessel belonging to a private 
 individual in Bengal. 
 
 The 19th, M. de la Roque sent M. Geraldin, 
 the second Captain, to pay his respects to the 
 Chapandar ; to ask leave to land at Achen, and 
 to buy provisions for the ship, which were 
 readily granted. 
 
 The 20th, M. de la Roque disembarked, and 
 received visits from the Chinese, and other mer- 
 chants, who offered him their services. 
 
 We stayed till the 23d in the road of Achen. 
 Our long boat went daily to the neighbouring 
 islands for wood. They produce nothing else, 
 and are not inhabited, except by some poor 
 fishermen. We lost two deserters there ; and 
 one sick man in the hospital also deserted. 
 
 We employed the flat boats of the place to 
 
 water. They carry twenty to twenty-two casks 
 
 in bulk. Those flat boats of the country save the 
 
 ships' boats upon the dangerous bar. Every trip 
 
 costs two taels, which are equal to eight French
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 37 
 
 crowns. The water must, however, be often tasted 
 as offered, seeing that it is apt to be brackish. 
 Wood bought in the town costs the same. 
 
 Everything is dear in Achen, as provisions 
 and merchandize are all imported. The coin of 
 the country is a little piece of gold, round and 
 very thin. The Portuguese call it massie. It is 
 worth twelve sous. Five and sometimes six 
 are reckoned to a French crown. 
 
 English, Danish, Arab, Siamese, and Chinese 
 vessels bring merchandize and provisions from 
 all parts to Achen, and winter there. 
 
 The road is good, and safe from all violent 
 winds. The goods imported are cotton, Indian 
 muslin, silks, porcelain, rice, tobacco, arrack, and 
 sugar, for which nothing but gold and a little 
 pepper are exchanged. During the famine upon 
 the Coromandel coast, twelve years ago, the 
 Dutch brought a prodigious number of slaves to 
 Achen with great profit. They bought these 
 slaves upon the coast for a little rice, and resold 
 them for one hundred crowns each. 
 
 There is a great population in the town, if a 
 vast village two leagues round, in a forest, de- 
 serves that name. The different nations inhabit 
 their respective quarters of the place. The
 
 38 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 Chinese have two pagodas; the Malays and Arabs 
 many mosques ; the Christians a little church, 
 served at the time of our visit by a Portuguese 
 monk of the order of the Cordeliers. 
 
 The pretended queen of Achen is still living, 
 according to some. She must, however, be 
 extraordinarily old. Nobody sees her, and none 
 are allowed to approach her palace. The gran- 
 dees of the kingdom, called avancayes, shew her 
 once a year to the people ; but at a great distance. 
 We were assured she had been a long while 
 dead, the exhibition being a figure which the 
 grandees shewed to amuse the people and secure 
 their own authority. 
 
 The 23rd we weighed anchor with a light 
 breeze. One of Mr. Delton's vessels in the road 
 saluted us with three guns, which we returned 
 with one. Mr. Delton was then on board the 
 Amphitrite ; and when he left her we paid him 
 the compliment to fire seven guns. He had 
 done us all a thousand kindnesses, and kept 
 open house during our stay at Achen. We 
 took in two Portuguese pilots for the coast of 
 China. They had made several voyages to 
 Macao. A Chinese merchant also embarked 
 with us to return home to Canton. He had
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 39 
 
 asked Father Bouvet to be allowed to make the 
 voyage in our ship.* 
 
 * The narrative of the troubles of this part of the 
 voyage, and stay of the Amphitrite at Achen, by Signer 
 Ghirardini, is as follows : 
 
 " At the end of July we expected to sail direct to 
 Batavia, a place well worth visiting, especially when so 
 near. The visit would have been the more to my satisfac- 
 tion, seeing that from Batavia we should have had only 
 a trip of a fortnight or three weeks to reach Canton. I 
 looked upon our voyage as over ; but was a good deal 
 out in my reckoning. I little thought of the miseries 
 and great dangers before us. After missing the Straits 
 of Sunda, we were first exposed to torrents of rain and 
 frightful storms. This is the common lot of all who, like us, 
 have to sail along the west coast of the island of Sumatra. 
 
 " Era travolto 
 
 Fra le nuvole il mar, fra 1'onde il cielo 
 S'udian du nembi i tuoni 
 Scoccar fremendo horribile tempesta. 
 Piova gia non parea, parean superbi 
 Correr per 1'aria i fiumi 
 Ed hora fu ch' i dissi oime ! 
 Cade del cielo il mare. 
 
 " Sometimes the sea was among the clouds, 
 Among the waves the sky, 
 The thunder of the lightning was 
 Heard to burst, a horrible tempest. 
 Rain it did not seem, rivers appear'd 
 To pour furiously through the air ;
 
 40 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 Then it was that I cried Alas ! 
 
 The ocean falls from heaven. 
 
 " In the whole ship, not a dry spot could be found 
 free of the deluge. On the 30th of July, after a dead 
 calm, the storm broke out suddenly, the sea rose in 
 whirlpools. As you sometimes see the straw, loose papers, 
 and feathers in a sheltered court all at once borne aloft 
 in a whirlwind to the tops of the houses ; so on this 
 occasion the smooth surface of the sea was disturbed in 
 a moment, and what the French sailors call a trompe 
 was formed in a huge black column. For my part, I 
 called it a Dragon. Its head pierced the cloud, it sucked 
 up a wall of waters with its pump-like body, and spouted 
 it out again in torrents. It is a magnificent thing to 
 look upon, but it is terrible, for the storm soon bursts, 
 the cataract falls furiously, the storm bursts, and the sea 
 roars. If the monster strikes a ship, all is over. It is 
 recommended to fire a gun-shot at these water-spouts ; 
 so wherever the least sign of one appeared above us, I 
 began to shout the Dragon, the Dragon, and besought 
 them to have guns ready. 
 
 " However, after many alarms and many troubles, after 
 being starved for want of wood to cook with, and 
 famished for want of fresh water, we reached Achen, 
 a town as remarkable for its strange buildings as for its 
 multitudes of people perfectly new to us. Such a country 
 has great charms to every one gifted with a poetical fancy ; 
 in one word, it is 
 
 " Culte pianure, e delicati colli, 
 
 Chiare acque, ombrose ripe e prati molli, 
 
 Vaghi boschetti di soavi allori, 
 
 Di palme, e di amenissime mortelle,
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 41 
 
 Cedri ed aranci ch' avean fruti e fiori 
 Cotesti in varie forme, e tutte belle. 
 
 " A land of cultured plains, and gracefully sloping hills, 
 
 Where clear streams, and shady banks, and softest meads, 
 
 Wavy groves of sweet laurels, of palms, 
 
 And most delicious myrtles, 
 
 Of cedars ; and orange-trees full at once of flowers and 
 
 fruit, 
 Rise in many a form, and all beautiful. 
 
 " To have a correct idea of Achen, we may fancy set 
 before us one of the finest forests of France or Italy, with 
 a noble river running through it, thronged with boats. 
 For our oaks and elms, plant in it bamboos, acacias, 
 plantains, and cocoa-nut palms. Scatter over all an in- 
 credible multitude of habitations, here and there, without 
 regularity, and constructed of cane, bark of trees and 
 reeds ; let these cots make streets and hamlets ; let little 
 meadows be scattered about with deep green verdure 
 everywhere, and you will have a portion of Achen be- 
 fore your eyes. But it is not all. You here see besides 
 an assemblage of various nations, somewhat barbarous 
 in comparison with ourselves ; and they constitute the 
 life and soul of this place. The Chinese are clean in their 
 persons, with the clothing of women ; they fix large 
 needles in their hair, and carry fans. The Arabs have a 
 grand air with their flowing robes and long beards. The 
 Malays are short, well-shaped and fiery ; they are at 
 once proud in manner and gentle in disposition, in one 
 word, 
 
 " Son di persona tanto ben formata 
 Quanto mai finger san pittori industri.
 
 42 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 They are indeed so gracefully formed 
 
 That never could the most ingenious artist picture them. 
 
 " Oh that our Titians and Caraccios could see what I 
 witness, no such shapes ever came from their hands ; 
 these people are dark, but very unlike the coloured men 
 we have in Europe j their blackness becomes them ; and 
 certainly if they were white we could not tolerate their half 
 nakedness. They are absolutely uncovered below, except 
 round the loins, and above only wear a shawl wound 
 about their shoulders with singular beauty. In vain our 
 painters study to represent such figures, whilst here 
 nature teaches a grace beyond the reach of art. These 
 Malays wear a sort of sabre of the length of our light 
 swords ; the handle is gold or ivory, the shape of the 
 blade is curving, it is fixed under the right arm, and 
 passes concealed under the folds of the lower garment. 
 Many of them wear also a broad belt of golden em- 
 broidery, fastened in front with a buckle of gold, or 
 some valuable material. 
 
 " I wanted nothing but a little more time to compose 
 the most brilliant historical picture ever conceived by 
 painter. I had the river and its meadows on one side, 
 on the other I had their habitations grouped among trees 
 of exquisite beauty. The human figure in the midst of 
 all this was perfect, varying in race, in features, dress, 
 and gait, yet all was natural and really fine ; even women 
 might be seen in their native costume, with their large, 
 neatly woven hats of grass. Moreover, in one corner I 
 had before me huge elephants, carrying a dozen little 
 children on their backs, and with the branches of a whole 
 tree in their trunks for one meal. 
 
 " I quitted this charming'place with regret on the 23rd 
 of August, when we entered the Straits of Malacca."
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 43 
 
 FROM ACHEN TO MALACCA. 
 
 THE 23RD OF AUGUST TO THE 8lH OP SEPTEMBER, 1698. 
 
 ON leaving the road we steered north |- 
 north-west, north, and north-north-east, to clear 
 a sandbank which ran half a league out in face 
 of the river. We then stood east-north-east 
 and east, leaving to starboard the little island in 
 the middle of the Straits of Malacca. 
 
 On the other side of this island there is 
 fourteen or fifteen fathoms water, but the bottom 
 is rocky, and bad anchorage, which makes the 
 navigators avoid those passages as much as they 
 can. 
 
 We had light winds from the west-north-west 
 on the 24th, and we coasted close to the shore, 
 which appeared to be clear of dangers. It is flat, 
 and covered to the sea-side with lofty trees like 
 those of the river of Achen. Five leagues inland 
 there are high and bare hills. The currents run 
 six hours south-east and six south-west. Our 
 Portuguese pilots told us that besides these 
 currents there was at this season another out at
 
 44 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 sea, running north-west. In case of calms there 
 is good anchorage a short league from the shore, 
 in twenty-five to thirty fathoms, with a bottom 
 of slimy sand. Towards noon the wind fresh- 
 ened and veered to north-east and then to south. 
 We passed the river of Pedir. From the 24th 
 to the 25th we had rain and light winds from 
 south-west. Towards eight o'clock we sighted 
 a Chinese junk skirting the shore. We fired a 
 shotted gun at him, for his boat to come on 
 board of us. The poor people hesitated, and only 
 came in great alarm. They were Chinese settled 
 in Johore. They were last from Malacca, and 
 bound for Achen. We asked if they had heard 
 of any English pirates. But they had no other 
 knowledge of them than that such commonly fre- 
 quented Pulo Condor and Pulo Timor, and had 
 lately plundered a Portuguese ship. These 
 Chinese saluted us with five swivels, and we re- 
 turned the salute with one gun ; whereupon they 
 went their way, and we ours. 
 
 All that day we steered east ^ south-east 
 along shore a league off. We saw many 
 pleasant pepper plantations, and much rice. 
 These Malays are said to be cannibals.
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 45 
 
 On the morning of the 26th we passed 
 Pulo Pisang, where we saw a Chinese junk at 
 anchor, and several boats fishing. There were 
 soundings at forty fathoms, with a slimy, 
 sandy bottom. The prevailing wind was very 
 light, south to north-north-west. The needle 
 stood in the evening at 5 deg. 23 min. 
 We had made about thirty-five leagues from 
 Achen 
 
 The night of the 26th we had rain and 
 thunder, with the wind steady and fresh at west- 
 south-west. In the morning it veered to north- 
 north-east. At noon we found seven fathoms 
 of water at a league and half from the shore, 
 with a muddy bottom. Between two headlands 
 at Point Diamond there is a dangerous reef, 
 with rocks running out a league, not noticed in 
 the charts. We stood out to sea to thirty-five 
 fathoms depth. 
 
 From the 27th to the 28th the wind was 
 light at north-north-east and south-south-east. 
 We coasted at three leagues off, and took sound- 
 ings of forty to twenty fathoms, with the bottom 
 muddy, and a slimy sand. Till midnight the 
 wind was at north-north-west, and all the
 
 46 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 following night it freshened a little at south- 
 south.west.' 
 
 The 29th we ran at three to four leagues off 
 shore, in soundings of twenty-two to thirty-five 
 fathoms, with a muddy bottom. We met little 
 current. From Point Diamond to the south- 
 east the shore is low, and covered with lofty 
 trees standing apart, and looking at a distance 
 like ships in full sail. High lands are seen far 
 in the interior. At night the wind was east and 
 north-east. The morning of the 30th we dis- 
 tinguished Pulo Varela, six leagues to the east- 
 south-east. It then appeared to be round, and 
 covered with wood. It is lofty in proportion to 
 its extent, so that it seems much nearer than it 
 really is. It is about twenty-five leagues from 
 Diamond Point. 
 
 All day long the wind was light from east- 
 north-east and east-south-east We tacked in 
 order to near the island, but the current was 
 contrary. Towards the afternoon we saw rather 
 a large ship, which passed two leagues to wind- 
 ward of us. By night the wind changed. It 
 came strong off the land. We steered east 
 and east J south-east to examine Pulo Jarra ;
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 47 
 
 but the wind soon fell, and it was a calm 
 as before. 
 
 We anchored at midnight in twenty fathoms, 
 with a slimy sand bottom, a league and a half 
 north of Pulo Varela. We sent the boat ashore 
 to catch turtle, which the Portuguese told us 
 were abundant there. Accordingly the people 
 got four of two to three hundred pounds weight 
 each. The others had already taken to the 
 water. 
 
 Pulo Varela is about five leagues from the 
 large island of Sumatra. It is half a league 
 round, very lofty, and covered with various sorts 
 of trees with fine foliage. A sand-bank runs 
 out from its south side, and turtle are taken 
 there. We found a stream of excellent fresh 
 water, said to be medicinal. We also found 
 jack fruits and other kinds wild. The other 
 sides of the island are steep, with very difficult 
 landing. Malay pirates are said to harbour 
 here, so that it is imprudent to land without 
 being well armed. Ships anchor generally a 
 quarter of a league off shore to the south-east 
 of the island, in eight to twelve fathoms, with a 
 bottom of slimv sand.
 
 48 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 All the morning of the 31st we had rain and 
 a dead calm. Towards evening we landed again 
 to spend the night ashore, and take turtle. 
 But at nine o'clock the wind freshened, and 
 we were recalled by a gun ; so we joined the 
 ship, which was already under sail. All night 
 the wind blew hard from the west, with heavy 
 rain. We steered east-south-east. 
 
 At daybreak the 1st of September we were 
 twelve leagues from Pulo Varela, about one 
 west north-west, and eight from Pulo 
 Jarra, which was north-east. They are both 
 lofty, and about the same extent. It was 
 calm almost all the morning. Towards three 
 P.M., the current being contrary, we anchored in 
 fifty fathoms, with a bottom of hard mud, six 
 leagues south j south-west of Jarra. Whilst 
 we were at anchor the current carried the 
 flood tide to south-south-west, and the ebb to 
 north-north-east. 
 
 We weighed anchor towards six at night, 
 with a light breeze from north-west. In the 
 night the wind changed to north-east. We 
 steered still south-east. 
 
 At three A.M., the 2ndj we continued to have
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 49 
 
 severe gales from the south-west, and much rain. 
 At daybreak we saw Pulo Arroa, south-west 
 % west, nine leagues off. Soundings were 
 forty fathoms, with a bottom of slimy sand. It 
 was calm the whole morning, and the current 
 eastward was so strong that we suddenly lost 
 sight of Pulo Arroa. We anchored at ten in 
 forty fathoms, with the same bottom. The 
 main land was then descried from the mast-head, 
 about fifteen leagues off to the north-east. 
 Whilst we were at anchor the current ran in all 
 directions, but for the most part east and west. 
 
 Of our two Portuguese pilots, one had never 
 been in this strait before, and the other, who 
 was extremely near-sighted, wished to examine 
 Pulo Arroa more close, but, as the wind was fair, 
 we weighed anchor towards midnight. Then, 
 upon a change from north-west to strong 
 north-east, we steered south-south-east, south- 
 east and south-east -j- east, under easy sail, 
 with soundings in thirty-five fathoms, with a 
 bottom of mud, slimy sand, and small black 
 gravel. That night we saw several shoals of 
 small fish, showing banks to be near. 
 
 At about four o'clock on the 3rd, the wind 
 
 D
 
 50 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 blew east-north-east, we had much rain. The 
 lightning struck the ship, and knocked three 
 sailors down. They were overpowered by the 
 stench of brimstone. At seven the wind 
 chopped to south-east ; the current was con- 
 trary, bearing north-west. We anchored in 
 thirty-five fathoms, with a bottom of slimy 
 sand. The main land bore east-south-east. 
 
 We hoisted sail about ten, steering still 
 south-east, south-east % east and east-south 
 east, with soundings from thirty-five to twenty. 
 The wind was north-west and fresh. At five 
 o'clock the depth of water was suddenly so little 
 as fifteen fathoms, with a similar bottom. A 
 very low wooded shore showed itself from this 
 point, at three leagues distance, as heretofore. 
 Then a high point was seen east ^ south- 
 east, which our chief pilot, who had been here 
 in 1688, in the " Oriflamme," declared was the 
 Hill of Parcelar. But the Portuguese pilot was 
 not certain ; on the contrary, he was in great 
 embarrassment. We therefore anchored till 
 next day, in thirteen fathoms, with a muddy 
 bottom. 
 
 The whole morning of the 4th, the wind
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 51 
 
 was south-east, and the current contrary. At 
 noon the tide was low, and the water sank two 
 fathoms. The flood tide bore south-south-east, 
 and the ebb north-north-west, at the rate of at 
 least a league an hour. The shore was hid in 
 fog, and we durst not weigh anchor. A bark 
 was also anchored near us to the east. 
 
 At two o'clock our chief pilot and the Por- 
 tuguese went in the boat to take soundings east 
 quarter south-east and east- south-east. To- 
 wards four it freshened from north-west. We 
 weighed anchor, and followed our boat, which 
 could only be seen from the mast-head. We 
 steered one league south-east, south-east quarter 
 east, and south-south-east, with soundings from 
 thirteen to seven fathoms, and a muddy bottom. 
 We anchored again at half-past five. 
 
 The boat joined us ; and the two pilots, who 
 had gone close to the shore, agreed that we 
 were right in the straits of Parcelar, and must 
 make sail. They had nowhere, however, found 
 more than six to five fathoms, and the place was 
 an open sea. Our own chief pilot, indeed, was 
 so positive, that, trusting to his judgment, we 
 weighed anchor, and sailed half a league east- 
 
 D 2
 
 52 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 south-east. We held on the same course till 
 the soundings fell to four fathoms and a half, and 
 should have run upon the banks, if M. de le 
 Rigaudiere, from the mast head, had not told 
 the Portuguese pilot that they saw two little 
 islands south-east ^ east, and the chart of the 
 strait gave none from Parcelar to Malacca. 
 The error was then acknowledged, with the ad- 
 mission that the current must have carried us 
 north-west of the shoals of Callan. We had 
 no choice but to anchor, with six fathoms and 
 half, and soft muddy bottom. At midnight the 
 sea was low, the strong ebb had borne north- 
 north-west. The sea had sunk two fathoms and 
 a half, only a depth of four fathoms remaining. 
 
 Our error arose from not having well observed 
 Pulo Arroa, and from having been under easy 
 sail whilst the current, of which we knew so 
 well the direction, carried us north. This is the 
 reason why, if there is not a good wind, a ship 
 must be anchored in twenty-four to thirty 
 fathoms. In certain localities there are spots 
 where the soundings give twenty-four to eighteen, 
 and from eighteen to two. 
 
 The 5th, at about six in the morning, as the
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 53 
 
 tide ebbed, we set sail with a good wind north- 
 north-west. We steered north-west 5 west 
 and west-north-west. From seven fathoms we 
 passed to five and a half, and then up to 
 thirteen, and so on deeper and deeper. At 
 noon we saw a sail to windward. We 
 hailed her with a shotted gun and brought her 
 to. They readily told us where we were, for 
 our pilots were completely lost. She was a 
 Malay vessel, from Bato-Balou to Salango, 
 with ten men and two women on board. Their 
 captain was a Macassar, and spoke very good 
 Portuguese. We found three swivels, a musket, 
 several swords, and daggers in the vessel. We 
 demanded their commission, and why they were 
 thus armed? Their explanation was, that a 
 neighbouring prince having invaded them they 
 were compelled to withdraw. As to their arms, 
 they had bought them of a Portuguese to defend 
 themselves from pirates. 
 
 We then held on our course south-west and 
 south-west j south, and kept the vessel in 
 tow. The chief men came on board the " Am- 
 phitrite," that we might interrogate them at 
 leisure. Towards three we sighted Pulo Arroa,
 
 54 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 to the south- south- west. It consists of a group 
 of islets and rocks, which last are about twenty 
 leagues off. Pulo Jarra to the south j south- 
 east and north quarter-north west. 
 
 We sailed as near to it as possible, and an- 
 chored about seven P.M., in fifty-two fathoms, 
 with a muddy bottom. The largest of the 
 Arroa islands bore south-west j west, and the 
 farthest off south-west ^ south, 4 deg. south, 
 about three leagues and a half. This last is a huge 
 rock shaped like a hat. It serves as a beacon 
 to thread the shoals. Its bearing to the Parcelar 
 is east, 5 deg. south and west, and north about 
 eighteen leagues off. 
 
 It was high tide about half- past eight. The 
 ebb ran north-north-west, the flood south-south- 
 east. 
 
 At daybreak, the 6th, we weighed anchor 
 with a light breeze from south quarter south- 
 east, and steered east j south-east, as near the 
 wind as possible. Towards nine, as the tide 
 began to ebb, we again cast anchor, in forty 
 fathoms. The beacon bore south-west, 3 deg. 
 south, seven leagues off ; and the Hill of Par- 
 celar bore east south-east 5 deg. east, eleven
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 55 
 
 leagues off. This mountain has a very striking 
 appearance. It rises alone from a very low 
 plain, two or three leagues inland. At noon 
 we saw in the direction of the main land a vessel 
 standing northward. 
 
 At three, with a south wind and the tide 
 favourable, we made sail. We steered east- 
 south-east. Half an hour afterwards we saw 
 breakers, and suddenly the soundings were nine 
 fathoms. We sent the boat to take the depth 
 ahead, and also tacked to seaward. The boat 
 found the same depth of water ; so we tacked to 
 the eastward, and ran some time in nine fathoms, 
 with a bottom of white sand ; then in ten and 
 eleven fathoms, with a bottom of sand, black 
 stones, and shells mixed. We anchored at six 
 in the evening in fifteen fathoms, with a bottom 
 of slimy sand. The Hill of Parcelar bore 
 east quarter south-east, 3 deg. south, six leagues 
 off. 
 
 All night of the 6th a gale blew hard to the 
 north. We drove, and were obliged to let go a 
 second anchor. It was low tide at half-past two 
 in the morning, the ebbing steady north west. 
 
 At seven next morning, with a north-west
 
 56 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 light breeze, we weighed anchor, and steered 
 east quarter south-east and east-south-east, and 
 south-east quarter east, for zfbove two leagues 
 and one-twelfth. The soundings were fifteen 
 fathoms to nine, and then from nine up to 
 eighteen. The bottom was broken, and of slimy 
 sand. We anchored at ten in eighteen fathoms, 
 with a hard bottom, The Hill of Parcelar 
 bore east south east, 5 deg. east, at four leagues 
 distance. 
 
 We now dismissed the Malay vessel. These 
 poor people were for two days in great terror. 
 They were probably some of the pirates of the 
 straits, but as their story never faltered, we were 
 obliged to let them go. 
 
 About three o'clock we set sail with the ad- 
 vantage of the flood tide and a light west-north- 
 west breeze. We ran south-east and south-east 
 5 east, in fifteen to twenty-five fathoms, with 
 a bottom of slimy sand. At six the Hill 
 of Parcelar bore east 4 deg. south, and dis- 
 tant four leagues and a half, We steered now 
 south-east to clear a point which bore four 
 leagues south-east j east. Towards nine 
 and a half P.M. we anchored in twenty-one
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 57 
 
 fathoms, in a bottom of grey sand. Parcelar 
 bore east-north-east 5 deg. north, five leagues 
 off. The gale blew hard all night from west- 
 north-west. 
 
 We sailed at four A.M. of the 8th, with a light 
 wind west south-west, and steered south-east 
 quarter east along the coast. By eight the 
 wind freshened south-west, and by noon we 
 doubled Cape Rachado, about ten leagues south- 
 east of Parcelar. About two, the wind having 
 much abated, and the ebb being against us, we 
 anchored in twenty-five fathoms, with a bottom 
 of sand, shells, and large pebbles. Cape 
 Rachado bore north-west quarter north, two 
 leagues off, and the coast of Sumatra looked 
 seven leagues off, low and woody, bearing south- 
 west. 
 
 A league south-east of Cape Rachado is a 
 large river, where the coast forms a fine inlet. 
 The Dutch trade there is tin, masts, and 
 planks, which they sell to the Arabs. 
 
 At five P.M. we got under weigh, with a light 
 north-north-east breeze. We steered south-east 
 quarter east, east-south-east, and east quarter 
 south-east, to skirt the coast. We never found
 
 58 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 ess than twelve to fifteen fathoms, and every- 
 where a good bottom. At seven we anchored 
 in twenty fathoms, with a coarse slimy sand. A 
 league to the south-east was a huge rock at 
 half a league from the shore. 
 
 There are other sunken rocks in the same spot, 
 but they are much nearer the land. We were 
 five leagues from Malacca, and Cape Rachado, 
 but north-west eight leagues off, looking like a 
 large islet detached from the main land. All 
 night long, as before, we had strong winds from 
 west-north-west, with rain. 
 
 VI. 
 
 MALACCA. 
 
 THE 8lH TO THE lllH OP SEPTEMBER, 1698. 
 
 THE 9th, at daybreak, M. Geraldin went in 
 the cutter to the fort of Malacca to pay M. de la 
 Roque's respects to the governor, and settle the 
 salutes. Father Dolze, a German, who spoke
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 59 
 
 Dutch well, accompanied him in a lay dress. 
 We weighed anchor with a light west-south- 
 west breeze, and ran into eighteen to twenty 
 fathom soundings all the way. At the third of 
 a league seaward, abreast of the point of Balan- 
 tiga, there is a sunken rock with only four feet at 
 low water, and eighteen fathoms close to it. Upon 
 steering wide of the point of Balantiga, we dis- 
 covered the isles of Aguado, that of Etienne, and 
 the Church of St. Paul upon a mound in the 
 fort. We left Etienne head a gun-shot to lar- 
 board with fifteen and sixteen fathoms water. 
 We then anchored in nine fathoms with a mud 
 bottom three-quarters of a league off the fort, 
 which bore east-north-east 5 deg. north. The 
 only vessels in the road were three Arabs, and a 
 little Dutchman employed as a packet-boat. 
 Our cutter came back. The officers had re- 
 ceived much attention from the Dutch authori- 
 ties. We saluted the fort with seven guns, 
 which were returned. In the evening the gover 
 nor sent us a present of refreshments. Next 
 day, he offered M. de la Roque a country house 
 a quarter of a mile from the town. 
 
 Malacca is 2 deg. 15 min. north of the
 
 60 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 line. The road is extensive, and the bottom 
 good ; but there is no shelter from north-west 
 to south gales. The sea ran south-east 5 deg. 
 east, and north-west 5 deg. west. The sea 
 falls fifteen feet. The best anchorage for ships 
 only passing is to leave the porch of St. Paul's 
 church upon the mount, bearing north-east 5 
 dog. east, at a distance of one league and a half. 
 
 All merchant ships anchoring in the road pay 
 a certain duty, or rather a tax, which is called 
 the golden loaf, and which amounts to four or 
 five hundred livres, according to the burthen of 
 the ships. The Portuguese first laid it on, and 
 the Dutch exact it since they held the place. 
 Two months ago an amusing dispute occurred 
 here on the subject. A Portuguese man-of-war 
 from Goa to Macao anchored in passing the 
 fort. The governor sent on board to pay his 
 respects, and to demand the golden loaf. The 
 captain, being angry at the demand, replied that 
 " he would only pay in cannon shot." But if 
 any Dutch ships had been in the road they 
 would assuredly have compelled payment. 
 
 The town of Malacca is well peopled. Chinese 
 and Arab merchants are always to be found there.
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 61 
 
 The first have a pagoda the latter a mosque. 
 There are also many Portuguese in the place, 
 but they are poor. The river separates the 
 town from the fort. It is, however, narrow, 
 shallow, and difficult of entrance. Vessels only 
 one hundred to one and fifty tons ride there. It 
 runs round half the town, and by means of a 
 sluice constructed by the Dutch, it can surround 
 the fort completely. The fort is extensive, built 
 of stone, and provided well with mounted guns. 
 A garrison of two hundred to two hundred and 
 fifty men defend it. The men are Dutch, 
 French, Germans, and Spaniards, picked up in 
 all parts of the globe. The place was taken by 
 the Dutch from the Portuguese in 1641, in 
 some degree through the treachery of its gover- 
 nor. The Chapandar, or Dutch fiscal, lives in 
 the town at the quay where they land. 
 
 The 10th, the coxswain of our long boat and 
 three sailors deserted. The Chapandar sent the 
 sailors back next day. The coxswain did not 
 return. 
 
 About two in the night of the 10th, a violent 
 gale from west-south-west drove the ship in 
 shore into four fathoms only. We let go a
 
 62 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 second anchor, not choosing to moor for so short 
 a time. We then tacked all night to get out. 
 
 The same night, at nine, one of the Dutch 
 sailors taken in at the Cape was drowned in 
 trying to swim to an Arab vessel on anchor 
 within side of us. 
 
 At ten next day, we weighed anchor with a 
 light south-east wind We now discharged the 
 Portuguese pilots, and took in their room two 
 English pilots who happened to be there, and 
 offered their services to the captain. 
 
 VII. 
 
 FROM MALACCA TO GOVERNOR'S STRAIT. 
 
 THE llTH TO THE 18TH OF SEPTEMBER, 1698. 
 
 WE steered south-south-west above a league, 
 the wind being light and contrary. At one P.M. 
 we anchored in sixteen fathoms with a mud bot- 
 tom, one and a-half league off the fort, which
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 63 
 
 bore east quarter north-east. At about eight 
 P.M. we again set sail with the flood tide, the 
 wind ranging south-south-east to west-south- 
 west. We varied our course with the wind, 
 and anchored at two A.M. in twenty-five fathoms, 
 with a mud bottom. Malacca bore north quar- 
 ter north-west, 3 deg. north, six leagues off. 
 
 The 12th Oct., nine A.M., we set sail with 
 the flood tide, and a light wind south-south-east. 
 We made two leagues, and anchored at one P.M. 
 At nine P.M. we set sail with the flood, and a 
 light breeze east-south-east. We steered to 
 south-south-west and south-south-east, making 
 little way for want of strength on the tide. We 
 anchored at two A.M. in twenty-four fathoms 
 and a slimy sand bottom. All night it light- 
 ened, with thunder and a little rain. 
 
 The 13th, we set sail at about nine A.M., but 
 the wind was very light, and we made scarcely 
 any more way than yesterday. We anchored 
 at two P.M. in twenty-five fathoms, with a muddy 
 bottom. From this point the Rondo Island, 
 standing the farthest at sea of all the islands 
 in the Malacca road, bore north-west quarter 
 north, 4 deg. north, eight leagues off; and
 
 64 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 the island Formosa bore north-east 5 deg. east, 
 five leagues off. 
 
 That night we set sail at nine P.M., with a 
 light breeze from east-north-east. We steered 
 south-east quarter south for an hour after mid- 
 night, when we anchored in twenty-six fathoms, 
 with a mud bottom. 
 
 At daybreak the 14th, we set sail with a 
 strong south-west wind, and steered south-east 
 three and a half to four leagues off the coast. 
 Mount Formosa bore north quarter north-east 
 3 deg., six leagues off; and the island of 
 Sumatra was seen to the south-west, four leagues 
 off. Our soundings gave only nineteen fathoms, 
 with a mixed bottom of grey sand, black sand, 
 and shells. Our English pilots made us come 
 to south-east quarter east, because at that very 
 time, they said, we must be near a sunken rocky 
 shoal ; and our soundings fell all at once to 
 twenty-three and twenty-four fathoms, with a 
 bottom of hard blue mud, which is the true 
 ground of the strait. At half-past one P.M., 
 we anchored in twenty-seven fathoms, hard 
 mud. It was a dead calm. The Formosa 
 mountains bore north-north-west, six leagues
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 65 
 
 off; north east, 4 deg. north, three and a 
 half leagues off; Pulo Pisang bore east half 
 south-east 3 deg. east, at the same distance ; 
 and the Cardemon islands bore south-east, ten 
 leagues off. 
 
 We set sail again at four P.M., with a light 
 breeze north-west, steering east quarter south 
 west, in order to skirt Pulo Pisang. We an- 
 chored at seven P.M. in twenty-five fathoms, 
 having made but one league way. The currents 
 were hardly perceptible. They ran the next 
 night near twelve hours, north-west and west- 
 north-west. It was flood tide in the open sea, 
 and no longer the ebb as before. 
 
 The 15th, at about two A.M., we weighed 
 anchor with a good wind at south-south-west and 
 south-west quarter south. For eight leagues we 
 steered steadily south-east, in twenty-three to 
 twenty-four fathoms, and a muddy bottom. 
 We coasted along Pulo Pisang, which, at four 
 P.M., was one and a half league off. At eleven 
 P.M., with a dead calm, we anchored in twenty- 
 four fathoms, with a mud bottom. Pulo Pisang 
 bore north-west quarter north, five deg. north, 
 eight leagues off. Pulo Capras bore north,
 
 66 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 quarter north east, two leagues off. The peak 
 of the great Cardemon towards Sumatra bore 
 south quarter south-east, 5 deg. off. The 
 little Cardemon bore south-east quarter south, 
 3 deg. south, three and a half leagues off. 
 All the time we were at anchor the flood ran 
 north-west. 
 
 Towards six P.M. we set sail with a good 
 south-east wind. We ran above two and a half 
 leagues south-south-west and south half south- 
 west, as near the wind as possible. Our sound- 
 ings ranged from nineteen to thirteen fathoms, 
 with a mud bottom all the way. The wind 
 shifting to south- south-east, we tacked eastward ; 
 but the flood tide being contrary, we made no 
 way. After the second tack we came back to 
 the very same spot, and closer to Pulo Capras 
 than before. So we were compelled to anchor 
 here. 
 
 We were in fifteen fathoms, with a muddy 
 bottom. The flood-tide ran all night north- 
 west. In this latitude it flows ten or twelve 
 hours, the ebb is sometimes only four. 
 
 The 16th, A.M., we weighed anchor and 
 tacked south-west and south-west quarter south,
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 67 
 
 on one tack, and east on the other tack. The 
 ebb tide began about nine. To windward we 
 saw two ships coming up with us. We bore 
 down upon them, and towards eleven o'clock 
 nearing them, we fired a shotted gun at them. 
 They hove to, and we anchored close together 
 at seventeen fathoms, with a muddy bottom. 
 
 They were two English vessels, belonging to 
 Mr. Delton, which came from Johore, and were 
 bound for Cochin. They had cargoes of salt, 
 rice, and sugar. They had sailed by the 
 strait of Singapore, to keep clear of pirates. 
 There they fell in with a Dutch sloop despatched 
 by the Governor of Malacca to Batavia, to give 
 notice of a French ship having passed for China. 
 
 From this anchorage we saw two other sail 
 standing to the mainland. Pulo Capras bore 
 north-west quarter north, four deg. north, three 
 leagues off; and the peak of the Cardemon 
 towards the strait, bore south quarter south- 
 east, 4 deg. south, four and a half leagues 
 off. We drifted with the tide. 
 
 Towards six at night the English sailed. We 
 weighed anchor at nine P.M., as the tide began 
 to ebb, but it was weak. The south-south-east
 
 68 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 wind was strong, and we tacked south-west and 
 east. Towards midnight we anchored in seven- 
 teen fathoms, having made no more than a 
 league way. We, however, avoided the flood 
 tide. 
 
 The 17th, in the morning, we set sail with a 
 light wind east-south-east, and tacked. We 
 steered south quarter south-east 5 deg., with 
 soundings at fifteen to twenty-three fathoms, and 
 a mud bottom. The wind shifting south-east 
 quarter south, we stood east quarter north-east. 
 We kept at two leagues and two and a half 
 from the shore of the Cardemons, in about mid 
 channel ; one of the vessels we had seen the 
 evening before had stood towards the mainland, 
 the other to the Cardemons. We bore down 
 upon the latter, and fired three cannon shot at 
 her before bringing her to. At length she 
 brought to; and at about noon we anchored 
 together in eighteen fathoms, with a mud 
 bottom. The little Cardemon bore west-south- 
 west three deg. south, two and a-half degrees 
 off. From the mast-head we saw three trees at 
 the entrance of the Governor's strait. The 
 vessel's boat came on board us with four men.
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 69 
 
 She was a large Malay bark, from Manicolo, 
 laden with slaves and fighting-cocks for the 
 king of Johore, sent as a present by a chief of 
 Sumatra ; we demanded their commission. Two 
 of the men went back to ask their captain for 
 it. He returned with them himself. He was a 
 portly, handsome man, and haughty. He re- 
 ferred boldly to the King of Johore as his sove- 
 reign, but produced no papers. When we 
 pressed him, he offered to send to his cabin for 
 his commission; but two men whom he des- 
 patched for this object, instead of pulling direct 
 for his vessel, drifted gradually with the tide, and 
 escaped ashore to the mainland. 
 
 This trick convinced us they were pirates, 
 so we sent our cutter to overhaul their vessel, 
 where we found ten cross swivels, some mus- 
 kets, swords, a chest full of flags, some dollars, 
 gold dust, jewels, worked and rough, and two 
 very heavy chests, which were not opened ; but 
 they seemed to be full of coin. The cutter 
 brought back all their people, forty in number. 
 These men, when examined apart, gave con- 
 tradictory replies, we had therefore no doubt of 
 their being pirates, nevertheless M. de la Roque
 
 70 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 had scruples as to seizing them, and sent all of 
 them back with their arms. 
 
 Not long before, a similar vessel had plundered 
 an English ship sailing out of Johore, killing 
 all her people except two Lascars, who escaped 
 in a boat, and brought intelligence of the act, 
 and scuttling her. The King of Johore protects 
 these fellows for the sake of a bribe they pay 
 him. 
 
 The same day we buried our boatswain's 
 mate, who died of dysentery, At nine P.M. 
 we sailed with a strong wind south-east ^ 
 east. We tacked till midnight, but could make 
 no way against the current. At the second 
 tack we came back to where we started from, 
 that is to say, near the Malay barque, which 
 was still at anchor. It was flood-tide from one 
 P.M., which lasted till seven next morning. It 
 ran violently north-west for eighteen hours, but 
 without any rising or falling of the water. 
 
 The 18th, at seven A.M., with a light fresh 
 breeze from east quarter south-east, we weighed 
 anchor, steering south quarter south-east. The 
 current was in our favour ; and at eleven A.M. we 
 saw clearly the trees which are a beacon to thread
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 71 
 
 the Governor's Straits. These trees are upon 
 an extensive low sandy strand. They bear upon 
 the little Cardemon east quarter south-east, and 
 west quarter north-west, four leagues off. They 
 are three in number, and very striking. They 
 look at a distance like three vessels in a line. 
 They are at equal distances apart. Beyond the 
 bank there are two others, very lofty and well 
 grown, as the three first are. It is unsafe to 
 near them without sounding, especially from 
 west-north-west, in which direction a bank runs 
 more than a league to sea. We found fourteen 
 to seventeen fathoms, and in a strait with a mud 
 bottom ; but sailing too near the shore, we 
 suddenly fell to ten fathoms. At that instant 
 the tide bore south quarter south-east 4 deg. 
 south, one and a quarter leagues off. We stood 
 out a little. The wind shifted to south- south- 
 east and south quarter south-west. We skirted 
 the shore at half a league distance, and left it to 
 the south. We then steered east-south-east in 
 fourteen and fifteen fathoms, with a sandy bot- 
 tom, leaving the Governor's Island half a league 
 to the north. We afterwards stood on in 
 twenty-four fathoms, with a rocky bottom.
 
 72 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 As we entered the Governor's Strait, there 
 came out of one of the islands to the south a 
 little Malay boat laden with fish. These poor 
 people paddled for two hours to reach the ship. 
 We bought their fish to their great satisfaction. 
 The current did not favour us for two hours, 
 still it was not much against us. At seven we 
 anchored in seventeen fathoms, with a bottom of 
 large sand. The peak of Governor's Island 
 bore west j south west, 3 deg. west, two 
 leagues off. The peak of St. John's bore 
 north east ^ east, three deg. east, two and 
 a half leagues off. We escaped the flood tide, 
 which ran west. 
 
 What is termed the Governor's Strait is 
 south of Sincapore Strait. It extends five leagues 
 from Governor's Island to St. John's. On both 
 sides there are innumerable islets covered with 
 trees, and for the most part inhabited by Malays. 
 The depth in mid-channel is from twenty-five 
 to twenty-eight fathoms, the bottom rocky. The 
 south shore is dangerous, from a rock level with 
 the water, which stretches into the stream. The 
 north shore is safer, and it may be skirted, 
 especially when the wind blows off it ; there is
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 73 
 
 fifteen to twenty fathoms water, with a sandy 
 bottom. Ships can water also in St. John's 
 Island to the north-west. 
 
 VII. 
 
 FROM GOVERNOR'S ISLAND TO THE LUNETTES. 
 
 THE 18TH TO THE 28lH OF OCTOBEB, 1698. 
 
 THE flood tide lasted only till eleven this night. 
 We swung with the ebb, and towards midnight 
 set sail with a light breeze from the east. We 
 made short tacks, and drove with the tide for 
 some time, not to get too near the south shoals. 
 At half past two A.M., passing St. John's, 
 abreast of the island, we met with alarming 
 eddies in the tide, and we should have expected 
 to be running upon rocks, if we had been 
 previously informed of it. Many ships will not 
 obey the rudder here, and they drift away. The 
 soundings are from thirty. five to fifty- five 
 fathoms, with a rocky bottom 
 
 E
 
 74 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 After passing St. John's Island we skirted the 
 shore, carefully keeping to the north side as 
 much as possible ; but it must not be ap- 
 proached nearer than eighteen fathoms. 
 
 The 19th, at six P.M., the flood tide being 
 against us, we anchored in twenty fathoms, with 
 a bottom of slimy sand and gravel. Over 
 against the mouth of the river of Johore, bear- 
 ing north-north-east, one league off, we had the 
 peak of St. John's south west j west, 3 
 deg. west, three and a half leagues off; and 
 the peak of Romania east-north-east, 5 deg. 
 north, sixteen leagues off. The flood tide was 
 not very strong. Towards eleven A.M., in the 
 open sea, a stiff breeze came on from south- 
 west. To take advantage of it, we prepared to 
 weigh anchor ; but, hoisting the main topsail 
 too soon, the cable snapped and we lost the 
 anchor, for we had anchored here, as in many 
 other places, with only one rope. We now 
 steered east and east-south-east, one and a half 
 leagues from the shore, in fifteen to twenty- 
 five fathoms, the bottom very loose, with sand, 
 gravel, and mud. The islets at the headland of 
 Romania bore north-east j east, two leagues
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 75 
 
 off. The Hill of Bintang bore south-east 5 
 deg. east, seven leagues off. Pedro Branco 
 bore east 4 deg. north, three leagues off. 
 This rock was only seen from the mast head ; 
 it is very low, and a league further out than is 
 marked in the charts. 
 
 The headland of Romania closes the strait 
 to the north, and that of Bintang to the 
 south. Against the former are seven islets and 
 several sunken rocks, stretching from the shore. 
 Upon the other headland two mountains rise 
 near each other, serving as marks of the entrance 
 into the strait from the eastward. 
 
 Towards eight P.M. we set sail with a light 
 south wind checking the tide, and carrying us 
 well out of the strait. After much labour we 
 stood out in mid channel, between Pedro Branco 
 and the headland of Romania ; we went no 
 nearer to the south shore than twenty-four 
 fathoms, and to the north than eighteen. At 
 about two next morning we thought ourselves 
 enough to the east to defy all danger from the 
 headland of Romania ; we had to make north 
 east quarter east, but suddenly fell from fifteen 
 fathoms to nine fathoms, and the water failing 
 
 E 2
 
 76 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 every minute, we were obliged to hold our wind, 
 and run east-south-east. 
 
 At daybreak, the 20th, we were six long 
 leagues away. The headland of Romania bore 
 west-south-west 5 deg. south, seven leagues off ; 
 and the mountains of Bintang bore south-south- 
 west 5 deg. south, twelve leagues off. We 
 had fifteen fathoms of water. The wind was 
 south-east, and veered at last to south-south-west. 
 We steered north-east j north, north-north- 
 east, and due north at noon, when we lost sight 
 of land, and were in lat. 1 deg. 20 min. north. 
 
 Toward three P.M., we made out Pulo Tingy 
 seven leagues off, bearing north-west 5 deg. 
 west, and Pulo Laor 5 deg. off, bearing north \ 
 north-west. The mainland bore due west and 
 low. The wind, till evening, and all that night, 
 ranged from west-south-west to south-south-west. 
 
 During the night of the 20th to daybreak on 
 the 21st, we passed between Pulo Laor and 
 Pulo Pisang, leaving the former to starboard, 
 and the latter with Pulo Timor to larboard. 
 Along this whole passage there is ground in 
 fourteen or eighteen fathoms, and good anchorage 
 in almost all directions among these islands.
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 77 
 
 The best is westward of Pulo Laor. The natives 
 there are good people, and very friendly, because 
 they see European ships go by daily. They are 
 Malays, subject to the king of Johore, who is 
 himself tributary to the king of Siam. 
 
 The currents here are dangerous, so that 
 much depends upon the depth of water. When 
 sailing from the straits of Malacca towards Pulo 
 Timor, you must not run eastward out of twenty 
 fathoms, or at more than twenty-five fathoms. 
 From Pulo Timor to Pulo Condor you should 
 be the same, and never exceeding thirty fa-thorns. 
 In calms great caution is wanted, and you must 
 anchor early. If you exceed forty fathoms the 
 bottom will suddenly fail, and the currents carry 
 the ship upon the coast of Borneo, from whence 
 it is often difficult to regain your course. 
 
 From Pulo Timor we steered north-north-east 
 to make on Pulo Condor. The lat. was 3 deg. 
 40 min. 
 
 The 22nd, having the same wind, we still 
 steered north-north-east, with a slight bearing 
 towards the north to allow for the eastward 
 currents. There was also here 3 deg. of varia- 
 tion north-west, which helped our making. 
 Our lat. at noon was 5 deg. 40 min. Towards
 
 78 THE JOURNEY OF THE FIRST 
 
 dark, the depth of water was thirty-two fathoms, 
 in a soft mud bottom ; so we stood on our 
 north-north-east course. Had this sounding 
 given from thirty-five to thirty-eight fathoms, 
 we should have steered on north. If, on the 
 contrary, it had been less than twenty-five, we 
 should have steered north-east \ north. 
 
 The 23rd, we had the same winds, south- 
 west, and south-south-west, fair and fresh. At 
 four A.M., finding only twenty-three fathoms of 
 water, we steered north-east j north till noon. 
 The bottom was small gravel. The lat. by 
 reckoning was 7 deg. 57 min. We then stood 
 due north and north \ north-west to hold the 
 wind, and running in twenty-two, twenty, 
 eighteen, and sixteen fathoms. The bottom was 
 fine sand and muddy sand. 
 
 The 24th, at two A.M., we sighted Pulo Condor 
 bearing north-west j north, four leagues off. 
 We anchored in twenty-two fathoms, in a 
 bottom of muddy sand. The current ran north- 
 west and west-north-west till five A.M. At 
 daybreak we weighed anchor and sailed to within 
 two leagues of the land. M. de la Roque was 
 disposed to anchor again and take in some 
 water and wood ; but the wind shifted to west-
 
 FHENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 79 
 
 north-west so as to prevent us. The current 
 too, being south-east, was contrary. 
 
 Pulo Condor is a group of four or five 
 islands, forming a very good port. It is upon 
 the coast of Cambogia, in lat. 80 deg. north. 
 There are always some Cochin Chinese here 
 fishing. In the woods there are many wild 
 pigs and serpents. 
 
 Towards noon, when we were seven leagues 
 off the island, the wind veered to west-south- 
 west, as before. We steered east-north-east, to 
 get a sight of Pulo Ceir of the Sea. It is a 
 huge rock, four or five leagues off, in the pa- 
 rallel of 9 deg. 4 min. latitude. 
 
 The 25th, at four P.M., being thirty-eight to 
 forty leagues from Pulo Condor, we changed 
 our course to north-north-east. At seven we 
 saw Pulo Ceir of the Sea, distant four leagues 
 to the north-east. At the same time, from the 
 masthead, we saw another rock or island, to the 
 north, which our English pilots named Pulo 
 Ceir of the Land. Pulo Ceir of the Sea 
 looks, from the south, like a huge tower in 
 ruins. From the east it is shaped like a shoe, 
 whence the Portuguese call it the Isle of Copato. 
 After leaving it to the west we steered north
 
 80 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 east j north. The latitude at noon was 10 
 cleg. 12 min. north. 
 
 The 25th, towards two P.M., we steered north- 
 east, as our pilots were uneasy at going too near 
 the tail of the Pracel. The Pracel is a rocky 
 shore, stretching north and south one hundred 
 leagues. At daybreak we began to steer north 
 north-east, to clear this shoal. The latitude 
 was 12 deg. 4 min. at noon. The current 
 ran east-north-east, and this day we left several 
 dangerous places at starboard. 
 
 The 27th, our fair wind from the south-west 
 fell off, and it was a calm almost all day. We 
 steered on north j north-east. The latitude 
 was 14 deg. 56 min. 
 
 The next night the wind chopped to north- 
 west, with fog, and we much apprehended the 
 typhoon. By way of precaution, we had for 
 several days put our guns from off the deck 
 into the bottom of the hold, as this wind is a 
 sort of a hurricane, and exceedingly violent it 
 may last three days. 
 
 The 28th, at ten A.M., we saw the Lunettes, 
 covered with breakers, three leagues ahead of 
 us to the north-east. They are a group of 
 rocks in a triangular shape, eight to ten leagues
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 81 
 
 east of the head of Pracel on the charts. We 
 were in lat. 15 deg. 25 min. by reckoning. The 
 wind shifted from north-west to north quarter 
 north east, and was very light. We tacked all 
 day. The currents drifted us to north-north 
 west, and at the Lunettes bore east-south-east. 
 We tacked all the next night to make northing. 
 
 It was an unpardonable imprudence, amount- 
 ing to gross rashness on the part of our senior 
 English pilot, to take us into so perilous a passage 
 with which he was not himself acquainted. 
 Besides, the season was absolutely against us. 
 Seeing that the north-east winds were beginning 
 to prevail, it was absolutely necessary to have 
 taken our course east of Manilla, and to leave 
 these rocks to windward. But we Frenchmen 
 are unfortunately infatuated in favour of foreign- 
 ers, and ready to trust them blindly, often in 
 spite of reason. 
 
 Signer Ghirardini's lively narrative of the 
 dangers described in the text is as follows : 
 
 " At Achen we had taken on board a little 
 monster of a Portuguese as our pilot in this 
 difficult navigation. He could hardly see an 
 inch before him, and lost himself as soon as he 
 
 E 3
 
 82 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 was out of sight of land. Every moment when 
 we were unable to make out where we were, the 
 grand scheme of the little man was to sing out 
 ancora dar fundo ' anchor, anchor.' We 
 obeyed him over and over again every day, and 
 so got on but slowly. This able seaman was 
 not satisfied, however, before he thrust us into 
 a blind islet without three fathoms water, in 
 imminent danger of running upon the rocks, 
 and without the least means of relief. I know 
 well what my unhappy fate would have been, 
 and I freely confess that a sheltered retreat upon 
 the wildest mountains in a civilised region would 
 content me more than to be the king's com- 
 mander-in-chief over his noblest fleet. The 
 sea was given by providence to the fish and 
 the land to mankind. Every creature is bound 
 to remain quiet in his own element. I am quite 
 surprised not to see our fine adventurous fellows 
 taking upon them to mount up to the clouds. 
 I am clearly of opinion they would try it could 
 they but lay hold of the good King Roger's 
 Hypogriffs in the poet's romance. 
 
 ' Che per 1'aria neva come legno unto 
 A cui nel mar propitio vento spira.
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 83 
 
 " He sails through the air like the barque 
 Driven over the ocean by a favouring gale." 
 
 " However, that disaster was nothing to what 
 befel us the night of the 10th of September 
 before Malacca, when our mainsail was torn to 
 rags, and our cabousse tossed into the sea. We 
 had anchored with one small cable, and our 
 commander was on shore, careless of the coming 
 storm. 
 
 " II vento si sdegno, che da 1'altiero 
 Sprezzar de vede, a con tempesta rea 
 Soller6 il mar intorno, con tal rabbia 
 Che li mando a bagnar sino a la gabbia. 
 
 " Boreas, indignant at the insult, 
 Lashed the ocean into a mountain of waves, 
 So furiously, that the ship was threatened with 
 destruction. 
 
 " Our anchor gave way, and a second did not 
 hold the ship until a third saved her within only 
 two feet of ground. We were thus in dan- 
 ger of being wrecked in the very port itself. 
 The alarm this time exceeded whatever had been 
 felt before. I had predicted the disaster, and 
 tojd them it was coming. It is an excellent 
 thing to have a man in a ship who never goes
 
 84 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 to sleep, and is day and night in a fright. He 
 at any rate saves you from being taken by sur- 
 prise, whatever may happen. 
 
 " They now told us there was a pirate stationed 
 at the extremity of the straits of Malacca, com- 
 mitting all sorts of abominations. He seizes 
 every vessel that passes. He plunders them of 
 their money, and puts every useless hand on 
 board to death. Then he will begin with me. 
 Strange to say, instead of running away from 
 this corsair, our commander is resolved to take 
 him prisoner, or be taken by him. So it always 
 is with these Frenchmen. For my part, no 
 such folly would ever come into my head. My 
 daily prayer is, ' from all encounters with a 
 pirate, libera nos Domine good Lord deliver 
 us ' and this time my prayer was heard. The 
 wind became so contrary that we could never 
 fetch Pulo Condor, where the wretch was 
 thought to be. 
 
 " In this dangerous voyage strange events 
 befell me, and which I hold to have been gracious 
 interpositions of providence. I dreamed one 
 night that as I was walking in the dark I lost 
 my shoes in the mud ; and next day we lost an
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 85 
 
 anchor in the mud of the ocean. Again I 
 dreamed of huge rocks our ship was passing 
 through in a strait like a narrow way ; and in 
 the morning I said something bad would happen. 
 Indeed, just as I was telling my dream, we dis- 
 covered frightful rocks right under the ship, with 
 only five or six fathoms of water. The sea ahead 
 was white with breakers, and a heavy hail storm 
 was coming on astern. Every soul on board 
 was horror-struck, and thought all lost. We 
 got back as well and as fast as we could. As 
 the bottom was covered by rocks of unequal 
 heights, we expected to strike upon some of the 
 peaks more elevated than the rest, and go to 
 pieces like a glass. The common confusion in 
 the ship entirely ceased, and a dead silence 
 reigned. A deep gloom prevailed, and the 
 bravest were pale with anxiety. Better models 
 were never seen by a painter for fear and grief. 
 Every man betrayed on his features the extremity 
 of his alarm. 
 
 " All this while I feared nothing, and did 
 nothing but laugh. My heart is none of the 
 hardest; I am made neither of marble nor 
 steel. But my system of dreams protected me.
 
 86 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 I do believe that if I had not dreamed of my 
 rocks and my narrow pass, I must have died of 
 terror. So a dream will be admitted to have 
 its advantages. These rocks we were among 
 are called the Pracel. They extend an hundred 
 leagues." 
 
 VIII. 
 
 FROM THE LUNETTES TO THE SANCIAM 
 ISLAND. 
 
 THE 28TH OF SEPTEMBER TO THE 5lH OP OCTOBER, 1698. 
 
 THE same day, the 28th, Father Bouvet, M. 
 de la Roque, M. Geraldin, and M. de Benac, 
 held a private council. M. Bouvet stated that 
 as they had no prospect of reaching Ningpo at 
 this advanced season against northerly winds, 
 and as Canton, where they were agreed to land, 
 was within two or three days' sail, they should 
 now open the Company's sealed orders, to pre- 
 pare letters for the Court in Pekin. The fifth 
 packet was accordingly broken open in the pre-
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 87 
 
 sence of these four, it not being thought needful 
 to assemble all the council. 
 
 Father Bouvet remarked upon their fifth 
 orders, that the Company had not used his 
 papers, nor consulted him respecting M. de 
 Benac's journey to Pekin, and that things must 
 be otherwise settled. 
 
 To this M. de Benac assented, on condition 
 that the proposed steps should be submitted to 
 a full council at Canton. 
 
 For several days afterwards, Father Bouvet 
 and M. de Benac were busy together, separating, 
 in the invoices, the articles best adapted for 
 Pekin, with only an increase of 50 per cent, 
 upon the prices, besides duty, carriage, sala- 
 ries, &c., as arranged by the four parties at the 
 council. 
 
 The 29th, at daybreak, we saw two or three 
 low islands, with breakers on all sides, bearing 
 north to east-north-east, three and a half leagues 
 off, and no soundings. We ran to - eight 
 fathoms. Our English pilots were puzzled at 
 the sight of these islands, of which they were 
 ignorant, whilst the charts gave no trace of 
 them. As we had not taken an observation
 
 88 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 the day before, they at first thought these 
 islands were those south-east of the island of 
 Hainan, and that the current must have drifted 
 us north. But by next day's observation we 
 found this could not be so, as at noon we were 
 in lat. 16 deg. 27 min. north, so they must 
 have been some islets never before remarked 
 at the head of the Pracel, the preceding 
 night's advance having carried us west-west- 
 north. 
 
 The old English pilot asserted that he had 
 before passed between the Lunettes and the 
 Pracel without having seen these islets. He 
 had only heard of one where a Portuguese ship 
 was wrecked. No wood or water could be got 
 there. The survivors had stayed upon the 
 island nine years, with only shell-fish and turtle 
 for food, and rain water to drink. They at last 
 escaped by another ship from Macao happily 
 falling into the same dangerous passage. 
 
 We were in an extreme difficulty, and could 
 not decide whether to return or pursue our 
 course. As, however, there were no soundings, 
 the hazard in keeping our wind and standing out 
 to sea was not much. So we steered east, east-
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 89 
 
 north-east, the wind being north-north-west ; 
 we were within a league and a half of one of 
 the islands, with very fine weather. As we 
 made slow way, we did not think of heaving the 
 lead, when towards six P.M. the bottom was 
 seen, and upon sounding we were only in six 
 fathoms water, between prodigious rocks. 
 
 There was a great difference of opinion what 
 to do in this dangerous predicament. Some 
 were for going back to west-south-west and 
 south-west, whence we had come, others were 
 for anchoring till daylight. But we could do 
 neither, as heavy weather threatened westward. 
 With the wind astern, we resolved to try to get 
 clear of these islands; so we stood for two 
 hours south-east, and then south in six to four- 
 teen fathoms. We skirted several of the rocks 
 abreast of the ship, with certainly not twenty 
 feet depth of water. At length we got out of 
 the dilemma, and at eight o'clock found no 
 bottom at sixty fathoms. Whilst upon this 
 shoal we saw numerous cuttle fish, and other 
 small fish. 
 
 We tacked the rest of the night south-east
 
 90 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 quarter east, and north quarter north-west. 
 The wind freshened to north-east. 
 
 The 30th, at daybreak, the island of Pracel 
 bore north-west, three leagues off. At noon 
 the latitude was 16 deg. 43 min. 
 
 The 1st of October we stood on north j 
 north-west and north-west, the wind north- 
 easterly. 
 
 The 2nd and 3rd the wind was very light 
 and shifting from east-north-east to east-south- 
 east. We steered north \ north-east and north- 
 north-east, as near the wind as possible. A 
 heavy swell came on from north-east. 
 
 In the night of the 3rd, thinking the ship to 
 be abreast of Hainan, we heaved the lead with- 
 out finding bottom at one hundred and twenty 
 fathoms. This made us conclude the current 
 had drifted us east-north-east, or rather, that 
 it did not set regularly west, as we thought 
 before. 
 
 At four next morning we had an eclipse of 
 the sun that would not be observed in Europe. 
 It began at half-past nine, the moon covering 
 two-thirds of the sun. The latitude at noon 
 was 20 deg. 5 min.
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 91 
 
 From the 2nd our course north-east | north, 
 5 deg. north, we ran clear forty-five leagues. 
 We steered north-north-east, with the wind 
 east, the sea very heavy and broken. A little 
 before noon, we had soundings in seventy 
 fathoms, with a bottom of slimy sand. All day 
 long we saw conger eels, and a very turbid 
 sea. 
 
 At six P.M. we had soundings in forty-seven 
 fathoms, with the same bottom. We stood on 
 all night under easy sail. 
 
 The 5th, at four A.M., we had soundings in 
 thirty-five fathoms and a slimy sand bottom. 
 At seven we sighted lofty islands, bearing north- 
 north-west, six or seven leagues off. We had 
 twenty-four fathoms of water, with fine sand, 
 white, and mixed with mud at bottom. On 
 nearing them we perceived other islands north- 
 east of the former. Our pilots knew none of 
 them ; nevertheless, by our course we were con- 
 vinced they must be the Sancian Islands, and 
 some others near Macao. 
 
 Since yesterday we had made twenty-six 
 leagues north, and by reckoning we were in 
 lat. 21 deg. 23 min.
 
 92 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 We stood out for some time to double a little 
 island to windward. But as the sea ran high, 
 and we were very doubtful of the proper route, 
 we hauled up under the large island, and there 
 anchored at two P.M., in nine fathoms, with a 
 mud bottom, one league off, west- south- west of 
 its extreme south point. 
 
 IX. 
 
 FROM SANCIAN ISLANDS TO MACAO. 
 
 THE 5TH TO THE 22tfD OF OCTOBBK. 
 
 HERE some of the officers went ashore, with 
 the China merchant who joined the ship at 
 Achen. They landed in a deep sandy inlet, 
 where they found three streams of sweet water, 
 salt works ; saw buffalo, and a small plantation 
 of rice. The rest of the country was waste, 
 and covered with bushes. After much search, 
 they found no houses ; but saw a naked man 
 at a distance, who ran away to the hill. They
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 93 
 
 were unwilling to follow him, and came off in 
 the ship with fish caught in the seine, thorn- 
 backs, soles, and a great quantity of excellent 
 sardines. 
 
 The 6th, early, Father Bouvet himself went 
 in the boat to another inlet to the north, where 
 last evening we saw two boats enter. He took 
 the fishermen by surprise, and brought one on 
 board. This fisherman told us the typhon had 
 set in the 5th of the eighth moon, or about the 
 9th or 10th of our September; that the point 
 where we were at anchor was called Leaon-tow, 
 and that the tomb of a European saint was on 
 this island, three leagues oif. He added, that 
 he had often seen Portuguese and English ships 
 pass west of this island ; and that we might 
 anchor in the other inlet, to be more sheltered 
 from the bad weather and outside winds. 
 
 We weighed anchor, and went to more fur- 
 ther north, in seven fathoms, with a bottom of 
 rnud, at three quarters of a league off shore. 
 The wind was east and north-east, and was 
 fresh. 
 
 Father Bouvet got the most exact information 
 he could where we were, and asked for the cutter
 
 94 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 to proceed to the first city on that coast, en- 
 gaging to come back soon with Chinese pilots, 
 and even with vessels to tow us, if necessary. 
 
 The 7th, at noon, he went on board, accom- 
 panied by M. de Beaulieu, our Chinese merchant, 
 and MYSELF. We took provisions for four days, 
 two swivels, and some muskets, in case of being 
 attacked ; for those islands abound in plunder- 
 ers. The same fisherman whom Father Bouvet 
 had brought on board the day before was our 
 guide. 
 
 We went first to a large bay north of our 
 anchorage, to some boats, to gain intelligence 
 of three war junks from Shanghae, which were 
 there, about to get up the wreck of a Chinese 
 ship, lost a few months ago, as well as to pro- 
 tect the fishermen against pirates. We found 
 several boats, which all agreed that the junks 
 were in a river at the bottom of the bay. This 
 was confirmed by information obtained across 
 the bay from other fishermen. 
 
 This bay is a full league wide, and nearly two 
 deep. It would be very convenient for ships 
 if it were not so shallow. Almost midway we 
 struck upon a sand shoal right across. It was
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 95 
 
 quite full of boats, fishing for sardines. The 
 people live in their boats, with their wives and 
 children, and with most of their possessions. 
 Upon the island and in the boats, the population 
 is about three thousand. 
 
 Towards seven P.M., we entered the river, 
 and sailed up a league between a low, wooded 
 plain, with several canals cut. Our guide 
 pointed out three high hills northward, behind 
 which he said we should find the tomb of St. 
 Francois Xavier. 
 
 At eight, we entered a channel where the 
 junks were. Our Chinese friend told a man- 
 darin our object, and Father Bouvet was re- 
 ceived on board with great respect and kindness. 
 This mandarin had seen Father Bouvet before 
 in Canton, and offered to attend him to Quang- 
 hae, where the governor of the islands resided. 
 We sailed at ten, and fell down the river with 
 the tide. The junk towed us to an anchorage 
 half a league out of the river, in an inlet where 
 we passed the night. 
 
 The 8th, at dawn, we sailed to the north of 
 the island, and about noon reached the tomb of 
 St. Francois Xavier, when Father Bouvet sang
 
 96 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 the Te Deum. We also fired three rounds of 
 musketry and swivels, in honour of this holy 
 and venerable spot. We found there only a 
 simple block, about six feet high, with a Chinese 
 and Portuguese inscription, stating the date of 
 the erection of this monument. The Portu- 
 guese inscription is as follows : 
 
 " A qui foi sepultado san Francisco Xavier 
 da compania de Jesus. Apostolo do Oriente, 
 este pedrao se levanton, anno 1688." 
 That is to say, 
 
 " Here was buried St. Francois Xavier, a 
 Jesuit, the Apostle of the East." , , 
 
 After looking all around, we re-embarked, and 
 set sail for Quanghae, where we anchored at 
 about five in the evening. Father Bouvet had 
 gone on board the junk, and arrived before us. 
 He went at once to the Governor, to shew him 
 the Emperor's letters on leaving China; and 
 asked for pilots and junks to take the Amphi- 
 trite through the islands. He added, that he 
 would go himself to Canton as soon as possible, 
 to give notice of his return. 
 
 Father Bouvet afterwards came back to the 
 junk, and slept there. The chief mandarin came
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 97 
 
 the same evening to pay their respects to him, 
 or sent him letters, as their custom is. Next 
 day, early, the governor came on board, with 
 a grand cortege of attendants. He granted 
 all that Father Bouvet asked. They brought 
 him a sedan and four bearers, with fifteen to 
 twenty men to accompany him. 
 
 At ten o'clock, after writing letters to M. de 
 la Roque and the other Fathers, he set out for 
 Canton. The junk saluted him with three shots 
 of falconets, and we fired two from our swivels. 
 We remained till two P.M., with our cutter, for 
 some provisions for the ship. We then sailed 
 under convoy of the junk which had taken 
 Father Bouvet. Another smaller junk accom- 
 panied us to take us on to Caolan, the residence 
 of the governor of the Island of Viadores, or 
 Stags, to pass us over to another mandarin 
 there. We steered north-north-east all day, 
 with a good wind ; and that same night stood 
 into a deep inlet, at the north-west point of 
 Sanciam, where we passed the night. 
 
 Next day, the 10th, the junk took us into 
 the great bay, to an inlet where there was deep 
 water. The wind served to carry us to the 
 
 F
 
 98 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 ship ; but our Chinese pilot thought the sea 
 was too high; and Father Bouvet had told us 
 not to leave them. 
 
 The llth, at day-break, the two other junks, 
 then in the island, joined us, and receiving the 
 mandarin's orders, departed. We hauled in the 
 grapplings, and went on board our ship. The 
 junks anchored astern of the ship, as M. de la 
 Roque and the mandarin exchanged many com- 
 pliments, and visited each other on board their 
 respective vessels. As it was thought safest to 
 sail east of Sanciam, we considered the junks 
 useless. So three of their men only were de- 
 tained, with the fisherman already with us, for 
 our guide, to pilot us. The junk, therefore, 
 went in another direction, to bear orders to 
 the governor of the Viadores Islands for other 
 pilots when we should pass. 
 
 The 13th, at two P.M., we weighed anchor, 
 with a fair wind, east-north-east ; we scudded 
 south-east for seven leagues seaward ; and at 
 nine next morning tacked. But, as the wind 
 fell, and the tide drifted us to windward, we 
 were obliged, to anchor; we had twenty-three 
 fathoms of water, with a mud bottom, and were
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 99 
 
 still five leagues off the land. All that day and 
 the next night, the current ran west-south-west, 
 at the rate of one league an hour. These cur- 
 rents seem to follow the winds, and they last all 
 the monsoon. If our Englishmen had not made 
 us go out so far to sea, but we had coasted 
 within a league and half or two leagues of the 
 shore, we must have felt the currents less. 
 
 The 14th, at day-break, we set sail with a light 
 east wind. We stood in to land ; but got no 
 further ahead than the day before, and that with 
 much difficulty. We then made two or three 
 short tacks along shore ; and anchored at six 
 P.M., in twelve fathoms, a short league west-south- 
 west of the island, towards the Point of Leautou. 
 
 The 1 5th, A.M., we set sail with a light 
 north-east wind ; we made only two leagues 
 headway all day long. At six P.M. we again 
 anchored in seventeen fathoms, with a mud bot- 
 tom. The island of Ou-chow bore north-east 
 6 deg. east, one league and three-quarters off. 
 
 The currents still set west. The 16th, early, 
 we tacked again with a north-east wind. At 
 one P.M., as the tide was contrary, we anchored 
 in twenty fathoms, a muddy bottom. The 
 
 F2
 
 100 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 island of Ou-chow bore north-north-west, 5 deg. 
 north, two leagues off. 
 
 At four the same day, we again set sail. The 
 wind shifted to east- north- east and east-south- 
 east, fresh. We steered north-east 5 north 
 for about five leagues, and anchored again, at 
 seven P.M., in sixteen fathoms, with a bottom of 
 mud. The rocks of Paika bore north-north- 
 east, two leagues off. These rocks stretch above 
 a league east to west. They are for the most 
 part high above water, and can be seen four 
 leagues at sea. 
 
 The night of the 16th, we had much rain, 
 and a heavy gale from the east. 
 
 The l?th, at one P.M., we weighed anchor 
 with a light wind south-south-east. We 
 steered north-east for some time ; but as the 
 currents ran still west-south-west, and the run 
 was not strong enough to let us make head- 
 way against them, we were obliged to anchor. 
 Paika bore north-east 5 deg. east, one and a 
 half leagues off. We were in eleven fathoms, 
 and a mud bottom. 
 
 The 18th, we weighed anchor with a very 
 light east wind. We scudded south-south-east
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 101 
 
 to within three quarters of a league of Ou-chow. 
 We then stood north-north-east, and anchored 
 at five P.M. in nine fathoms, with a mud bottom. 
 Ou-chow bore south-south-west 3 deg. south, 
 two and a half leagues off. The current had 
 drifted us far eastward. 
 
 The 19th, at one P.M., the wind chopped 
 to north and north j north-west, fresh and 
 strong. We weighed anchor and scudded east- 
 north-east, coasting the islands of Viadores. We 
 had heavy rain. We made seven long leagues 
 headway, and at ten next morning anchored in 
 sixteen fathoms, a mud bottom. From the 
 10th to the 17th, we had the same depth of 
 water and the same bottom. The point of 
 Caolan bore north-west, four leagues off. Our 
 Chinese friends wished to take us to an anchorage 
 to leeward of this island, where their orders 
 limited them, that we might be passed over to 
 another mandarin. But as at about three P.M. 
 the tide served, we preferred taking advantage 
 of it. We were now but ten leagues from Macao. 
 So we stood on, the wind shifting from north 
 to north -north- west. We tacked east-north- 
 east and north-west, and made about two leagues
 
 102 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 ahead. We then anchored at eleven P.M., in 
 sixteen fathoms. The tide was contrary, running 
 south-west. Caolan bore north-west, one and 
 a half leagues off. The most southerly point of 
 the Ladrones bore east-north-east, seven leagues 
 off. 
 
 Till noon of the 20th, the wind was at east, 
 fair and fresh, with fog, and a heavy sea. At 
 one P.M., we set sail, scudding and tacking north- 
 north-east into nine fathoms, and south-south- 
 east into fifteen fathoms. We then beat to 
 windward all night, and anchored at nine A.M., 
 the 21st, in ten fathoms, with mud bottom. We 
 had made only two leagues headway, and the 
 point of Matchong, or as the Portuguese call it, 
 the point of Costa Quebrada, bore north-east 
 5 deg. north, four and a half leagues off. The 
 tide ran west-south-west, the sea being smoother 
 than the preceding day. We sent our cutter 
 to the island of Sancho, to land our pilot and 
 our Chinese soldiers, who wished to go home. 
 
 At two P.M., with the flood tide, and the 
 wind at east-north-east, we weighed anchor. 
 We then tacked south-east and north into six 
 fathoms. At two, after midnight, the wind
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHTNA. 103 
 
 calmed, so we anchored in eight fathoms, with 
 mud bottom. The point of Matchong bore 
 north j north-east, 5 deg. east, two and 
 a half leagues off, and the south point of the 
 Ladrones bore east- south-east, four leagues off. 
 The sea this night rose two fathoms of water, 
 the ebb running south-south-east. Our cutter 
 did not return, having passed to leeward of all 
 the islands to Macao. 
 
 The 22nd, early, a Chinese craft from Can- 
 ton passed us within pistol-shot, without speak- 
 ing. She seemed to be destined for the island 
 of Hainan, where the Chinese get much wax, 
 salt, planks, cocoa nuts, and other produce. 
 That island is within the government of Canton. 
 
 Towards nine A.M. we set sail with a fair wind 
 north and north-north-west, and by short tacks 
 coasting the islands to westward at six fathoms, 
 and half a league off shore. We saw more 
 than two hundred fishing boats on a bank 
 between the heads of Matchong and the great 
 Ladrones. The wind being still fair and fresh, 
 and the tide in our favour, we reached Macao 
 road that day, and anchored there at four P.M., 
 in six and a half fathoms. The centre of the
 
 104 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 town bore north-west quarter west, 5 deg. 
 west, a league and three quarters off. The head 
 of Matchong bore south-west, 5 deg. south, 
 two leagues off. Whilst we were under sail, 
 the cutter made for the ship ; but as the sea 
 was high, she missed us, and was obliged to 
 take shelter on a neighbouring island, to join us 
 next day. 
 
 X. 
 
 MACAO. 
 
 THE 22ND TO THK 31sT OF OCTOBER. 
 
 NOTWITHSTANDING the bad weather, we had, 
 by a small Chinese boat, news to-day from the 
 town. They informed us that Father Bouvet 
 was come back from Canton. He had gone 
 out four days, seeking us in the Viadores Islands 
 with four junks of the Caze Blanche, which the 
 mandarin governor of Macao had placed at his 
 disposal. They thought we should pass within
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 105 
 
 side these islands. In short, the orders of the 
 viceroy of Canton were express that we should 
 be received well. 
 
 Early on the 23rd, M. de la Roque sent M. 
 de la Rigaudiere to Macao, to pay his respects to 
 the mandarin, and to enquire after Father 
 Bouvet. 
 
 The 24th, at about eight A.M., a boat came 
 off from the town, very earnest to speak to us ; 
 but the sea running too high to permit 
 its approach, it went back. We afterwards 
 learned it had brought out the Provincial of the 
 Jesuits and three Holy Fathers of that society, to 
 visit their brethren on board. 
 
 Towards ten, a boat came along -side with a 
 bullock and two dozen fowls, sent by a Portu- 
 guese captain to M. de la Roque. It was the 
 commander from whom the Dutch had de- 
 manded the loaf of gold at Malacca. At eleven, 
 when the north wind a little moderated, and the 
 sea calmed, we set sail, and then anchored 
 nearer the town in five fathoms, with a mud 
 bottom. There we moored. The middle of 
 the town bore north- north- west, one league off. 
 We did not salute. 
 
 F 3
 
 106 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 Towards three P.M., the Portuguese captain, 
 an Augustine monk, the Town Major, and 
 another officer, came off to see M. de la Roque, 
 who entertained them as well as he could ; and 
 next day, when they returned, he saluted them 
 with seven guns. 
 
 Our boat came back also, and was soon fol- 
 lowed by two boats from the mandarin of Macao, 
 laden with refreshments as presents, and lant- 
 horns, streamers, and various marks of dignity 
 from Father Bouvet's brethren. The mandarin 
 had received M. de la Rigaudiere admirably. 
 He also despatched several boats to the islands, 
 to find Father Bouvet. 
 
 The 25th, the Jesuits of Macao sent us a 
 large present of fruits and sweetmeats, with 
 strong expressions of their regret that they 
 could not come on board the day before. 
 
 Towards noon, M. de la Roque went on shore 
 with most of his officers. We landed in the 
 port on the other side of the town ; the Town 
 Major was there to receive M. de la Roque on 
 landing, and attended him to the Portuguese 
 governor, whither he could not with propriety 
 refuse to go, although he had determined to see
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 10*7 
 
 the Chinese mandarin first, as we had, above all, 
 to conciliate him. 
 
 This consideration engaged M. de Benac to 
 go to the Chinese mandarin alone ; but, instead 
 of doing so, his interpreters took him to a man- 
 darin of inferior rank in the custom-house, 
 where he stopped half an hour. 
 
 This error made M de la Roque to be at the 
 Chinese governor's nearly as soon as M. de 
 Benac ; being perfectly well received, and 
 placed at the mandarin's left hand, at the upper 
 end of the room. That is the mark of honour 
 with the Chinese. He was very attentive to us 
 all, stating that he was delighted to see 
 Frenchmen, having always greatly esteemed 
 our nation. Upon our taking leave, he thanked 
 M. de la Roque for his visit, adding, he should 
 soon have the honour to come on board his 
 ship. 
 
 Macao is situated upon the point of a large 
 island, in lat. 22 deg. 13 min. north, and 
 long. 136 deg. 56 min. It was granted to the 
 Portuguese in return for having driven away 
 certain pirates who plundered the Chinese coast, 
 and had a stronghold on the spot where Macao
 
 108 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 is built. It is a tongue of land of small ex- 
 tent, about three leagues round. It is separated 
 from the rest of the island by a wall, strictly 
 guarded by the Chinese, to prevent merchandize 
 passing either way. The port is sheltered by 
 several islands from all winds. There is little 
 depth of water, but the bottom is a very soft 
 mud, upon which ships sink at low tides. The 
 only ship here, at present, is the Portuguese 
 man-of-war from Goa, which is to return at the 
 beginning of the monsoon. Three or four 
 small vessels are lading for Java and Timor. 
 Three Portuguese and Spanish ships are ex- 
 pected from Manilla, with a million of dollars, to 
 buy chiefly silk. 
 
 In Macao there is a bishop and ten churches. 
 There are Jesuits, Dominicans, Franciscans, Au- 
 gustans, and Nuns of St. Clair. The Chinese 
 occupy most of the town, and have pagodas. 
 They have also their governor, and a jurisdiction 
 quite independent of the Portuguese. 
 
 The 26th we buried a seaman of the re- 
 formed church. He had the felicity of abjuring 
 his errors and receiving the sacrament before 
 dying.
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 109 
 
 At about ten A.M., Father Bouvet anchored 
 in the road with his four junks. Our boat went 
 aboard to bring him away. The soldiers were 
 under arms, and pennants upon all the yards, to 
 do him honour. He said mass upon coming 
 on board. His intelligence from Canton re- 
 specting the business of the ship was, that a 
 courier had been sent to Pekin on the 14th of 
 October with despatches, and orders to make all 
 speed ; that the Hoppo, the head of the cus- 
 toms department of the province of Canton, 
 had given him pilots, and had assured him we 
 should be passed at all the custom houses with- 
 out search, and not pay any duty till express 
 orders were received from Pekin. 
 
 The Emperor was not then there, but in 
 western Tartary, on a tour of inspection of his 
 recent conquests. He was expected by the end 
 of November, an unusually late period, as he 
 never before stayed away from Pekin beyond 
 September. 
 
 The Hoppo had been much puzzled about 
 the marks of distinction and dignity demanded 
 by Father Bouvet for the ship. The Chinese 
 had never before received any strangers, except
 
 110 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 either merchant vessels, which are here daily, or 
 vessels carrying tribute, like the kings of Siam, 
 Tonquin, and Cochin China, who do homage 
 to the Emperor once in three years. Even 
 these tributes, however, are no longer rendered 
 with the exactness of former days. The King 
 of Siam does not send his tribute regularly ; 
 the Japanese never, at present. 
 
 The same day, the 26th, at about noon, the 
 mandarin of Macao came to visit M. de la 
 Roque and Father Bouvet. The Father Bouvet 
 fired a salute of three falconets from his junk, 
 in compliment to the mandarin. M. de la 
 Roque entertained him in the French fashion. 
 He shewed him over the ship, and had the small 
 arms exercise. When he returned to shore 
 Father Bouvet gave him the junk to land in ; 
 he accepted it, and then saluted us with three 
 shots off the falconets, which we returned with 
 seven guns. The other junks went into port 
 that night. 
 
 The 27th, M. dela Roque and Father Bouvet 
 went to Green Island to visit Father Ciceri, a 
 Jesuit, and Bishop of Nankin. He is a native 
 of Italy. This day, also, the mandarin sent
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. Ill 
 
 M. de la Roque a present of a fully prepared 
 banquet. It consisted of more than one hundred 
 little porcelain dishes of game, turkeys, fowls, 
 fish, fruits, and sweetmeats, all dressed in the 
 Chinese way. 
 
 XL 
 
 FROM MACAO TO WHAMPOA. 
 
 THE 28TH OF OCTOBER TO THE 3RD OP NOVEMBER, 
 1698. 
 
 WE had on the 28th set sail for Canton at 
 five A.M, with the flood tide and a light north 
 wind. We stood out to sea to reach mid- 
 channel ; and at eight A.M. anchored again in 
 six fathoms. Macao bore west-north-west, 4 deg. 
 west, two and a half leagues off. The current 
 ran south from eight A.M. to two P.M., at the 
 rate of two-thirds of a league an hour. About 
 noon a junk left the port to attend us to the 
 mouth of the Canton river. Father Bouvet 
 refused the attendance of more of the junks.
 
 112 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 At two P.M., the ebb much slackening, and 
 the wind having freshened to south-east, we 
 weighed anchor, and scudded as close to the 
 wind as possible to skirt Lantao, a remarkable 
 range of three high hills, at a great distance. 
 We anchored at half-past seven P.M. in thirteen 
 fathoms, mud bottom. The centre of Lantao 
 bore east-south-east, 5 degrees east, two and 
 a half leagues off. The island of Linten bore 
 north quarter north-east, two leagues off. The 
 flood tide lasted till half- past two towards Macao. 
 The land is level all around for two, three, and 
 four leagues seaward from the mouth of the 
 Tiger. 
 
 The same day, in pursuance of the delibera- 
 tion held on the 28th of the preceding month 
 by M. de la Roque, M. Geraldin, M. Benac, 
 and Father Bouvet, M. de Benac demanded a 
 full council to confirm the former deliberation, 
 empowering Father Bouvet to arrange the pre- 
 sents as well as the cargo generally, with the 
 distribution of it, for Pekin. The other direc- 
 tors refused to sign the papers, because they 
 were not present at the first council. M. de 
 Benac then saw that he had committed him-
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 113 
 
 self, and would gladly have receded. It was 
 too late. Father Bouvet, who had anticipated 
 some of this difficulty, took care to be absent 
 on a journey to Quanghae for pilots, in order 
 to press on to Canton from that place, and to 
 settle everything irrevocably. 
 
 The 29th, at five A.M., we set sail with a 
 north-north-east wind ; soundings fell from 
 thirteen to nine fathoms, for we had stretched 
 too far westward. We made only one league 
 a-head way, and then anchored at eight A.M. in 
 five fathoms, with a mud bottom. 
 
 We got under sail again at two P.M. The 
 wind shifted to south-south-east and south- 
 west. We skirted Lintin a league off shore to 
 the westward, with ten to fifteen fathoms in a 
 mud bottom. Our Chinese pilots wished to 
 have steered east of Lintin if the wind had 
 kept north. We anchored at night in six and 
 a half fathoms, in a fine sandy bottom. Lintin 
 bore south-south-east, two leagues off, and the 
 mouth of the Tiger river bore north-north-west, 
 six leagues off. We here saw white porpoises. 
 The tides ran north-north-east and south-south- 
 west.
 
 114 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 The 30th, at six A.M., we weighed anchor 
 with the wind north-north-east. We stretched 
 away in five, six, seven, and eight fathoms, 
 westward, to nineteen feet of water only. That 
 side is not safe, and to be avoided as much as 
 possible. At ten we anchored in eight fathoms, 
 with a mud bottom. Lintin bore south \ 
 south east, three and a half leagues off. The 
 mouth- of the Tiger bore north-north-west, 
 3 deg. west, four and a half leagues off. 
 
 At five P.M. we set sail again at flood tide, 
 the wind north and north-north-east, making 
 one and a half leagues head-way. We then 
 anchored again at eight P.M. and seven fathoms, 
 in a mud bottom. The mouth of the river 
 Tiber bore north-west quarter north, three 
 leagues off. 
 
 The 31st we set sail at six A.M., with a fair 
 north-east wind ; we tacked, and towards nine 
 entered the Tiger. Our junk, which had gone 
 a-head, here rejoined us, and saluted us with 
 three falconet shots. We answered with three 
 guns. We passed some small rocks at star- 
 board on entering the rivers. Bevond these we 
 
 O / 
 
 passed within pistol-shot of a long range of
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 115 
 
 stakes, on which the fishermen hung their nets. 
 The soundings were eight to ten fathoms. At 
 ten we anchored in eleven fathoms, half a league 
 from land. We then moored south-east and 
 north-west, on account of the very rapid current. 
 On both banks here, two deep inlets are covered 
 with villages, pagodas, and tombs, forming a very 
 pleasing view. In face of us, on the two sides 
 of the narrow channel of the Tiger, are two 
 forts, a quarter of a league from each other, 
 which defend the entrance of the river. 
 
 As soon as we had anchored, the mandarins 
 of the forts and of the junk came to pay their 
 respects to Father Bouvet. Among the nume- 
 rous visitors on that occasion, was the chief of 
 the customs, and he abruptly presented to 
 Father Bouvet his commission to board every 
 foreign ship passing. The good Father, who 
 had no notice of the steps, and who had been 
 promised by the hoppo that it should not 
 happen, was much surprised at his man's want 
 of consideration. He asked him if he knew to 
 whom he was speaking. The Chinese officer 
 replied firmly that he did ; whereupon Father 
 Bouvet ordered him to be sent to his boat,
 
 116 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 telling him to learn better manners. He was 
 very near being caned. 
 
 M. de la Roque gave orders that in future no 
 one should be admitted on board his ship with- 
 out an authority ; and since Father Bouvet 
 complained that at Macao ill-intentioned people 
 declared the Amphitrite belonged to private 
 owners, the captain caused a further notice to 
 be given that she belonged to the King of 
 France, and that whoever presumed to say the 
 contrary, should be punished as for an act of 
 resistance to his Majesty's commands. The 
 directors of the Company gave their assent in 
 writing, this notice being issued. 
 
 Father Bouvet sailed at six that night, in a 
 small junk, for Canton. He took with him 
 Father de Brossia, and M. Ghirardini, the 
 Italian painter. 
 
 The 1st of November, at daybreak, we buried 
 a seaman who died of apoplexy. At seven, with 
 the flood tide and a north-north-east wind, we 
 weighed anchor and scudded along the coast to 
 starboard down to five fathoms. When we got 
 between the two forts, we were compelled to 
 stem the tide, as it was rapid and the channel
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 117 
 
 narrow. There was fifteen to twenty fathoms 
 of water. We then skirted Tiger Island within 
 pistol-shot, in ten to twelve fathoms. 
 
 M. Basses came on board near this island. 
 He was a French missionary to Siam, who had 
 gone out with M. de Chaumont, the King's 
 Ambassador, in 1688. He came away at the 
 revolution in Siam, and stayed in Canton, where 
 he now directs two churches. 
 
 From the north of Tiger Island to the mouth 
 of the river the channel is extremely narrow. 
 The bottom is nearly level all across, and at 
 some places at low tide it is bare of water. 
 We made short tacks in four to eight fathoms, 
 and anchored at one P.M. in eight fathoms, with 
 a bottom of grey sand. The Tiger pass bore 
 south-south-east, two and a half leagues off. 
 Brule Island bore east-north-east, three deg. 
 north, a league off; a lofty tower, which is on 
 the western point of the entrance to the river, 
 bore north-north-west, four deg. west, three and 
 a half leagues off. 
 
 The 2nd, at half-past seven A.M., we weighed 
 anchor with the floodtide and a north-east wind. 
 We stood up the channel in four, six, seven fa-
 
 118 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 thorns. We tacked five or six times in an hour, 
 because the channel narrowed as we made head- 
 way. The tower still bore north-west, 5 deg. 
 north, a league off. The headland stood east to 
 east-north-east, 5 deg. north, at about the same 
 distance. We had only eighteen feet water at 
 about one-third of the flood tide. The depth 
 gradually increased, and our tacks were longer. 
 
 The river is a full league over, down to its 
 mouth. The eastern bank is steep ; the bottom 
 level, and with sunk rocks. The other side, up 
 to Canton, is extremely low, full of canals, and 
 covered with rice. Two or three leagues from 
 both banks there are lofty hills, for the most 
 part well wooded. 
 
 A league and a half up, to starboard, there 
 is a considerable river for boats to Fokien, six 
 days' voyage in the interior. Passing the mouth 
 of this river, we stood on by the east bank of 
 the Tiger to a bar of sand a league and a half 
 higher up, with seventeen feet of water. Here 
 we left a little, flat island to larboard, covered 
 with rice. At low tide, there is only nine or 
 ten feet of water on this bar. We then skirted 
 a large island to larboard, and moored a league
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 119 
 
 off in seven fathoms, for the flood tide anchor, 
 and in five for the ebb, with a bottom of slimy 
 sand. Here we were four leagues off the mouth of 
 the Tiger, and three long leagues from Canton. 
 With the advantage of high tides a ship can go 
 higher ; but the Chinese do not allow it. 
 
 An English ship was moored half a quarter 
 of a league above us. She saluted us with five 
 guns, which we returned and received one back. 
 She had left London the 18th of March, and 
 had reached Batavia in four months without 
 putting into any port. She was here two 
 months after, being nearly wrecked in the Straits 
 of Banca, since no one on board had been there 
 before. She was a ship of two hundred tons 
 burthen, the cargo was fifty thousand dollars in 
 coin, woollens, watches, some looking-glasses, 
 beads, and glass. 
 
 There were three other English ships at 
 Emoiiy, and a fourth, also English, from Bom- 
 bay, was lost, two months before. It was 
 wrecked on the coast of Formosa. Father Avril, 
 a French Jesuit, and the chief supra cargo, were 
 drowned on that occasion by rash attempts to 
 save themselves.
 
 120 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 The river where we are is not a gun-shot 
 over. At low tide it is sweet. At high tide it 
 is brackish above Canton, even when the rain 
 falls, which it commonly does within an interval 
 of three weeks, all the year round. On one 
 bank there is an extensive plain of rice ; on 
 the other, high hills cultivated to their very tops. 
 In all directions it is the finest country in the 
 world. The mountains are dug out in terraces, 
 like amphitheatres, and levelled to receive the 
 rain regularly. The soil is fertile, and bears 
 three crops a year. 
 
 A quarter of a league from the anchorage 
 there is a populous village, called Hoang-poa, 
 with a custom house for sloops and other small 
 craft, going to and coming from Canton. Signer 
 Ghirardini's narrative of the passage of the Am- 
 phitrite up to Canton river is as follows : 
 
 " From Macao we reached Canton without 
 any difficulty. Our good ship had never be- 
 haved better than she did as we tacked up the 
 river. You would have thought the frigate took 
 a pride in showing off her best qualities, to the 
 credit of France, in presence of the most polished 
 and proudest people on earth these Chinese.
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 121 
 
 Their country seemed to be eager to display, too, 
 a world of beauties to us strangers. Achen and 
 Malacca are barbarous in comparison with this 
 portal of Canton. Here all is various in its 
 kind, well disposed, and gay as well as novel. 
 Boundless meads of an exquisite verdure ; deep 
 shades, gentle heights, formed in so many am- 
 phitheatres, ascended by a series of terraces 
 artistically arranged. Lofty rocks covered with 
 coloured mosses are delightfully contrasted with 
 the other objects of the landscape. Villages 
 peep beneath the green trees ; canals in all 
 directions between the numerous islets, and 
 stretching far into the interior, open lively and 
 natural scenes. And these canals with the 
 river, are crowded with little boats, dispers- 
 ing themselves everywhere, and enlivening the 
 picture which they complete. You are tempted 
 to suppose these boats are sailing over the plains 
 which the canals traverse. For my part, satis- 
 fied I was got into fairy land, I looked upon 
 every thing about me as the effect of enchant- 
 ment, the boats, the waters, the plains, the 
 valleys, the groves, and all. Nor was I in error 
 at bottom. If the whole of China is like the 
 
 G *
 
 122 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 scene before me, it may be truly designated * the 
 land of charms.' " 
 
 XII. 
 
 CANTON RIVER AND CANTON. 
 FROM THE 3RD OF NOV. 1698, TO THE 15lH SEP. 1699. 
 
 THE 3rd we had no news from Canton. 
 
 The 4th, Father Bouvet came down in a 
 large boat, in which he had all his apparatus as 
 a mandarin. Before setting out, he had asked 
 the viceroy to send us an agent to select a house 
 for our provisions, sails, and sick. The viceroy 
 replied that, as the Father was taking the trouble 
 to go down himself, his word would be obeyed 
 in all things : special orders were not necessary. 
 
 The 5th, Father Bouvet and M. de la Roque 
 accordingly found a house in the village of Cang- 
 leng-tchuen which they thought best suited for 
 us : it was south of our anchorage a quarter of 
 a league inland. They then hired a sort of 
 temple or pagoda, which the head man of the
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 123 
 
 place let at four taels per month. We sent our 
 sick thither the same day : they were eight in 
 number, mostly with dysentery. 
 
 Then, as Father Bouvet was come down to give 
 a proper air to every thing, he, in concert with 
 M. de la Roque, issued orders to all who should 
 go ashore, that they might conduct themselves 
 decorously towards the Chinese. It was ex- 
 pressly forbidden them to look hard at the 
 women they should meet. 
 
 That afternoon all our reverend Fathers went 
 up to Canton with Father Bouvet. They were 
 habited, and their heads were shaven like the 
 Chinese. M. Basses went with them. He had 
 not left us since he came on board at Tiger 
 Island. We saluted them with seven guns ; 
 the Englishman did the same with five; and 
 Hoangpou with three. 
 
 The 6th and 7th we stripped the ship of her 
 sails and rigging. We also began to build an 
 oven ashore to bake fresh bread for the crew, 
 and biscuit for our voyage home. 
 
 The 7th, Father Bouvet sent two boats to 
 the ship ; but as they passed, the custom house 
 put a guard on board each of them, so that 
 
 G 2
 
 124 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 they could take nothing, but returned empty. 
 Next day two more came down with an order 
 from the hoppo, and took on board part of the 
 articles destined for Pekin. 
 
 The 10th, another boat came down for the 
 remainder of the packages belonging to Father 
 Bouvet, for the presents to the Isontea, the 
 viceroy, and the mandarins of the custom 
 house. 
 
 Having waited till the 16th, without learning 
 what the hoppo had settled about the merchan- 
 dize meant to be sold at Canton, M. de la 
 Roque consulted his pilots to ascertain what 
 would be the latest day for sailing in that mon- 
 soon for Europe. The English pilot, whom we 
 took at Malacca, said that if we intended to go 
 by the Straits of Sunda, we must set sail at 
 the end of January, or the beginning of February 
 at latest. In February and March the currents 
 run east, and there is much calm. If we in- 
 tended to go by Borneo and skirt Timor, we 
 might stay till the beginning of April, and we 
 should be in time to get round the Cape of 
 Good Hope. We followed the opinion of the 
 English pilot, as none of the officers nor other
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 125 
 
 pilots would take charge of the ship as things 
 stood. Our own pilot was left at Macao. 
 
 M. de la Roque then wrote to the directors 
 to be prepared for his sailing in February, if 
 they meant him to do so. He had bound him- 
 self to act upon their decision, and this course 
 guarded him against all results. 
 
 The 17th, Father Bouvet visited the Tsontou, 
 with the company's presents to him. The man- 
 darin, in return, sent a vessel of gold, and two 
 vessels for perfumes, also of gold, very light ; a 
 large copper vase worked in mosaic, fifteen cups, 
 poles, and statuettes of a deep red stone much 
 prized in China; two small cups of a white 
 composition to imitate agates, four basins, and 
 two large vases of old china, ten pieces of silk, 
 and several folios of Chinese paintings on white 
 satin. 
 
 The directors of the company also made pre- 
 sents to Leangtao, a mandarin of literature, one of 
 the chiefs of the province, and a great friend of 
 Father Bouvet. With regard to the viceroy 
 and the mandarins of the customs, they refused 
 to accept any presents till they should have 
 learned how the arrival of Father Bouvet was
 
 126 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 taken at court, and how the Emperor would 
 treat the ship, whether like one bringing tribute, 
 or like a merchant ship. Father Bouvet always 
 insisted she was a ship of war, with which the 
 king honoured him upon his return to China. 
 It was in recognition of this character the vice- 
 roy granted M. de la Roque a congcouen, and 
 treated him as a French mandarin of war. 
 
 The 22nd, four of our seamen deserted. They 
 were Dutch, who had entered the ship at the 
 Cape of Good Hope. Father Bouvet applied 
 to the viceroy to have them apprehended ; where- 
 upon orders were issued to search for them in 
 all quarters. Much trouble was taken by the 
 Chinese in this matter ; and next day the men 
 were compelled to come in of themselves. None 
 of the inhabitants durst harbour them. 
 
 The 1 st of December, one of our seamen was 
 seized for selling to the Chinese etuis silver- 
 handled knives and other trifling articles missed 
 from a bale some months before, of the value of 
 four or five hundred livres. He was punished 
 in irons for a few days. Upon his repeating 
 his depredations, he was more severely ironed 
 hand and foot. He was a regular professional
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 127 
 
 thief, and admitted that he deserved hanging. 
 At length he contrived to escape, and we could 
 never recover him. 
 
 The 3rd, the anniversary of St. Francis 
 Xavier, the reverend Jesuit Fathers had a 
 festival in their mission houses. There was 
 also a solemn fe"te on board the Amphitrite. 
 Most of the crew discharged the vow made on 
 the coast of Sumatra, and every one contributed 
 to the monument engaged to be erected upon 
 the saint's tomb. Brother Belleville constructed 
 the model of a pyramid and altar for a mauso- 
 leum. The whole was to be marble, or some 
 hard stone. The work would have been a 
 noble one; but it was not executed, because 
 Father Turcolti, an Italian Jesuit, had a plan 
 for building a church on the same spot. 
 
 A small vessel, shortly after this, brought 
 news from Manilla to Macao, that a Portuguese 
 ship of twenty guns had been taken within 
 ten leagues of the Spanish port, with one hun- 
 dred and fifty thousand dollars on board. Half 
 the crew had gone ashore, and the captors, in 
 an armed sloop with only twenty-three men, 
 carried the ship off. This intelligence caused
 
 128 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 the deepest alarm at Macao, where they could 
 hardly ever recover from the loss of so much 
 money. 
 
 The 9th, M. de Benac visited the man- 
 darins of the customs, as Father Bouvet had 
 arranged. He declared to them his desire to 
 conform to all the laws of China ; and excused 
 himself for not calling on them sooner, casting 
 the blame upon the interpreters, who had not 
 been understood. He made a general decla- 
 ring of the goods he wished to land and sell in 
 Canton. He concluded by laying before them 
 a list of the presents intended for themselves. 
 The mandarins thanked him for his politeness, 
 and accepted his presents ; they said, as curiosi- 
 ties from a " foreign country." These presents 
 were brought to them the same day. The 
 director meant his visit to be simply an ex- 
 pression of personal consideration ; but the 
 mandarins have no idea of lowering their dig- 
 nity with merchants, and received M. de Benac 
 in great ceremony in their council hall, seated. 
 This made him excessively angry with Father 
 Bouvet, who had promised him that things should 
 be managed quite otherwise.
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 129 
 
 The llth, M. de Benac engaged two inter- 
 preters at two per cent, commission upon all 
 goods bought or sold through them. These 
 men are entirely submitted to the Hoppo ; but 
 they are indispensable to the merchants. In 
 China, knowledge of the language is not all 
 that is wanted in an interpreter. He must be 
 adroit, active, crafty, and somewhat a rogue. 
 He is answerable for all that the foreigner does 
 wrong; and if he fail to inform the custom 
 house of the least matter, he gets fifty blows 
 with bamboo upon his bare back, hard enough 
 sometimes to kill a man. 
 
 The 12th, t M. Francia, in his character of 
 chief merchant of the company, delivered in the 
 customs tribunal a detailed declaration in Chinese 
 of all the goods to be landed. When he entered, 
 the Hoppos did not rise, and only pointed at a 
 seat for him. This declaration was headed by 
 a cheou poen, or black paper, which must be 
 sent to the customs tribunal. It was a paper 
 of submission, a formality imposed upon mer- 
 chants. The Englishman had given one in. 
 We were told, however, that we might have got 
 
 G 3
 
 J30 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 rid of it ; and that several other Englishmen 
 had never agreed to it. 
 
 M. Francia was also obliged to take a Chinese 
 name to sign with. Father Bouvet gave him 
 one somewhat corresponding in pronunciation 
 with Francia. 
 
 The Directors of the Company did not sign 
 anything. Father Bouvet would not have them 
 sign in the character of directors, but as mer- 
 chants. This they refused to do. 
 
 The 15th, when the chop was despatched, 
 M. Francia came on board, to hasten the un- 
 loading of the goods. He had four Customs' 
 boats to guard him at night. The work went 
 on without interruption, and next day all the 
 goods were deposited in the Company's ware- 
 house in Canton. The Customs' officers marked 
 all the bales, and sealed the doors of the ware- 
 house in which they were deposited. 
 
 The 1 7th, at ten, the two mandarins of the 
 Customs went with all their train to the Com- 
 pany's house. They wished to be present them- 
 selves at the opening of the first bale. Tables 
 and chairs were set for them. Their clerks had
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 131 
 
 also their tables to note everything. When all 
 were stationed, the interpreters prostrated them- 
 selves before the mandarins, as the custom is. 
 They then began opening the cases. The first 
 contained pictures and portraits of great men 
 then living at the court of France, which they 
 inspected a long time. They then saw some 
 cases of glass, of which they noted the number, 
 the description, and the size with extraordinary 
 exactness. At two P.M. the mandarins went 
 away in chairs. M. de Benac had prepared a 
 grand Chinese dinner for them ; but they ex- 
 cused themselves, saying they must be first to 
 offer hospitality. In fact, they were in the 
 habit of treating the English insolently, but did 
 not attempt it with our directors, as they saw 
 it would be in vain. The clerks remained till 
 night, inspecting other cases of glass and bales 
 of cloth. They came next day to complete 
 their work. They measured the cloth, and 
 counted the glass, article by article, as was 
 done the day before. 
 
 The 22nd, M. Poullesel went to Macao to 
 buy a vessel which M. de Benac wished to send
 
 132 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 home. They had advanced four hundred taels 
 on this account, but lost the money by the 
 failure of the contract. 
 
 The 30th, the brandy was lodged from on 
 board in the warehouses of the Company. 
 
 The 6th of January, 1669, the Hoppo went 
 to Macao to take tiie duties from the Manilla 
 ships, Chinese, Portuguese, American, and 
 English. The last go from Madras to Manilla 
 under the Portuguese flags, and come after- 
 wards to Macao before returning to the coast of 
 Coromandel to exchange their silver for gold. 
 
 The 7th of September the remainder of the 
 goods declared at the Custom House was deli- 
 vered to the Company's warehouse, and on the 
 9th the bales and cases were opened formally 
 as before. 
 
 The goods from Pekin were still in the 
 Chinese boats by the shore, because Father 
 Bouvet would not allow them to be sent to the 
 Company's warehouse, but to a house taken for 
 the emperor. On the other hand, M. de Benac 
 would not consent to these goods being at the 
 command of Father Bouvet ; so between them, 
 all was at the mercy of the weather.
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 133 
 
 The 18th, the hoppo returned from Macao. 
 
 On the 19th, the first news came from Pekin, 
 signifying that the emperor would not return 
 till the 15th of December, and that eight days 
 afterwards a despatch would certainly be sent 
 off. In the meantime, both the emperor and 
 heir apparent were reported to be well pleased 
 with the arrival of Father Bouvet. 
 
 XIII. 
 
 CANTON AND THE RIVER TIGER. 
 
 PROM THE 19TH OF SEPTEMBER, 1691, TO THE GTH 
 OF JANUARY, 1700. 
 
 THE 20th, the Hoppo gave us a chop, fully 
 authorizing the merchants of Canton to trade 
 with the French, which they durst not do be- 
 fore : indeed, two merchants had been im- 
 prisoned in irons for merely bringing two pieces 
 of silk to M. de Benac. The people, thinking 
 us laden with silver, brought so large a quantity
 
 134 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 of goods from all quarters, that we could easily 
 have completed a cargo in fifteen days. But 
 this did not last, and this chop was stayed by 
 fresh intelligence from Pekin. 
 
 The 25th, at midday, a courier arrived, pre- 
 ceding three envoys from the court, who reached 
 Canton at night. The chief of these envoys 
 was a Tartar officer of the emperor's palace. 
 The other two were Father Visdelou, and Father 
 Suarez, a Portuguese. They were thirty days 
 on the road from Pekin, the exact time fixed 
 for them. 
 
 The 26th, at daybreak, the mandarins of all 
 ranks in Canton went to Tiensse-Mateou, to 
 receive the envoy in great state, and then to 
 take them to the Congcouen prepared for 
 them. 
 
 The 27th, the directors visited Father Visdelou 
 upon the Company's business. He told them 
 the emperor had remitted the duty, and granted 
 them an establishment, with leave to buy a 
 house in the town of Canton. The emperor 
 had also accepted the presents offered him ; 
 but as he could not receive them ostensibly, 
 he sent secret orders to the mandarins to take
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 135 
 
 them in their own names. As to the bales 
 sent to Pekin with the prices at fifty per cent, 
 advance, they had not thought fit to buy those 
 bales before the emperor. They considered it 
 improper to set such articles at so low a price ; 
 so we could hardly be said to have advanced 
 an object beyond our first day's arrival. 
 
 The 29th, the directors presented six hundred 
 taels to the hoppo, on account of Custom dues 
 to him on the goods at Canton. They did this 
 without consulting Father Bouvet, and might 
 well have saved the Company that sum, the 
 hoppo having already received three hundred 
 taels in merchandize. 
 
 The 4th of February, a general discharge 
 was given in the Company's house for all the 
 articles to be sent to Pekin. The Customs' 
 officers did not set their seals to anything, nor 
 touch anything ; but they had men posted to 
 watch that nothing should be taken away, and 
 hoping to get some advantage from this part of 
 the cargo as they had done from the rest. 
 
 The 5th, M. de la Roque, with Father Bouvet, 
 and four of his officers, went to the palace of 
 the viceroy to return thanks for the goodness
 
 136 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 of the emperor in remitting the duties. They 
 both expressed their sense of the obligations 
 conferred upon them, and M. de la Roque also 
 thanked the viceroy for having so graciously 
 given them the mansion he occupied in the 
 town. 
 
 This visit was conducted in great form. M. 
 de Benac had claimed the privilege of heading 
 it as chief of the Company, and exclusively 
 representing it wherever it was absent. He 
 complained bitterly that the Fathers had deceived 
 him, by promising not to deliver the presents ; 
 and demanded an apology. He pushed matters 
 so far and so absurdly about the presents, that 
 it was proposed to shut him up as insane, to 
 prevent the scandal he seemed likely to com- 
 mit. The Tartar envoy already murmured at 
 the delay, his orders being not to stay long in 
 Canton. 
 
 The difficulty was at length removed, by 
 Father Bouvet requiring a full discharge of 
 the director for all the articles delivered for 
 Pekin. 
 
 The 1 2th, M. de la Roque, Father Bouvet, 
 and some of the officers, supped with the Vice-
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 137 
 
 roy. They were magnificently entertained ; and 
 a comedy was acted to entertain them. 
 
 The 17th, a small Spanish vessel, of about 
 eighty tons, ascended the river and anchored 
 near the English ship. She had a hundred 
 thousand crowns, in silver, on board. 
 
 The 21st, Father Visdelou visited the ship. 
 M. de la Roque saluted him with nine guns. 
 
 The 22nd, the Viceroy accepted the presents 
 he had before refused. He took only a mirror, 
 a lustre, a pendule, and a gun, sending back 
 other smaller articles. 
 
 The 25th, all the presents for the Emperor 
 and the princes being embarked for Pekin, the 
 envoys went to Tienssee Mateou, whither all 
 the mandarins came as before to conduct them 
 on their departure in great state. Bowing to 
 the ground, which they struck with their heads, 
 they besought them, on arriving in Pekin, to 
 return intelligence of the Emperor's health. 
 The envoys then went on board, and gave orders 
 to set out. 
 
 Besides the four envoys, eight of the Jesuits 
 we had brought from France accompanied them 
 either for the court or for Nankin. They had
 
 138 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 in all fifty- seven boats, including the mandarin 
 boats, and a boat for luggage and their tables. 
 
 The 1st of March, the English ship moored 
 above us, went down the river, and sailed for 
 Batavia. M. de Sabrevois went home in her, 
 and took despatches for M. de la Roque, with 
 reports of all his proceedings, to the Court and 
 the Company. M. de Benac gave his letters 
 to the English captain. The Fathers also wrote 
 by the same ship. 
 
 The 2nd, the directors began their inventory 
 of all the effects of the Company. 
 
 The 9th, M. de Benac delivered to the hoppo 
 a general declaration of all the presents intended 
 for Pekin,in order that on no account there might 
 be loss of customs. They pretended that the 
 Emperor would require such an account, as they 
 would be allowed an abatement upon their farm 
 contract, proportioned to the value of these pre- 
 sents. This year they had to pay forty thou- 
 sand taels (10,000 crowns) for their farm to the 
 Emperor. 
 
 The 15th of April, we had a heavy gale, with 
 rain and large hail. More than two hundred 
 boats were lost this day upon the river.
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 139 
 
 The 22nd, one of our crew died. 
 
 The 26th, the Spaniard went down the river 
 and sailed for Manilla. She saluted us with 
 five swivels, which we returned with three 
 guns, and she gave us back one. 
 
 The night of the 27th, some Chinese made 
 a hole in the wall of our hospital, and carried off 
 the men's muskets with the surgical instruments. 
 M. de la Roque went up to Canton to demand 
 justice of Leangtao. The mandarin was a warm 
 friend of Father Bouvet, and had promised us his 
 good offices in all difficulties. He accordingly 
 set inquiries on foot, and sent an inferior man- 
 darin to the spot. They arrested the suspected 
 culprit, whom they took to Canton in chains. 
 The matter was actively searched into ; but the 
 stolen articles were never got back. 
 
 Towards the end of this month, M. de Benac 
 caused the mirrors, which were not in good 
 order, to be carried back to the house, but in 
 the company of M. Basses. The Company's 
 third director went to reside in it with some 
 workmen, and they began to perfect them next 
 month. M. de Benac was much disposed to 
 take a house within the walls of Canton, to be 
 out of the jurisdiction of the Customs' mandarin;
 
 140 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 but as the success of our affairs was still doubt- 
 ful, he delayed this step. 
 
 The 8th of May, a ship anchored in the 
 mouth of the river, which the Custom-house 
 thought was French. They asserted that its 
 flag was white, which induced us to send a boat 
 down. She was an Arab, of twenty guns, about 
 three hundred tons burthen, and two hundred 
 men. She had sailed from Surat three years 
 before. She had been taken and ransomed by 
 English pirates. She was last from Manilla, 
 the 1 9th of last month. She was laden with 
 myrrh, henna, cassia, and sandal wood, with a 
 large amount of silver money. She would not 
 enter the river before learning what conditions 
 the hoppo intended to impose. For that pur- 
 pose the captain was gone to Canton. 
 
 The llth, the Arab ship came up the river 
 and anchored a little above us. She saluted us 
 with five guns. We returned with three, and 
 she replied with three more. 
 
 The 14th, the hoppo came down to measure 
 the Arab. He was saluted upon going on board 
 with three guns. M. de la Roque took occasion 
 to pay him the same respect, and saluted him
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 141 
 
 with seven guns. The Chinese measure ships by 
 cubits (condes), and then multiply the length by 
 breadth. Their cubit is about thirteen inches, 
 four lines French. The Arab had to pay eight 
 thousand five hundred taels for her measurage, 
 which would have been from twelve to fifteen 
 thousand for us. And seeing that, besides this, 
 the Custom-house officers impose duties upon a 
 large amount of goods pretty much at their dis- 
 cretion, it may readily be concluded that China 
 must not be visited without plenty of cash. 
 
 The 25th, a Dutch sailor, attached to the 
 Company's warehouse, was drowned. 
 
 The 26th, we received the first news of the 
 arrival of our envoys at the court. They joined 
 the Emperor seventeen leagues from Nankin, in 
 the city of Yanglehou, where Father Bouvet 
 offered to him the presents sent by the king and 
 those sent by the company. The Emperor 
 himself had them displayed in large halls before 
 the princes and mandarins of the court. He 
 much admired them, and caused them to be 
 taken to Pekin under the care of the Tartar 
 envoy, Father Visdelou and Father Suarez. At 
 the same time he ordered Father Bouvet and
 
 142 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 the other five Jesuits summoned to the court, to 
 follow him. He was then visiting the provinces 
 of Nankin and Tehekiang for the first time. It 
 was long rumoured that he would visit Canton. 
 
 The 10th of June, another of our men died. 
 
 The merchant of the Tsoutou now negotiated 
 for the purchase of all the mirrors. The 
 Leangtao also took some goods. But the busi- 
 ness advanced very slowly ; and the Chinese 
 seemed to be aiming at tiring the directors out, 
 only at last to get the goods for nothing, when 
 the new monsoon should urge the sailing of the 
 ship. 
 
 The 27th, the Arab ship was laid on her 
 side in a creek, to careen. The Custom-house 
 had their revenge upon her for the small profit 
 made by us. They made her pay fifty taels for 
 leave to be laid down, and fifty more for leave 
 to set up a tent ashore, without reckoning a 
 thousand other exactions. 
 
 The 5th of July, another of our men died. 
 
 The 17th, we were informed that another 
 frigate was arrived at Macao from Goa, with a 
 new general. She paid the golden loaf at 
 Malacca.
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 143 
 
 The 19th, one of the Company's artisans at 
 Canton died suddenly. 
 
 The 24th, new hoppos arrived from Pekin. 
 They were to enter on their duty on the 1 Oth of 
 the next month. In the meantime they were 
 busy learning the state of everything. 
 
 The 25th, another of our men died ; and on 
 the 4th of August another. 
 
 The same day, the 4th of August, we weighed 
 our anchors and moored again with new cables, 
 to guard against the equinoctial gales. We 
 backed the cable eastward with a kedge anchor, 
 because the wind that side is the more to be 
 feared. 
 
 The 6th, another of our men died. 
 
 The 10th, at full moon by Chinese reckoning, 
 the new hoppos opened their offices. The old 
 hoppos, after paying their balances to Poustching- 
 Slee, treasurer- general of the province, went to 
 Pekin to pass their accounts. 
 
 M. Francia went to the tribunal of the new 
 hoppos to pay his respects, and ask their coun- 
 tenance in favour of the French. The directors 
 did not condescend to go themselves they 
 thought it would be degrading ; but I cannot
 
 144 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 conceive how they will escape embarrassment 
 when another ship arrives. They must unques- 
 tionably pay the full duty, and then, out of 
 necessity, be more manageable. The Chinese 
 mandarins will not be trifled with; sooner or 
 later, they make people pay for any insolence. 
 There was an example of that at Emouy in the 
 case of a son, or nephew of an English governor 
 of Bombay. The mandarins of Emouy caused 
 him to have fifty blows on his back, in spite of 
 great offers of money and great entreaties. 
 
 The 24th, we celebrated the king's birth-day 
 by fifteen discharges of guns, and three of mus- 
 ketry, with an illumination of all the masts and 
 yards. 
 
 The 27th, we received letters from Pekin, 
 signifying that the Emperor had resolved to 
 send an envoy to France with presents to the 
 king, and ordered Father de Fontenay to return 
 in the ship. He had signified his will that we 
 should sail with the commencement of the mon- 
 soon ; and for that purpose he would order the 
 Tsoutou to discharge us soon. Father Visdelou 
 is also to come to Canton to hasten everything. 
 The presents were to leave Pekin by the end of
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 145 
 
 July, and it was hoped would arrive by the end 
 of September. 
 
 The 2nd of September, a Swiss sailor in the 
 company's service died ; and on the 6th we lost 
 another. 
 
 The 9th, we heard of a ship of the new En- 
 glish East India Company being come to Macao. 
 From the 13th, the prevailing winds were east 
 to north-north-west, fair and strong, with fine 
 weather. The monsoon seemed disposed to 
 change ; indeed, from that time the wind gene- 
 rally stood north. We had no hurricane, and 
 it seemed to pass off in July and August in rains 
 and storms. 
 
 The hoppo went to Macao expressly to prevail 
 upon the English ship to come up the river. 
 He apprehended she might escape him and go 
 to Emouy, where four were taking in cargoes 
 already. 
 
 The 10th of October, our writer died, after 
 eight months' illness and great vexations. The 
 directors caused him much anxiety for no just 
 reasons. This was their way with us all. 
 
 The llth, the directors sent eight Chinese 
 
 H
 
 146 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 carpenters on board with lead and planks to 
 begin to repair the ship. 
 
 The same day, Father de Fonteney and Father 
 Visdelou arrived in Canton. They were re- 
 ceived magnificently, and both had followings 
 grander than any of the others. We had long 
 been in extreme suspense on their account. 
 Matters were so wretched that they alone could 
 set them a little right. 
 
 The Tsontou and Leangtao both were our 
 debtors ; but no money could be got. When 
 all should have been well settled, there occurred 
 more difficulty than ever. M. de Benac posi- 
 tively refused two artisans demanded by Father 
 de Fontaney for the Emperor's service. He 
 even carried his insanity so far as to send a 
 formal written declaration to Father de Fontaney, 
 charging him with being the cause of insults 
 which the Chinese might use to him. At the 
 same time, he requested Father de Fontaney not 
 to interfere with the company's affairs. 
 
 The night of the 1 1 th, the English ship from 
 Madras anchored half a league between us. 
 Six missionaries were passengers in her, four
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 147 
 
 French, of whom Father Beauvoli was one, an 
 Italian, and a German. 
 
 The 12th, M. de la Roque went on board the 
 English ship for Father Beauvoli. The cap- 
 tain saluted them with seven guns. At mid- 
 day the English ship passed us and anchored 
 above us. She saluted us in passing with seven 
 guns, which we returned, and she replied with 
 one. This ship was of two hundred tons bur- 
 then, with twelve guns. She was loaded with 
 drugs for dyeing, and had one hundred thou- 
 sand crowns in silver. 
 
 The 17th, the new English Company's ship, 
 which was at Macao in the beginning of Sep- 
 tember, came up the river. She passed with a 
 grand display, and with the royal standard flying. 
 The Madras ship and the Arab saluted her, the 
 former with seven guns, the latter with three. 
 She returned gun for gun. The supercargo of 
 this ship had made all arrangements with the 
 Hoppo at Macao, and asserted she should sail 
 as soon as ourselves. She had four hundred 
 thousand livres in silver and fur goods. 
 
 The 10th of November, another of our men 
 died. 
 
 H 2
 
 148 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 The same night a Chinese junk came up the 
 river from Manilla, with several on board, and 
 chiefly freighted on their account. 
 
 The 20th, we lost another man. 
 
 The 27th, Chinese junks began to fall down 
 the river for Batavia. Most of them sailed 
 under the Dutch flag, being laden upon Dutch 
 account. Holland thus trades with all China 
 by means of the Chinese themselves. They thus 
 obtain everything of the finest quality and of 
 the rarest kinds. They do this at a cheap rate, 
 and without exposure to the exactions which 
 foreign merchants suffer every day in the ports 
 of this empire. Moreover, they thus escape all 
 hazard of losing the money they advance to the 
 Chinese for goods, inasmuch as these Chinese 
 give them security for such advances by draw- 
 ing upon other Chinese settlers in Batavia and 
 Bantam. 
 
 The 1st of December, M. de Benac began to 
 send us boats to w r ater with. We took it in at 
 five leagues above Canton, for no rain having 
 fallen for some time, the river was salt where 
 we were moored. 
 
 The 7th, at four A.M., the Arab ship went
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 149 
 
 down the river. She saluted us with four guns, 
 which we returned, and received back three. 
 The captain would gladly have sailed in com- 
 pany with us, but the season was advancing. 
 
 The 12th, we began at length to move. 
 
 The 21st, Father de Fontaney came to see the 
 ship. He had a mandarin boat with all his 
 suite in boats with his baggage. We received 
 him with much respect, and next day, at his 
 return, M. de la Roque saluted him with nine 
 guns. 
 
 The 24th, the Tsontou paid M. de Benachis 
 balance of five thousand taels, and caused him 
 at the same time to be informed that the em- 
 peror desired the French ship to sail without 
 delay. He therefore had only to settle his 
 affairs so as to be able to go down the river the 
 fifteenth of the following moon. If the man- 
 darins or any private merchants owed anything, 
 the Tsontou promised to have it paid; and ob- 
 served, that seeing the English could usually ma- 
 nage their trade in three months, it was surprisng 
 M. de Benac should have taken fourteen for his. 
 
 The 20th, Father Fontaney took leave of the 
 Tsontou, thanking him for his kindness to the
 
 150 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 French and to himself, and soliciting the like 
 protection for those who were to remain in 
 Canton. 
 
 The 31st, we loaded four boats with goods. 
 The directors used every effort to make their 
 purchases. Silks far dearer every day, as lately 
 there had arrived at Macao a Spanish ship of 
 fifty guns, with five hundred thousand dollars 
 to lay out. 
 
 M. de Benac, in return for his delays and 
 hesitation, had now to take from the Leangtao 
 fifty tons of copper instead of money. It stood 
 him in five taels the pieal, or Chinese quintal, 
 and he might have had it or part for three and 
 a half. 
 
 The 6th of January, we were still loading 
 some boats with goods. 
 
 The 7th, we weighed anchor, and moored 
 again half a league below, near a battery, where 
 we had nine fathoms of water, with a hard sand 
 bottom, close to the shore. M. de la Roque 
 took this first step to show the mandarins that 
 he was ready to sail. This day we brought our 
 sick on board, with everything we had taken, 
 to the village of Cangtengtehuen.
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 151 
 
 The 8th, we sailed across the river, to be 
 ready to pass a bar on our way at high tide. 
 The wind was fair but light. At night we 
 anchored in six fathoms, in a muddy bottom, 
 between another old battery and a Custom 
 House. M. de la Roque wished to pass the 
 bar next day, but did not do so, because we 
 began to reach still water, and the directors did 
 not keep their promise of sending country boats 
 to tow us. 
 
 The 14th, another man died, but only one 
 dangerously ill. 
 
 The 17th, Father Fontaney came on board 
 with all his baggage and the presents for the 
 king. Next day, early, he sent the mandarin boat 
 back, keeping, of his Chinese servants only a 
 fiangcong, a sort of secretary, who was curious 
 to see France. 
 
 The 20th, we passed the bar, with a light 
 south wind. There was at least nineteen feet 
 of water upon it. The bar stretches from a 
 little island in mid-stream to the head of another 
 large island, east of the smaller one. You skirt 
 the large island a third of the river, keeping 
 steadily to the south-east quarter south, to
 
 152 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 soundings at five to seven fathoms. We an- 
 chored above a league below the bar, at eight 
 fathoms, with mud bottom. The fort at the 
 mouth of the river bore south 5 deg. east. 
 
 The same night six boats from Canton 
 brought the remainder of the goods, and we 
 now only wanted our biscuits, and M. Francia, 
 who was to go home with us. 
 
 The 23rd, at ebb tide and a light north wind, 
 we weighed anchor, and passed the Fokien river, 
 and anchored east of the lower head of the last 
 bar, in six fathoms, with a muddy bottom. 
 The higher fort bore south-west. 
 
 The 24th, we passed the last bar, and an- 
 chored a league and a half beyond the fort, 
 bearing north-west 5 deg. north, in six fathoms, 
 and still a mud bottom. 
 
 The 25th, we got our biscuits, but M. Francia 
 could not come on board to-day, because the 
 Hoppo entertained him. He came next day at 
 two P.M. He brought the directors' last de- 
 spatches, and all other articles he had expected ; 
 so we weighed anchor and sailed with a fair 
 north wind, with which we could stem the tide. 
 
 In China we left the three directors of the
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 153 
 
 Company, M. Salioz, two clerks, and six other 
 Frenchmen, of whom two had set out for Pekin 
 a month ago. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 FROM CANTON RIVER TO THE COAST OF 
 CAMBODIM. 
 
 FBOM THE 2?TH OF JANUARY TO THE 3 ED OF FEBBtTABY, 
 1700. 
 
 THE 26th, P.M., we anchored a league out of 
 the Tiger, in seven fathoms, with a bottom of 
 muddy sand. 
 
 The 27th, at daybreak, it was dark and 
 cloudy, but we sailed with a north wind. To- 
 wards eleven A.M., a gale came on, and we were 
 obliged to anchor between Linten and Macao, 
 as our Chinese pilots were afraid to stand on. 
 
 The weather clearing a little, we set sail again 
 an hour later. We neared Macao by skirting 
 the Nine Islands, and anchored in five fathoms 
 with a mud bottom. The town bore 5 deg. 
 north, two leagues off. 
 
 ad
 
 154 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 The 28th, the north wind still blew strong ; 
 and as there was no appearance of our being 
 able to send a boat to Macao without losing 
 much time, we weighed anchor. After our 
 cutter had put the two Chinese pilots ashore 
 upon the Island of Matchong, we stood out to 
 sea. M. de la Roque wished much to pay his 
 respects personally to the mandarin of Macao, to 
 thank him for his extreme kindness, and for his 
 good offices to the French. 
 
 We steered south until three P.M., when the 
 Great Ladrone bore north-north-east, ten leagues 
 off. We then changed our course to south-west 
 quarter south to sight Hainan, and stand over 
 afterwards to the landward of Pracel. The old 
 English pilot, whom we had taken in at Ma- 
 lacca, had charge of the ship himself alone, and 
 was to go back to France with us. 
 
 The 29th, at noon, the wind having been 
 fair and strong at north and north-north- 
 east, with a cloudy sky and heavy sea, we cal- 
 culated our latitude at 19 deg. 40 min. north. 
 We had made forty-six leagues way south-west 
 quarter south. We then stood to south-west
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 155 
 
 quarter west, abreast of the Island of Hainan, 
 and at least fixed it by the soundings. 
 
 The same day, the 29th, towards six P.M., 
 after making fifteen leagues to the sout-hwest 
 quarter west, we were in seventy fathoms, with 
 mud and fine sand bottom. At two P.M., 
 having made two leagues more in the same 
 course, we were in forty fathoms, and a bottom 
 of coarse sand and shells. This led us to steer 
 south-south-west, for fear of being too near in- 
 shore. At four, after making nine leagues south- 
 south-west, we were in forty-four fathoms, with 
 a bottom of mud, gravel, and shells. 
 
 The 30th, at half-past six A.M., we saw the 
 island of Hainan north-east half north, seven 
 leagues off. Rather a lofty cape and three little 
 islands to the westward of it, at some distance 
 from each other, were seen. We then steered 
 south west, to sight Pulo Condore, upon the 
 coast of Cochin China, and hitherto we had 
 perceived no current. 
 
 For seventeen leagues we steered south-west 
 till noon, and had made in all sixty leagues 
 south-west, 3 deg. west. By reckoning, we 
 were in lat. 17 deg. north. The wind con-
 
 156 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 tinued fair, north- north-east and north-north- 
 west, with a cloudy sky, and a short sea. 
 
 The same wind, but lighter, lasted till the 
 3 1 st, when, after sounding often, to regulate our 
 course, we found sixty-five fathoms, at six P.M. 
 We steered south quarter south-west. At mid- 
 night, we had seventy-five fathoms in sand or 
 shells. We veered south-west to avoid the 
 Pracel. At four in the morning we had sixty- 
 five fathoms head, and fine sand. We had made 
 thirty-four leagues way, south- south- west, 5 
 degrees west ; and were now by reckoning in 
 lat. 16 deg. 9 min. north. 
 
 This day, at one P.M., we saw Pulo Cham- 
 pella bearing to west-north-west, ten leagues off; 
 and Pulo Condore, bearing south-south-west, 
 eight leagues off. The main land is here 
 extremely lofty. Mountains are visible twenty- 
 six leagues inland. Hereabouts is the boundary 
 between the kingdom of Cochin China and 
 Tsiompa. The latter is tributary to Cochin 
 China. 
 
 We coasted Pulo Condore to the east, two 
 leagues off shore ; and then steered south and 
 south-south-west, in order to see the main land,
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 157 
 
 which we were to sail by for eighty leagues, a 
 league and a-half, or, at the most, two leagues 
 off shore, in order to avoid currents, which, out 
 at sea, run upon Pracel. This danger could not 
 possibly be avoided if it fell calm ; nor could it 
 be recovered from, as there are no soundings or 
 anchorage. At six P.M., Pulo Condore bore 
 north-west quarter north, four leagues off. We 
 had a fair strong north wind all night. We 
 stood in shore about two leagues off. It is flat 
 by the sea, but lofty inland. 
 
 The 1st of February, at four A M., we skirted 
 very near a small island, opposite the Bay of 
 Yogoyna ; but this island is much further out at 
 sea than it stands on the charts. This led us 
 for some time to take it for Pulo Cambo of 
 the land. This we were the more disposed to 
 think, as the English pilot asserted that the 
 currents here ran at least half a league an hour 
 to the south-east. This, however, proved 
 an error. They gave, indeed, four leagues in 
 twenty-four hours, but that was the utmost. In 
 fact, the currents are regular all the year in these 
 latitudes. From September to March they al- 
 ways run south and south-east ; and from March
 
 158 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 to September they always run north and north- 
 west, just as the coast bends. 
 
 At above six leagues from this island, south- 
 south east, we skirted two large and lofty rocks 
 a league off the land. They are not upon the 
 charts. 
 
 Towards nine A.M., we saw Pulo Cambir of 
 the land, six leagues south of the two, with 
 rocks. It is three-quarters of a league off the 
 coast, in lat. 13 deg. 38 min. Towards the 
 sea it is steep and moderately lofty. To the 
 south east of it, there are two rocks. Seen 
 north-north-west, it looks like two islands. 
 Pulo Cambir of the sea is also moderately lofty. 
 It is seen in clear weather, and by standing out 
 a little towards it. It is directly on a line with 
 the Pracel. 
 
 In these latitudes we saw many sailing vessels 
 along the coast, where the people are great rob- 
 bers, if an opportunity occurs. They have often 
 plundered merchant ships in calms. 
 
 This afternoon we doubled Cape Varela. It 
 is a huge hill, standing alone close to the water, 
 upon a level shore, with this cape bearing south- 
 west quarter west. A hill like an islet is seen
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 159 
 
 bearing 3 deg. west quarter south. A rock on 
 this hill has all the appearance of a tower, or 
 pyramid of some pagoda. Towards four P.M., 
 we skirted another very steep cape, running 
 far into the sea. The whole coast here is lofty, 
 and frightful to look at. It rises perpendicular 
 from the water. Here, too, we met with a lofty 
 rock, like a tall chimney, slightly inclining. All 
 night we steered south quarter south-west, two 
 and a-half leagues off the land. 
 
 The 2nd, at day-break, we passed the false 
 Cape Varela, where there was also a rock like 
 a pyramid. We were here abreast of another 
 cape, which our English pilot called Cape Cecir. 
 He then made us steer south-south west to find 
 the " Two Banks" strait of the charts. He said 
 we must keep this course to eighteen or nineteen 
 fathoms. When we sounded in fifteen fathoms it 
 was a sign of being near the bank in shore ; and 
 when we sounded in twenty -four, we were to fall 
 in with the outer bank. The wind was fresh 
 and fair from north, and the sea was high. At 
 nine A.M., Cape Cecir bore quarter north, and 
 quarter north-west, five and a half leagues off. 
 We were now quite out of sight of the mainland
 
 160 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 of Cambodia, and from the masthead saw what 
 looked like two little islands to the south-south- 
 west, six leagues off. Upon nearing them they 
 turned out to be two hills on a long low island, 
 which we could not recognise in the charts. 
 Our English pilot had not expected land ahead 
 here. He was greatly surprised by this, and 
 could not account for his error. In order to 
 double this island, we were obliged to steer south- 
 south east, and south-east quarter south, because 
 the current carried us violently to the south- 
 west. Happily, by our lat. being 10 deg. 20 
 min., we found ourselves clear of the danger 
 which it indeed perplexed us to escape from. 
 Some said that the land we thus doubled was 
 not an island, but the extension of the mainland, 
 between which and Cape Cecir there was a deep 
 inlet. Others said, more probably, that these 
 were islands at the tail of the Pracel, ill-placed 
 on the charts. These insisted that the Dutch 
 designedly marked dangers on these charts where 
 none existed. We certainly saw none ; nor 
 could we perceive the water to be discoloured. 
 
 This island bearing north north west six 
 leagues off, we saw south-west quarter south,
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 161 
 
 five leagues off, Pulo Cecir of the sea, which, seven- 
 teen months before, when sailing to China, we 
 had sighted. We had now seen it on all sides ; 
 and left it to the east, it bearing at three P M. 
 five leagues off. The wind was still north and 
 north-north-east, and the sea high. We steered 
 west- south-west to sight Pulo Condor; and at 
 midnight we were in twenty fathoms, with a fine 
 grey sand bottom. 
 
 The 3rd, at six A.M., the soundings were 
 twenty fathoms, with a bottom of large grey 
 sand, and shells. At nine A.M. we saw Pulo 
 Condor to south-west quarter west, eight leagues 
 off. From Pulo Cecir we had made by reckon- 
 ing forty-five leagues ; so that these two islands 
 are fifty-two leagues apart in the two directions 
 east north east and west south west. This 
 whole morning the currents carried us north 
 west, and the wind was very light ; all, there- 
 fore, we could do was to double the island. At 
 six P.M. it was six leagues off. We scudded all 
 the night following south south west 5 deg. 
 west, to sight Pulo Condor.
 
 162 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 XV. 
 
 THE COAST OF CAMBODIA TO BANCA AND 
 BANTAM. 
 
 THE 3RD TO THB 26TH OP FEBRUARY, 1700. 
 
 THE 4th of February, inlat. 6 deg. 50 min. north, 
 we had soundings in twenty-six fathoms, with 
 fine sand and slime. We stood on south-south- 
 west and south west quarter south until mid- 
 night ; when in thirty-eight fathoms, in a mud 
 bottom, we steered south quarter south-west. 
 
 The 5th, in lat. 8 deg. 18 min. north, we 
 found thirty-nine fathoms, with a soft blue mud 
 at bottom ; we steered south- south -west. From 
 six P.M., being in forty-two fathoms, we steered 
 south west quarter south ; and at midnight we 
 were in forty-one fathoms, with still a mud 
 bottom. 
 
 The 6th, at 6 A.M., with the same soundings 
 of forty-two fathoms, and the same mud bottom 
 we steered south-west; and at ten A.M. west 
 quarter south-west.
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 163 
 
 Our English pilot actually made us take these 
 courses only to perplex us, and to prevent our 
 acquiring a correct knowledge of the navigation 
 of those seas. Heaven forhid we should ever 
 want his help here. At noon we were by reckon- 
 ing in 3 deg. 38 min. north lat., with 31 fathoms, 
 and a fine sand and mud bottom. 
 
 At four P.M. we saw Pulo Timoan south quar- 
 ter south-west, 5 deg. west, nine leagues off. 
 The wind was very light, north-west. At night 
 it fell a dead calm, the current drifting us gently 
 south-south-west. At midnight we were within 
 three leagues of land. 
 
 The 7th, at daybreak, we were two and 
 a- half leagues east of the island. 
 
 Our Englishman, who wished to anchor on that 
 side, made us take in canvas. He said we must 
 pass between two sand banks running far out at 
 sea, and sound at every step. He asserted, also> 
 that there was a populous town by the sea side. 
 The nearer, however, we drew, the fewer signs did 
 we see of all that. M. de la Roque, who was ex- 
 ceedingly angry at this, on good grounds, stood 
 out, and anchored near the south shore, in 
 eighteen fathoms, in a bottom of grey and black
 
 164 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 sand. The anchorage was a quarter of a league 
 off, and the south-eastern head of the island 
 bore north-east 5 deg. north, two-thirds of a 
 league off the south-west head bore north-west 
 quarter west 8 deg. west, a league and one-third 
 off. The latter head is remarkable for two very 
 high peaks, called " the Ears of the Hare." At 
 their foot is a stream, where we got wretched 
 water. 
 
 As soon as we anchored, a dozen little boats 
 came off. They exchanged cocoa nuts and 
 plenty of fish for a few pieces of linen. We 
 could get nothing more without sending round 
 the south-west point. 
 
 The 8th and 9th, we had rain, and a gale 
 from north-north-east. 
 
 Early on the 10th, we saw a ship west of 
 Pulo Timoan, with all sail set, and running south. 
 She was a Dutch ship from Siam, or perhaps the 
 Madras ship which we had left at Canton ready 
 to sail. 
 
 At one P.M. we sailed, our cable with the 
 anchor apeak, and we lost it. The wind was 
 north-north-east. We scudded close to the 
 wind, to get east of Pulo Pisang and Pulo Laet.
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 165 
 
 Abreast of these islands we found strong cur- 
 rents, setting south towards the Straits of Ma- 
 lacca. At ten P.M. Pulo Laet bore south-west 
 quarter west, about three leagues off. 
 
 The llth, at six A.M., being in twenty-four 
 fathoms, and, as we thought, too much at sea, 
 we bore up and steered south. At noon, our 
 latitude, by reckoning, 1 deg. 30 min. From 
 Pulo Laet we were twenty leagues upon our 
 course south quarter south-east. A little after 
 midday we saw the ship again which we had 
 seen yesterday, passing west of Pulo Tinsent. 
 She was skirting the coast to go through the 
 Straits of Malacca by the Dutch channel, for fear 
 of pirates. Towards night we sighted the coast 
 of Romania. 
 
 Towards eight P.M* we anchored in twenty- 
 two fathoms, with a bottom of fine grey sand 
 and clay. Our Englishmen would have stood 
 on all night, but M. de la Roque would not 
 consent. 
 
 The 12th, at eight A.M., we again set sail due 
 south, after having much trouble to get the 
 anchor up. By observation at noon we were 
 1 deg. north of the line. From one p M, we
 
 166 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 saw land south-west quarter west, 5 deg. south 
 all night. Towards three we saw ahead of us a 
 Chinese junk steering for the Straits of Banca. 
 As soon as she made us out, she ran before the 
 wind to eastward. Shortly afterwards we picked 
 up her cutter and small boat, sent adrift to 
 lighten her and escape from us, thinking per- 
 haps we were pirates. 
 
 Towards six P.M. we saw several little islands, 
 about five leagues off, and the high lands of 
 Lingin bearing west north-west. We steered 
 south quarter south-west. At about eleven P.M. 
 we had twelve to sixteen fathoms, with a bottom 
 of fine grey sand. At midnight we saw land 
 ahead. It was an island hidden before in fog. 
 It was south quarter south-east, about a league 
 and a half off. We steered east quarter south- 
 east, to avoid this land, which we took for Pulo 
 Poar. 
 
 The 13th, at daybreak, we were between a 
 group of islands ; seen, as the night came on, 
 lay a long land with seven hills, which our 
 Englishman called the Seven Islands. To the 
 north-north-east we also saw, at the same time, 
 a considerable island. All day the wind was
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 167 
 
 westerly and contrary, so that we were com- 
 pelled to tack. Upon nearing this land we 
 found it was Banca, and that which we had taken 
 for Pulo Poar, near the Seven Islands. At ten 
 A.M. we made out Monopim, a lofty hill at the 
 northern head of Banca, and being upon a low 
 plain, it looks at a distance like a separate island. 
 In our tacks along the coast of Banca, we had 
 from eighteen to twenty-five fathoms, and to- 
 wards the Seven Islands the same day were 
 fifteen to sixteen fathoms. Our latitude by ob- 
 servation was I deg. 15 min. 
 
 That night we anchored in twenty fathoms 
 in fine sand, Monopim bearing south 5 deg. 
 east, six leagues off. All night the wind was 
 westerly. The currents were feeble and irre- 
 gular. 
 
 We weighed anchor early on the 14th, with 
 a west-south-west wind, and stretched north- 
 north-west until two P.M., in twenty to twelve 
 fathoms soundings. The wind shifting to west 
 and north-north-west, we stood on the other 
 tack south-west and south-south-west, in seven 
 fathoms and a mud bottom. There we an- 
 chored. Our Englishman was unwilling to
 
 168 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 stand on any longer until we could make out 
 Sumatra, which the fog hid. We were about 
 abreast of Palambang. Monopim bore south- 
 south east 4 deg. east, seven leagues off. The 
 wind was westerly all night, with heavy rain. 
 The current set south-west-west. In the 
 course of the day we saw at different spots in 
 the channel three trees rooted up, and floating 
 upright. At first sight we took them all three 
 for boats in full sail. 
 
 We set sail the 18th, at six A.M. with a light 
 west wind. We scudded south-south-west, in 
 seven to eight fathoms. At eight A.M. we dis- 
 tinguished plainly the coasts of Sumatra to the 
 south-west. They are very low, and in some 
 places flooded, but nevertheless covered with 
 wood. Towards eleven A.M. the wind fell to a 
 dead calm, and the current being contrary, we 
 anchored seven fathoms less by a foot, in a 
 bottom of mud. Sumatra bore south-west, two 
 and a half leagues off; Monopim bore south- 
 east, five short leagues off. The tide ran east- 
 north-east, at the rate of three quarters of a 
 league an hour. Towards night the sea hud 
 sunk a fathom.
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 169 
 
 Here, two and a-half to three leagues off the 
 coast of Banca, there is a sunk rock, upon which 
 there are breakers in a rough sea. This rock is 
 east-south-east of Monopim. There are other 
 dangers upon the coast of Banca towards the 
 south. It is proper, therefore, to hug the west 
 of Sumatra. 
 
 The 16th, we weighed anchor early, with a 
 light west wind. We skirted the coast in seven 
 to eleven fathoms. We again saw a large tree 
 floating in the channel upon its roots, like a 
 vessel in full sail. At noon, by observation, we 
 were in lat. 1 deg. 5 min. south. Monopim now 
 bore east-north 5 deg. east, three and a half leagues 
 off. A headland of Sumatra bore north-west 
 3 deg. west at the same distance. The mouth 
 of a river bore south-west quarter south, and 
 the other points of the coast round to the south 
 side bore south-west quarter south. The wind 
 shifted in the afternoon to north-north-west, 
 and was high. We ran south-south-east at a 
 league to a league and a half off shore, and 
 anchored at night in nine fathoms, in a bottom 
 of mud, two-thirds of a league off. Monopim 
 bore north-north-west, 3 deg. north. . 
 
 I
 
 170 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 The l?th, we sailed at daybreak with a light 
 land breeze. It changed from north to south, 
 and then fell to a dead calm. The fog was 
 thick, and as we made little way, we anchored at 
 eleven A.M. in thirteen fathoms, in a bottom of 
 red mud. The third headland of Sumatra bore 
 south-east quarter south, a league off. The 
 headland of Monopim bore south-east and north- 
 west. 
 
 Towards two P.M., the wind freshening for 
 north-west, we set sail again. The tide was 
 served. We anchored two hours later, a quarter 
 of a league off shore, in six fathoms, and a mud 
 bottom. The third headland bore south 5 deg. 
 east, half a league off, and we lay abreast of a 
 little river with an exceedingly pretty entrance. 
 Besides Monopius, other lofty mountains in 
 Banca bore north-east half north, and others 
 south-east. The tides seemed to run twelve 
 hours flood and twelve ebb ; the flood to the 
 south-east, the ebb to the north-west, was very 
 slow. 
 
 The next morning, at six, the sea had risen 
 a fathom and a half. We saw a fire on shore, 
 although the country looked quite uninhabited.
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 171 
 
 We weighed anchor early the 18th, with a 
 west-south-west wind. We skirted the head- 
 land a little out at sea, in seven and a half to five 
 fathoms. Towards ten A.M. we doubled the 
 second headland, still at a short league off the 
 shore, in twelve to nine fathoms, until we got 
 abreast of the first headland. The bottom was 
 mud throughout. At about five P.M. we an- 
 chored in five and a half fathoms, still with a 
 mud bottom. The wind was light and fresh, 
 at north-north-west, and the tide still strong; 
 but there was no daylight left to carry us quite 
 through the dangerous strait of Lucepara. Our 
 English pilot, therefore, would stay till morning. 
 The first headland bore north-north-west, five 
 deg west, two-thirds of a league off. The coast 
 abreast of us was due west, at one third of a 
 league. It trended south quarter south-west 
 for three leagues. The most southerly shore of 
 Banca bore east five deg. stuth, four leagues off, 
 and Lucepara bore south- east quarter south, three 
 leagues off. This is a low woody island. It is 
 dangerous on account of its being surrounded 
 by high sand banks. We had much rain all 
 night. 
 
 I 2
 
 172 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 The 19th, at day-break, we sent the boat 
 ahead to sound. She was to go to the west 
 of the island, and run up until they came to 
 the edge of the sand bank, and trace it round 
 to the same spot; and with the same breeze 
 they anchored in mid-channel with a mud bot- 
 tom, about a league off shore, so as to serve us 
 for a beacon to pass. At nine A.M. we set sail, 
 with a light wind west-south-west. We scudded 
 due south in six to eight fathoms, and then to 
 five, in a mud bottom slip The island bore south- 
 east when we were in six fathoms water. The 
 sea was now risen one fathom. At noon, as 
 the wind fell, and then shifted to south-east 
 contrary, we anchored in five fathoms, still with 
 a mud bottom. Lucepara bore east quarter 
 south-east, four deg. south, one and three 
 quarters of a league off. The first headland of 
 the strait bore north quarter north- east, three 
 deg. north, two and a half leagues off. 
 
 At two P.M. a large Chinese junk passed within 
 shore of us. She hugged the shore as much as 
 possible, being greatly afraid of us. M. de la 
 Roque sent our boat with the Chinese secretary 
 to ask from whence he came, and to quiet his
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 1?3 
 
 alarm. That junk came from Ning-po for Ba- 
 tavia. In the strait we saw another astern of 
 the first, and also bound for Batavia. A third 
 ship was in sight at the same time. 
 
 At four P.M. the wind shifted to east-north-east, 
 and we weighed anchor, steering south quarter 
 south-east, south-south-east, south-east, east- 
 south-east. We then turned Lucepara one and 
 a half league to seaward, and anchored at eight 
 P.M. one and a half leagues south of that island, 
 in five fathoms, with a mud bottom. We never 
 found less than four and a half fathoms ; and 
 the line we used was our English pilot's, in 
 English measure, half a foot longer than the 
 French, to each fathom. Therefore the danger 
 in this strait is less than has been described ; 
 and the pilot who grounded the Oiseau in going 
 out to, and in returning from Siam, must have 
 been bribed or know little of his business. The 
 tide was very irregular all night. 
 
 We weighed anchor early next day, with a 
 west and west half south-west wind, and sailed 
 due south in six or seven fathoms. At eight 
 A.M. Lucepara bore north four and a half 
 leagues off; and we then changed our course
 
 174 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 to south quarter south-west as near to wind as 
 possible. At noon, the lat. was 3 deg. 25 min. 
 We were then in seven fathoms, with a mud 
 bottom ; and Tree Island bore south-west quar- 
 ter west, four deg. west, four leagues off. This 
 island is low, and covered with very lofty trees. 
 It lies off a headland of Sumatra. 
 
 Towards three P.M., by running a little close 
 to the shore, we fell to seven fathoms water, and 
 touched a sand bank. We therefore steered south- 
 east quarter east to gain an offing, and got to 
 eight or nine fathoms. At midnight it fell a 
 dead calm. So we anchored in nine fathoms 
 in a mud bottom. The current set north-north- 
 west. 
 
 The 21st, at two A.M., the wind freshened to 
 north-west. We set sail and steered south, 
 until we got into ten to thirteen fathoms. This 
 made us steer south -south- west and south-west, 
 as our English pilot insisted upon keeping to 
 eight or nine fathoms without standing out 
 further. At noon our lat. was 4 deg. 10 min., 
 and on Sunday eleven fathoms in mid channel ; 
 yet we steered south-west and south-west quarter 
 west. The currents must have set eastward.
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 175 
 
 Nevertheless, when the boat anchored, we per- 
 ceived no current at all. Towards six P.M., the 
 wind being very light, we anchored in nine 
 fathoms, with a mud bottom. The coast of 
 Sumatra looked very low, west quarter south- 
 west. 
 
 We weighed anchor the 22nd, with a very 
 light wind, and steered south-south-west and 
 south quarter south-west, in eight or ten 
 fathoms. Our latitude was 4 deg. 36 min. 
 At six P.M. we again anchored in nine and a half 
 fathoms, with a mud bottom. 
 
 The Two Brothers bore south quarter south- 
 west, four deg. west, five and a half leagues off, 
 and there we saw two lofty ranges at the entrance 
 of the Strait of Sunda i one bears west-south- 
 west, five deg. south, twenty leagues off; the 
 other south-west quarter south, eighteen leagues 
 off. The ship was six leagues from the land. 
 
 Early on the 23rd we weighed anchor with a 
 north-west wind. We steered south-west and 
 south-west quarter west. The Two Brothers 
 lay three quarters of a league west of us. They 
 are two small islands, flat, and full of lofty trees. 
 They are dangerous to the eastward, the bottom
 
 176 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 very full of sunk rocks. More than a league at 
 sea, we saw between these islands a brigantine 
 at anchor, with a sloop and a boat. It seemed 
 to be a Dutch vessel fishing for turtle, or it might 
 be a pirate. That night we anchored in ten 
 fathoms, with a mud bottom. The Two Bro- 
 thers bore north-east quarter north, two leagues 
 off. The coast of Bantam was distinguished to 
 the south, three deg. west, sixteen leagues off. 
 All night the current set eastward. 
 
 Early the 24th, we sailed with a light wind 
 at west-south-west. We skirted the shore with 
 an offing still of four to five leagues. We 
 made little way, and anchored at night in twenty 
 fathoms, with a sand and mud bottom. We 
 were five leagues from Sumatra, and twenty 
 from the Cape of Bantam, which bore south, 
 three deg. west. 
 
 Early on the 25th, we set sail with a light 
 wind west, and west quarter north-west, and 
 kept close to the wind, on account of the cur- 
 rent. Almost on a sudden we fell from twenty 
 to fourteen fathoms, with a bottom of sandy 
 mud, shells and gravel. At the opening of the 
 Straits of Sunda, we saw several Malay Praous
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 177 
 
 fishing. Towards three P.M. we anchored in 
 sight of Bantam, in twenty fathoms, with a 
 mud bottom. The Fort bore south five deg. 
 east, four leagues off ; Pulo Pisang bore south- 
 south east, three quarters of a league off ; and 
 Pulo Baly bore east-north-east, three leagues 
 off. Tbat night and the next we had much 
 rain. 
 
 The 26th, at three A.M., M. de la Roque sent 
 M. de la Rigaudiere to pay his respects to the 
 Governor of Bantam, and ask if he would 
 receive ten Arabs and six Chinese, passengers 
 with us from Canton. He was also to ask leave 
 to take in some provisions. Our cutter followed 
 the boat, with the sixteen passengers, and an- 
 chored outside to wait for the Governor's 
 answer. 
 
 He received M. de la Rigaudiere with ex- 
 treme courtesy ; but it was with much difficulty 
 he was prevailed upon to receive the passengers. 
 As to provisions, he advised us to go to Batavia, 
 where we could find all that we needed. We 
 said it would be useless to send the cutter, and 
 bore in again, and excused himself for this, 
 adding that his orders were peremptory. There 
 
 I 3
 
 178 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 was nothing at that moment in the harbour. 
 The four vessels which the Governor of the 
 settlement had, were all away, the last having 
 been despatched to Batavia to announce our 
 being in these seas. 
 
 XVI. 
 
 BANTAM TO JAVA HEAD BY THE STRAITS OF 
 SUNDA. 
 
 FROM THE 2?TH OF FEBRUARY TO THE 6lH OF MARCH. 
 
 SEVERAL Javanese boats came alongside this 
 day with fish. 
 
 We weighed anchor the 27th, at daybreak, 
 with a light wind east-south-east. We sailed 
 for Prince's Island to wood and water. At once 
 we doubled Cape Bantam with a very favourable 
 current, skirting it within musket-shot in thirty- 
 five fathoms. At the opening of the strait we 
 were between two currents. The wind was 
 very light, and upon its falling a dead calm at
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 179 
 
 ten A.M., we anchored in twenty-two fathoms 
 on a grey black sand. Cape Bantam bore east- 
 north-east, 3 deg. east, one league and three 
 quarters off. The Roque bore west- north- west, 
 4 deg. north, at the same distance. The coast 
 of Java abreast of us was high and well culti- 
 vated in several spots. We hoisted the Dutch 
 flag all day, to bring some boats alongside ; but 
 none passed. 
 
 About noon, we set sail again with a light 
 fresh wind. Towards four, the north wind 
 freshened, so that we could stem the tide, which 
 began to be contrary. But the wind shifting to 
 west and west -south- west, at eight P.M. we 
 anchored in twenty-nine fathoms, on a bottom 
 of large grey sand. The centre of a low island 
 abreast of Cape Bantam, bore north-west 5 deg. 
 north, two leagues off. The current was con- 
 trary all night. 
 
 The 28th, at daybreak, as the south wind 
 was high, and the current slackened, we weighed 
 anchor ; but we made little way, and the wind 
 failing at eight A.M., we anchored in thirty 
 fathoms, one league from the coast of Java. 
 The tide being, however, in our favour, we again
 
 180 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 weighed anchor an hour afterwards, and stood 
 on. Our Dutch flag was more successful 
 to-day ; four or five large Javanese boats coming 
 along-side with fowls, ducks, young goats, eggs, 
 cucumbers, water melons, cocoa nuts, and the 
 like provisions, which we got for Dutch coin 
 pretty cheap. They said the Dutch ships buy 
 little, and that if we had hoisted another flag 
 they would have brought many other articles. 
 
 We anchored at three P.M., in eighteen 
 fathoms, with a mud bottom, a long league off 
 the land. The island of Trave bore north-north- 
 east, sixteen leagues off. The headland, south- 
 west of the Bay of Poivre, bore south-west 
 quarter south, four leagues off. The Isle of 
 Prince was perceived west- south- west, 3 deg. 
 south, ten leagues off. The current set con- 
 trary. 
 
 At eight P.M., we set sail with a light west 
 breeze, and after making about a league and a 
 half headway, we anchored in eighteen fathoms. 
 
 We set sail the 1st of March early, with 
 a very light west-north-west wind. A large 
 Dutch ship passed to windward of us with a 
 square ensign at the main. She hugged the
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 181 
 
 Sumatra shore, where in this season the current 
 always sets north-east. She was bound for 
 Batavia. At two P.M., as the wind shifted to 
 south west, and the current was against us, we 
 anchored in twenty-nine fathoms, with a mud 
 bottom. The seaward head of the island of the 
 Prince bore west quarter south-west, six to seven 
 leagues off. All that day and next night the 
 current was against us. In the twenty-four 
 hours it set at least eighteen north-east. 
 
 Early the 2nd, with a light land breeze south 
 and south-east, we weighed anchor. As it then 
 freshened strong to south-south-west and south- 
 west, we were obliged to beat ; and at nine P.M. 
 we anchored in thirty-seven fathoms in mud. 
 The lofty hills on the Island of the Prince bore 
 due west, two and a half leagues off. 
 
 The 3rd, at daybreak, we set sail with varia- 
 ble winds, rain, and hail. We at last reached the 
 island of the Prince, and anchored at two P.M. 
 in forty fathoms, with a bottom of muddy sand, 
 one third of a league off shore. We would 
 willingly have got nearer to twenty or twenty- 
 five fathoms ; but the wind was against us. 
 We were anchored in an inlet south-east of the
 
 182 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 island, where the Dutch ships wood and water 
 on their route from Europe. We saw one 
 standing south, which had but just left. It was 
 probably the ship which passed by Bantam eight 
 days before us. 
 
 We sent our cutter and boat ashore well 
 armed against tigers, said to be numerous there, 
 and our people saw traces of several, but met 
 none. 
 
 We took in four cutter-loads of wood, and as 
 many of water. 
 
 The 5th, we weighed anchor with a light 
 south-west breeze. We tacked all day to get 
 clear of the strait, the current favouring us a 
 little. By night we were out of it. There is 
 great danger in getting off the land here ; and 
 it is prudent to anchor in-shore as little as possi- 
 ble. Java is well peopled on this side. The 
 valleys are rich, and the hills are well cultivated.
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 183 
 
 XVII. 
 
 JAVA HEAD TO MAURITIUS AND BOURBON. 
 
 FROM THE 6TH OF MARCH TO THE 6lH OF APRIL, 
 1700. 
 
 THE 6th of March, at noon, Java Head bore 
 north- north-east, 5 deg. east, ten leagues off; and 
 at four P.M. we lost sight of land. The wind 
 shifted from west-north-west to south-west. 
 The weather was dark and rainy. The south- 
 east traders seldom meet until 10 deg. south. So 
 the best course after leaving the Straits of Sunda 
 is that which the soonest reaches the parallel 
 of 10 deg. south. Even if a south-easter is met 
 sooner, it will not serve, since it will only carry 
 the ship into calms. It is best to steer south- 
 west, and even south-west quarter south to 14 
 or 15 deg. south latitude, and there find the 
 true route. We pursued this principle in order 
 to fetch the Isle of Bourbon, and so have steadier 
 winds. 
 
 The 7th and 8th, we had a west wind and 
 much calm.
 
 184 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 The 8th, at night, the wind shifted to south- 
 east and east, but very light, with thunder and 
 lightning all night. We were only in lat. 8 
 deg. 30 min. south, so that we had met the 
 trades sooner than was expected. 
 
 At about eleven that night, a ship passed us 
 at half gun-shot, making to the Strait of Sunda. 
 We did not speak. 
 
 The 12th, at noon, in lat. 30 deg. 45 min. 
 south, with the wind still south-east and strong, 
 we steered even from west to west-south-west. 
 
 The 17th, at noon, in lat. 19 deg. 30 min. 
 and long. 106 deg. 3 min., we again changed our 
 course from west-south-west to west, which was 
 equal only to west quarter south-west, from the 
 variations beginning to increase towards north- 
 west. Our latitude to-day, by observation, was 
 19 deg. south. 
 
 The 20th, at noon, we changed our course to 
 west quarter north-west. We were in lat. 20 
 deg. 4 min., and long. 93 deg. 58 min. The 
 variation was 13 deg. 30 min. north-west. 
 
 The 24th, in lat. 20 deg. 25 min., and long. 
 88 deg. 6 min., the variation being 16 deg., 
 we changed our course to west-north-west, equal
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 185 
 
 to west some degrees north. The wind was still 
 south-east, fresh and strong. We saw great 
 numbers of Bonitoes. 
 
 The 31st, at seven A.M., we saw the Isle of 
 Mauritius, north-west, ten leagues off. In 
 sighting this island the variation was 21 deg. 
 30 min. north-west at noon, the island bearing 
 north-west quarter north, five leagues off. The 
 lat. was 20 deg. 35 min. At sunset the head- 
 land west of the island bore north-east six 
 leagues off; and then we observed 24 deg. 
 variation. 
 
 The island of Mauritius belongs to the Dutch. 
 It is lofty in several spots. It is more than 
 sixty leagues round, and has two good ports 
 one north-north-east the other south-south- 
 west. It is thirty-four leagues from Bourbon. 
 
 From Mauritius we sailed west quarter north- 
 west, and west-north-west. The wind was fair 
 and strong. 
 
 The 1st of April, at two A.M., we were abreast 
 of the coast of Bourbon, two leagues to the 
 eastward. At dawn we filled sails, and skirted 
 the coast for eight leagues, half a gun-shot off 
 the shore. Doubling two or three low head-
 
 186 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 lands here, we saw several plantations of the 
 district of Suzanne. We discharged two guns 
 with ball, to tell people to hoist a flag, lest we 
 should miss the anchorage, which no one on 
 board was well acquainted with. We sounded 
 from time to time in sixteen to eighteen fathoms, 
 in a bottom of black sand. All that coast af- 
 fords good anchorage. 
 
 Upon nearing the road of St. Denis, we made 
 out the flag on the head of the large headland 
 which makes one of the two points of the an- 
 choring ground. They had answered our gun- 
 shots, but we heard nothing. We anchored at 
 nine A.M. in eight fathoms, in a bottom of black 
 sand, within musket-shot of the shore. The 
 large headland bore west 5 deg. north, at a gun- 
 shot. The flag bore south-south-east ; and the 
 head of a reef at the other side of the anchorage- 
 ground bore south-east 5 deg. east. We saluted 
 the French flag with five guns, which were re- 
 turned. 
 
 We stayed at St. Denis till the 5th of April, 
 to take in wood and some provisions. Early on 
 the 6th we sailed for St. Paul, seven leagues 
 from St. Denis. The governor of Bourbon
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 187 
 
 went with us ; and we anchored the same day 
 at eleven P.M., in eighteen fathoms and a sandy 
 bottom. One of the headlands of the island 
 bore north-east quarter north, a league and a half 
 off. The other bore west quarter south-west 
 three-quarters of a league off. 
 
 We stayed six days at St. Paul's, to water, and 
 complete our provisions. It is very difficult to 
 take in water there, from the violence of the surf. 
 Sailors can only land by swimming. They take 
 the casks on shore, and re-embark them with a 
 raft. 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 BOURBON TO ST. HELENA. 
 
 PROM THB 13TH TO THE SlST OF APRIL, 1700. 
 
 THE 13th we weighed anchor, with a light west 
 wind, and sailed for St. Helena, having deter- 
 mined not to call at the Cape of Good Hope, from 
 distrust of the Dutch. We saluted the governor 
 with five guns. He then came on board to take
 
 188 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 leave of us During the night of thri 13th we 
 saw the lights of La Souffrein bearing east-south- 
 east six leagues off. 
 
 The 14th, all day, we had variable winds west- 
 south-west to south and south-south-east with 
 much calm and rain. At eight P.M. the island 
 still bore east-north-east ten leagues off. At sun- 
 set the variation was 23 deg. 30 min. north. In 
 the road of St. Denis we found it 24 deg. 30 min. 
 
 The 15th the wind was south-west and east- 
 south-east. We steered south quarter south- 
 west, but kept free. 
 
 Early the 16th we sprung our main-top, and 
 was repaired. The wind continued fair and free 
 at south-east as we steered still south-south-west 
 and south quarter south-west, to be clear of the 
 sunk headlands of Madagascar, where there are 
 sunk rocks thirty leagues off there, to lat. 27 
 deg. 30 min. south. To-day, at noon, our la- 
 titude was 26 deg. 4 min., and our long, by 
 reckoning 74 deg. 21. min. At sun-rise the 
 variation was 22 north-west. 
 
 The 18th we handled new sails, to be the 
 better prepared to double the Cape. The 
 wind was north-west to west-south-west, and
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 189 
 
 contrary. The variation was 24 cleg, north- 
 west. 
 
 The 20th the wind shifted to east and north. 
 At noon, by reckoning, we were in lat. '62 deg. 
 30 min. and 67 deg. 39 min long. At nine 
 P.M. the wind all at once chopped round from 
 north to south. At ten P M. it blew hard south- 
 west, and we parted our top-sails. All that 
 night and till late next day the storm increased, 
 the wind continuing at south-west with much 
 rain and lightning. The sea was frightfully 
 high ; and we ran under bare poles except the 
 fore-sail. In the morning we lay-to under the 
 mizen-sail; but when it split, and the hurricane 
 augmenting, we were obliged to reduce every rag 
 of canvas, and drive with the wind still at 
 south. 
 
 At four P.M. the gale moderated, and fell off 
 to south-south-east ; but we scudded under our 
 fore-sail close reefed. 
 
 The 23rd, the sea having gone down, and 
 the wind much abated, we set our mainsail and 
 main-topsail. Our lat. was 52 deg. 17 min., 
 our long. 62 deg. 3 min. 
 
 The night of the 23rd it was a dead calm,
 
 190 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 with the wind shifting north to west, and south- 
 west, and ran upon a heavy sea. 
 
 The 26th, the wind at south-south-west, and 
 south, we stood west and west quarter north- 
 west. At sunset the variation was north-west ; 
 the lat. 32 deg. 48 min., and long. 58 deg. 
 42 min. The next day, at night, the variation 
 was only 22 deg. All night of the 2 7th, the 
 wind shifted to north and north-north-west, 
 and freshened. We took in a reef in the main 
 topsail. With variation corrected we steered 
 south-west, and at noon our lat. was 34 deg. 
 28 min., and long. 56 deg. 20 min. 
 
 The 30th the wind changed fair and strong to 
 east-south-east. Our lat. being near 35 deg. 
 50 min., we sailed due west to gain in longitude. 
 
 The 1st and 2nd of May, the wind was still 
 fair and strong, at east-south-east, with a heavy 
 sea. 
 
 The 2nd our lat. was 36 deg. 21 min., the 
 long. 46 deg 38 min., and this day we saw 
 many sea wolves and birds 
 
 All this night it was a dead calm. In the 
 morning the wind blew south-west, with a thick 
 fog. At noon we saw a log floating by. The
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 191 
 
 lat. was 36 deg. 6 min. long. 36 deg. 3 min., 
 the variation 19 deg. 30 rain, north-east. 
 
 The 4th we saw immense numbers of al- 
 batrosses, and caught some bonitos. The wind 
 came round to the east, with a fine sky and 
 smooth water. 
 
 The 5th, our lat. was 35 deg. 30 min. Some 
 of our pilots insisting we were upon the Agulhas 
 Shoal, we sounded, but without a bottom, at one 
 hundred and fifty fathoms. At night the wind 
 came round to west and west- south-east. We 
 stood south and south quarter south-east, for fear 
 of getting too near the shore. At night the 
 wind blew hard west-south-west, with rain. 
 
 The 6th and 7th the wind ranged from west 
 to south-west. So we stretched first south and 
 then west-north-west, as the wind shifted to 
 south-west and south-west quarter south. 
 
 The 8th and 9th we had a south-east and a 
 north west wind, but very light. Early on the 
 9th we found only 11 deg. 40 min. variation, 
 which was about the same we had two years 
 before, north and south of the Cape of Good 
 Mope. We therefore considered we had passed 
 the Agulhas Shoal. We then steered north-
 
 192 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 west quarter west, and at noon north-west quar- 
 ter north, taking our course for St. Helena, and 
 intending to sight the Cape mainland if possible. 
 The lat. at noon was 36 deg. 29 min. ; our 
 reckoning had before fixed much more northerly. 
 There must, therefore, be two streams here to 
 south-west. All day we saw numerous birds. 
 The sea, too, seemed to have altered its charac- 
 ter ; the waves being long, and spread out like 
 a sea rolling from the bottom. This led us to 
 suppose we could not be far from the shore. 
 So we sounded at five A.M., but found no bot- 
 tom at one hundred and sixty fathoms. The 
 Agulhas Bank extends from 38 deg. 40 min. 
 to 36 deg. 28 min. south lat. The bottom of 
 mud, in forty to one hundred and twenty fathoms. 
 
 In the night of the 9th the wind changed 
 strong to north and north-north-west. The sea 
 was very heavy ; so we furled our maintop sails. 
 That day we could observe neither the latitude, 
 nor the variation. At night we saw numerous 
 blowing whales. 
 
 The i 1th, at four A.M., the wind chopped 
 round from north to south-west, and backed 
 our sails ; so that with the excessively rough
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 193 
 
 sea, and sudden jerk of the rudder, the tiller 
 snapped in two. We furled all our sails, and 
 let the ship drift till the rudder was repaired. 
 In two hours we had put in a new tiller ; and 
 then stood all day north-north-west. Towards 
 evening and all night we steered north-west 
 quarter north, for fear of the land. 
 
 The 12th, at noon, we made our lat. 33 deg. 
 38 min., and long. 35 deg. 50 min. We now 
 began to leave the Cape astern, and doubled it 
 without seeing either the mainland or the bank. 
 The variation alone helped us to correct our 
 reckoning for the longitude. 
 
 The 13th our lat. was 32 deg. 4 min., the 
 wind fair and strong south-west and south- 
 south-west. We steered north-west, allowing for 
 the variation, that is to say, we bore only north- 
 west quarter north to the parallel of St. Helena, 
 with a fair south-east wind. As the variation 
 lessened as we neared that island, the true course 
 was north-west 5 deg. north. 
 
 The 21st, at noon, in lat. 16 deg. 24 min., 
 we altered our course at four P.M. from north- 
 west quarter north to west, to fetch St. Helena. 
 
 The 22nd no observation could be taken. 
 
 K
 
 194 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 We had already made fifty leagues west; and 
 by reckoning we were still in 16 deg. 10 min., 
 which is the lat. of the more northern point of 
 the island. Towards six P.M., our pilots reckon- 
 ing upon the land, we furled all our canvas ; 
 and stood out all night with topsails in the top, 
 lest we should run by the island. The wind 
 was east-south-east, fine and strong > and we 
 steered 36 deg. more west. 
 
 The 23rd, at daybreak, as we began to fill our 
 sails, we sighted St. Helena about eight leagues 
 off, north-north-east. The horizon was very 
 thick, and we were making good way, so that if 
 night had lasted an hour longer we must have 
 passed the island without seeing anything of it. 
 Until four P.M. we scudded as near the wind as 
 possible, north-east quarter north north-east 
 and east- north-north, to get to westward of it 
 Here, as there was a heavy sea on, we could not 
 reach it; so we bore up by the south side 
 along-shore from the Needles Rocks to the road, 
 within a little gun-shot. The English were sur- 
 prised we could get in so soon that side, and told 
 us we were the first ship that for ten years had 
 succeeded so well. It is usual to take the north
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 195 
 
 passage. We now furled our mainsail too soon 
 and, being no longer able to keep in shore, we 
 had to anchor a little off, in thirty-six fathoms, 
 and then drove to forty-five and fifty. During 
 the night we hauled into thirty-five fathoms 
 upon our sheet anchor, and to twenty-five upon 
 our mooring anchor. The bottom was muddy, 
 and a good holding ground. 
 
 We found M. des Augers in the road with 
 four ships, two of the king's and two of the 
 company's two English ships and a Hollander. 
 While under sail, we saluted M. des Augers with 
 eleven guns, which he returned. As the sun 
 was set, we did not salute the fort till next 
 morning. We then saluted it with seven guns, 
 which were returned. The governor of the 
 island belongs to the French Reformed Church. 
 His name is Poirel, a native of Blois. 
 
 M. des Augers sailed that night with three of 
 his ships for Ascension, where they meant to 
 take in turtle. The Castricon, a larger ship, 
 remained for ballast. 
 
 The 26th, the two English ships and the 
 Hollander sailed also. 
 
 We stayed at St. Helena till the 1st, to 
 
 K2
 
 196 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 water, and take in some provisions. Wood 
 there is none, except in the centre of the island, 
 and in the deep valleys. It is twelve leagues in 
 circumference, and almost everywhere inaccessible 
 by sea the cliffs being like walls. At such 
 inlets as can be landed on, there are batteries to 
 stop it. 
 
 XIX. 
 
 ST. HELENA TO FAYAL. 
 
 PROM THE 31sT OF JULY TO THE 2ND OF AUGUST, 
 1700. 
 
 THE 31st, towards nine A.M., we sailed for 
 Ascension, steering north-west quarter north. 
 The wind was still south-south-east, and some- 
 times east- north- east, fine and strong. The sea 
 was very smooth, with a little rain. 
 
 The 5th, at two P.M., in exactly 7 deg. 50 
 min., the latitude of Ascension, we altered our 
 course from north-west quarter north to due 
 west, to make the island out. Our pilots 
 reckoned it to be forty leagues off. 
 
 The wind was strong south-east, and we saw
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 197 
 
 the island at five A.M. the 6th. We bore west 
 quarter north-west, five leagues off. We skirted 
 its north shore at half gun-shot distance, and 
 anchored north-west off within a quarter of a 
 league in a rockly inlet, and thirteen fathoms, a 
 bottom of sand, rather sand and coral. The 
 Red Hill bore south-east 3 deg. south. At west, 
 a league off shore, in south-west quarter west, 
 there is a reef with breakers in a heavy sea. 
 
 In a bottle, at the foot of a Portuguese cross, 
 upon the Red Hill, we found a letter, stating 
 that M. des Angers anchored there the 31st of 
 May, and turned four turtle. There was also 
 a letter for the Castrion coming after us, and 
 the Castrion would leave letters for her fol- 
 lowers. We sent some people ashore to turn 
 the turtle in the night, but whether some 
 English or Dutch ships had been there, or whe- 
 ther our boat got ashore too late and the turtle 
 had escaped to the water, we found only one ; 
 it weighed, however, three hundred pounds. 
 
 The 7th, at ten A.M., we weighed anchor, and 
 made sail for Fayal, where M. de. la Roque 
 meant to touch, as he had informed the com- 
 pany he would, for orders and intelligence as to
 
 198 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 peace or war. We steered north-west to 4 deg. 
 north, with a fair strong wind from south-east 
 to east. We crossed the line the 13th, at three 
 P.M., in long. 35 deg., without experiencing 
 heat, and very calm. 
 
 The 16th, at noon, in lat, 4 deg. north, by 
 observation, we changed our course from north- 
 west to north-north-west. The wind was still 
 fair and strong, at south-east. We had as yet 
 steered north-west direct, in order to keep clear 
 of a south ridge of rock on that parallel, and 
 which we left on starboard. 
 
 The 1 7th, the wind shifted to south-south- 
 east and south-west, was still fair and strong. 
 
 The current here set north. 
 
 The 18th and 19th, the wind was again at 
 south-east. 
 
 The 20th, the wind stood strong at north- 
 east, in lat. 1 1 deg. 6 min. north, and in long. 
 35 deg. 21 min. by reckoning. We still 
 steered north-north-west, to give a wide berth 
 to the Cape de Verds, and not encounter the 
 calms thought by the pilots to prevail there near 
 shore. We found no variation. 
 
 The 23rd, we changed our course from north-
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 199 
 
 north- west to north quarter north-west, steering 
 to the wind. Thelat. was 17 deg. 5 min. north. 
 
 We still had fair strong winds at north-east 
 and east-north-east, but the weather clouded 
 over, and was rainy to the 26th, on which day 
 we turned the sun and crossed the tropic. By 
 reckoning we were in lat. 23 deg. 31 min., and 
 long. 34 deg. 1 1 min. 
 
 The 27th to the 29th, the nearness to the 
 sun gave us a little calm, and we began to have 
 scattered heaps of sea-weed with leaves and 
 plants about the ship. In the few following 
 days the sea was quite covered with them. 
 This sea-weed here spreads east and west in 
 great beds from space to space. 
 
 The 7th of July, the variation was 7 deg. 
 north-west, in lat. 35 deg. 52 min., the long. 
 34 deg. 40 min. The wind ranged north- 
 east to north. We bore north to north-west. 
 
 To the 9th, the wind shifted to east- north- 
 east, east-south-east, and south. The weather 
 was clear and the sea smooth. We steered east- 
 north-east and east quarter north-east. The 
 sea-weed began to disappear. 
 
 The 10th to the 12th, the wind was variable
 
 200 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 from south to west-south-west, north-west, and 
 even north-east. It was mostly dead calm. 
 The 12th, the sea- weed entirely disappeared, 
 but we saw that day a large branch of a tree 
 floating by. By reckoning, the lat. was 38 
 deg. 31 min., and the long. 38 deg. 22 min., 
 or within a few minutes of Fayal. Our pilots 
 had depended on seeing land this day. 
 
 The 13th and 14th, the wind shifted to south- 
 east; so we were obliged to steer east-north- 
 east. At this course we made fifty-five leagues ; 
 we saw no land. Our latitude being now, by 
 observation, 39 deg. 6 min., the pilots thought 
 we had passed between Fayal and Flora. The 
 weather became cloudy, and a heavy swell came 
 on from west-north-west. 
 
 The 15th, at noon, the lat. was 39 deg. 
 21 min., and we returned to south ^ south-east 
 to reach the parallel of Fayal, conjecturing we 
 must be to its westward, or to fall in with the 
 islands if we had passed them. 
 
 The 16th and 17th, the wind shifted to north- 
 east and east, dead contrary. Our latitude was 
 38 deg. 34 min. on the 16th, and no land seen. 
 We must be still west of Fayal. The 1 7th, as
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 201 
 
 the wind was still east, with no sign of our 
 fetching that port, M. de la Roque determined 
 to sail direct for France ; and we began to run 
 north and north quarter north-east, for a higher 
 latitude and west winds. 
 
 The 19th, after a shift of wind to south-east, 
 it fell a dead calm. 
 
 The 20th, it blew north-west with thick wea- 
 ther. We steered north-east quarter east. Our 
 lat. was 42 deg. 5 min., long. 34 deg. 58 min. 
 
 The 23rd, at noon, we spoke a Fly boat of 
 Cherbourg, bound to the Banks for cod. She had 
 been out twenty days, from La Rochelle, with her 
 salt. She made the distance two hundred and 
 fifty leagues from Ushant. The fresh news from 
 home was very acceptable, as we were uncertain 
 whether there was peace or war. We then saw 
 another vessel five leagues to windward. The 
 Fly boat called her English. This day, by 
 reckoning, we were in 48 deg. 33 min. lat., and 
 35 deg. long. We steered east-north-east. 
 The wind was still fair, but light, west-south 
 west and west-north-west. 
 
 The 24th, P.M., we saw two ships running 
 south-west to leeward.
 
 202 THE JOURNAL OF THE FIRST 
 
 The 26th, we were in lat. 47 cleg., but wanted 
 1 5 min. tor the parallel of Belle Isle, our port. 
 As, however, we had to allow for some degrees 
 of variation northward, we began to make 
 casters only. This night one of our men died 
 of scurvy. 
 
 The 27th, at daybreak, we saw a ship stand- 
 ing south-south-west, and another at noon 
 standing north. This night we began sound- 
 ing, but found no bottom. 
 
 The 28th, we sounded again, but no bottom. 
 All our pilots were out in their reckoning. 
 
 Early the 29th, a mast and part of a wreck 
 floated by, and at night again no soundings. 
 The wind was fair and strong, west and west- 
 south-west, and we made good way. 
 
 The 30th, at noon, our lat. was 47 deg. 30 
 min. ; but ever since the 26th it had been too 
 hazy for observation. A little A.M. we saw to 
 windward a ship, to which we gave chase, to 
 learn whence she came and whither bound. 
 We showed our colours to speak and correct 
 our reckoning ; and she hung out an English 
 flag. But she would not speak with us. Not 
 being so fast a sailor as that ship, we could not
 
 FRENCH EMBASSY TO CHINA. 203 
 
 bring her to. Towards evening we saw another 
 sail to north. Her course was south east, and 
 ours east, with a fair wind. So we soon crossed. 
 She was a small French vessel from St. Malo to 
 Bayonne. They made us fifteen leagues from 
 Ushant north-north-east and south-south-west. 
 We sounded in seventy fathoms, with a bottom 
 of broken shells. We then steered east-south- 
 east, to gain the parallel of Belle Isle. At mid- 
 night, we were in eighty fathoms with the same 
 bottom, and steered again east quarter south- 
 east and east. 
 
 The 31st, we saw Belle Isle at about 9 A.M., 
 and in the afternoon anchored two-thirds of a 
 league off the fort, in nine fathoms. M. de 
 Boossy and M. de Beaulieu were sent to Vannes 
 to take the Diligence there, and carry intelligence 
 of the ship's return to the King and the 
 Company. 
 
 The 2nd of August, we sailed from Belle 
 Isle, and anchored the same night under Gion. 
 Next day, at noon, we entered into the port of 
 St. Louis. 
 
 END OF JOURNAL.
 
 APPENDIX, 
 
 A. 
 
 THE ADDRESS OF THE EARL OF ELGIN (AMBAS- 
 SADOR PLENIPOTENTIARY TO THE COURTS 
 OF PEKIN AND JAPAN) TO THE MERCHANTS, 
 PRIOR TO THE EXECUTION OF THE RECENT 
 TREATIES WITH THE EMPERORS OF CHINA 
 AND JAPAN. 
 
 " GENTLEMEN, I am very thankful to you for 
 this address of welcome. I trust that the kind- 
 ness which has prompted it will also induce you 
 to favour me with the valuable aid of your ex- 
 perience to enable me to judge correctly of the 
 causes which have contributed to give to Shang- 
 hae its eminent position among the ports opened 
 to trade with China.
 
 APPENDIX. 205 
 
 "It is satisfactory to me to learn that you 
 approve of what has taken place at Canton, and 
 that I have your good wishes for the future 
 success of my mission. I should respond but 
 indifferently to these expressions of regard if I 
 were to refrain from stating to you frankly the 
 principles on which I have hitherto proceeded, 
 and still intend to proceed, in the discharge of 
 duties that have reference to matters in which 
 you have so deep an interest. 
 
 " In furnishing instructions for my guidance, 
 when I was appointed High Commissioner in 
 China, her Majesty's Government saw fit to 
 entrust me with a wide discretion. Circum- 
 stances, however, as you probably know, which 
 were altogether unforeseen at the time when 
 those instructions were- framed, rendered them 
 in some degree inapplicable, and thus materially 
 enlarged the discretion originally confided to me. 
 
 " / found myself accordingly, on my arrival 
 in this country, compelled to act, in a great 
 measure, on my own judgment. I accepted this 
 task, as in duty bound, without hesitation, but 
 not, I hope, without a due sense of the respon- 
 sibility attaching to an agent who, in a distant 
 land, beyond the reach of advice, and in circum- 
 stances of unusual difficulty, finds himself the
 
 206 APPENDIX. 
 
 guardian of the good name and interest of a 
 great Christian nation. 
 
 " In my communications with the functionaries 
 of the Chinese I have been guided by two simple 
 rules of action. I have never preferred a de- 
 mand which I did not believe to be both mode- 
 rate and just, and from a demand so preferred I 
 have never receded. These principles dictated 
 the policy which resulted in the capture and 
 occupation of Canton. The same principles will 
 be followed by me, with the same determination 
 to their results, if it should be necessary to repeat 
 the experiment in the vicinity of the capital of 
 the Emperor of China. 
 
 " It is matter for me of the highest gratifica- 
 tion to know that in pursuing this policy of 
 combined moderation and firmness, I can count 
 not only on the hearty co-operation and active 
 support of the representative of his Imperial 
 Majesty the Emperor of the French, but also on 
 the good-will and sympathy of the representatives 
 of other great and powerful nations interested 
 with ourselves in extending the area of Christian 
 civilization, and multiplying those commerciali- 
 ties which are destined to bind the East and 
 West together in the bonds of mutual ad- 
 vantage.
 
 APPENDIX. 207 
 
 " One word, gentlemen, in conclusion, as to 
 the part which we have respectively to play in 
 this important work, and more especially with 
 reference to the last sentence of your address, in 
 which you express the trust that the result of 
 my exertions may be ' more fully to develop the 
 vast resources of China/ and to ' extend among 
 the people the elevating influences of a higher 
 civilisation.' 
 
 " The expectations held out to British manu- 
 facturers at the close of the last war between 
 Great Britain and China, when they were told 
 that a new world was opened to their trade, so 
 vast that all the mills in Lancashire could not 
 make stocking- stuff sufficient for one of its pro- 
 vinces, have not been realised, and I AM OF 
 
 OPINION THAT WHEN FORCE AND DIPLOMACY 
 SHALL HAVE DONE ALL THAT THEY CAN LE- 
 GITIMATELY EFFECT, THE WORK WHICH HAS TO 
 BE ACCOMPLISHED IN CHINA WILL BE BUT AT 
 ITS COMMENCEMENT. 
 
 " When the barriers which prevent free access 
 to the interior of the country shall have been 
 removed, the Christian civilisation of the West 
 will find itself face to face, not with barbarism, 
 but with an ancient civilisation in many respects 
 effete and imperfect, but in others not without
 
 208 APPENDIX. 
 
 claims to our sympathy and respect. In the 
 rivalry which will then ensue, Christian civilisa- 
 tion will have to win its way among a sceptical 
 and ingenious people, by making it manifest that 
 a faith which reaches to heaven furnishes better 
 guarantees for public and private morality than 
 one which does not rise above the earth. 
 
 "At the same time the machine-facturing 
 West will be in presence of a population the 
 most universally and laboriously manufacturing 
 of any on the earth. It can achieve victories in 
 the contest in which it will have to engage, only 
 by proving that physical knowledge and me- 
 chanical skill applied to the arts of production, 
 are more than a match for the most persevering 
 efforts of unscientific industry. 
 
 " This is the task which is before you, and 
 towards the accomplishment of which, within 
 the sphere of my duty, I shall rejoice to co- 
 operate."
 
 APPENDIX. 209 
 
 B. 
 
 THE INSTRUCTIONS GIVEN BY COMMAND OF 
 HIS MAJESTY GEORGE THE THIRD, IN 1?87, 
 TO THE HON. COLONEL CHARLES CATHCART, 
 WHEN APPOINTED AMBASSADOR TO THE 
 COURT OF PEKIN. 
 
 " To the Honorable Charles Cathcart. 
 " Sir, 
 
 " In addressing you on the subject 
 of the duty you are now about to undertake, it 
 will be unnecessary for me to enlarge upon the 
 great national importance of the trade which 
 has for a series of many years been carried on 
 between Great Britain and China. But it is 
 necessary to engage your particular attention to 
 those objects which now conspire to enhance its 
 importance : First, the measures lately taken by 
 Government for drawing the tea trade out of 
 the hands of the other European nations, which 
 have answered the warmest expectations, and 
 doubled, if not trebled, the former legal impor- 
 tation of this article into Great Britain ; and 
 secondly, an attention to the prosperity of our 
 territorial possessions in India, which would be 
 promoted by procuring a secure vent for their
 
 210 APPENDIX. 
 
 products and manufactures in the extensive 
 empire of China; at the same time that the 
 produce of such sales would furnish resources 
 for the investment to Europe, now requiring no 
 less an annual sum than 1,300,060. 
 
 "Great Britain, however, has long been obliged 
 to pursue this trade under circumstances the 
 most discouraging, hazardous to its agents em- 
 ployed in conducting it, and precarious to the 
 various interests involved in it. At Canton, the 
 only place where His Majesty's subjects have the 
 privilege of a factory, and to which the East 
 India Company have by a late regulation re- 
 stricted the trade from their own settlements, 
 the fair competition of the market is destroyed 
 by associations of the Chinese merchants; our 
 supra cargoes are denied open access to the 
 tribunals of the country, and the fair execution 
 of its laws, and are kept altogether in a most 
 arbitrary and cruel state of depression, incom- 
 patible with the very important concerns which 
 are entrusted to them, and such as one hardly 
 supposes could be exercised in any country that 
 pretends to civilization. 
 
 " Whether these evils have arisen from any 
 settled policy of the Imperial Government, or 
 from any illfounded jealousy of our national
 
 APPENDIX. 2 1 1 
 
 influence, or whether they are created merely by 
 the corruptions and abuses of a distant provincial 
 administration, it will be your business to ascer- 
 tain, as it will be the chief object of your pre- 
 sent mission to endeavour to obtain a remedy 
 for them ; and you will render an acceptable 
 service to your country if you shall be successful 
 in the accomplishment of His Majesty's wishes, 
 which I have his royal commands to impart to 
 you, together with such further instructions as 
 may seem best calculated to promote it. At the 
 same time you may proceed upon the reliance 
 that in any undertaking both new and delicate, 
 and liable to be influenced by various contin- 
 gencies to arise in its progress, every reasonable 
 latitude will be allowed to your own discretion. 
 
 " A common prejudice has prevailed that the 
 Chinese in general are studious to avoid any 
 intimate connexion or intercourse with Euro- 
 peans, and that a similar principle operates upon 
 the Imperial Government of Pekin. However, 
 although commercial jealousy, aided by the 
 tyranny and corruption of distant delegates, 
 under a despotic sovereign, and the general 
 depravity of the inhabitants, may have had that 
 effect in the province of Canton, the relation of 
 various travellers afford the strongest reason to
 
 212 APPENDIX. 
 
 believe, that the Emperor himself is accessible, 
 that the reception of foreigners at Pekin is 
 courteous, and that the policy of encouraging 
 foreign trade is not ill understood there. With- 
 out entering into any detail of the embassies 
 and travels which tend to justify this belief, I 
 cannot but refer more especially to the infor- 
 mation derived from the account published by 
 Mr. Bell, who accompanied an embassy from 
 the Czar, Peter the First, to the Emperor of 
 China, in the years 1719-20-21 ; when a factory 
 was allowed to the Russian merchants even in 
 the city of Pekin, which it may be presumed 
 still continues for the convenience and protection 
 of the caravans now continually sent from the 
 Russian dominions. 
 
 " If political jealousy were the chief principle 
 to excite such alarm in the Chinese, as should 
 lead them to discourage the entrance of foreign- 
 ers, it should seem that it would apply with sin- 
 gular force against the Russians, who from the 
 propinquity of their dominions, the reputed 
 greatness of their power, and the danger of 
 their leaguing with the princes of those Tartar 
 countries which have sent forth the former 
 conquerors of China, might possibly, in imagi-
 
 APPENDIX. 2 1 3 
 
 nation at least, cause distrust in the reigning 
 government, or affect its security. 
 
 " The contrary is likewise to be inferred from 
 the reputed wisdom of the Chinese administra- 
 tion, and a national character is not to be 
 formed, nor the dispositions of the superior 
 government estimated from the practices of a 
 seaport situated at the most distant extremity 
 from the metropolis, and a province formerly 
 the seat of pirates and robbers. 
 
 " But if, contrary to these suppositions and 
 inferences, such jealousy should really exist, as 
 it can proceed only from fear, and a sense of 
 their own internal weakness, natural to a vicious 
 people and a despotic power ; it will depend upon 
 your management to obviate it, by declarations 
 the most free and unqualified, that in seeking a 
 connexion with China, we have no view but com- 
 merce to be protected by the Chinese government, 
 subject to its laws and regulations, and formed 
 upon a permanent principle mutually beneficial. 
 
 " It is supposed that former endeavours which 
 have been made by the English, or other Euro- 
 pean Companies, to represent their grievances 
 at the Court of Pekin, and obtain defined pri- 
 vileges for their trade, have failed from the 
 intrigues of the mandarins and merchants of
 
 214 APPENDIX. 
 
 Canton, and from the inferior rank or character 
 of the persons who have been on such commis- 
 sion. It has therefore been determined to 
 attempt an embassy to the Emperor himself, 
 in the name of His Majesty the King of Great 
 Britain. In which view it is presumed, that a 
 gentleman of honourable birth, as also a member 
 of the legislative body, would be most likely to 
 have a favourable reception from a proud and 
 ostentatious people, accustomed to think meanly 
 of the commercial character. The propriety of 
 this distinction is enforced by the decided opi- 
 nion of the most respectable persons, who have 
 been experienced in the Company's concerns at 
 Canton, and witnesses of the vexations under 
 which they labour. 
 
 " I observe, that in the year 1753, an ambas- 
 sador from the King of Portugal, sent for the 
 purpose of obtaining some privileges for the 
 church, was allowed to proceed without inter- 
 ruption from Canton to Pekin, and was treated 
 with great honour. But I must leave it to your 
 own discretion, whether to pursue that route or 
 not; observing only, that it is to be expected 
 every obstacle will be thrown in your way from 
 that quarter, and that even the publicity of your 
 mission might give birth to such chicanery as
 
 APPENDIX. 215 
 
 would greatly embarrass, if not totally defeat the 
 purpose of it. 
 
 " Objections of a similar nature would lie 
 against your proceeding with a Russian caravan, 
 and the newly-discovered communication through 
 Tibet from Bengal seems too long and hazard- 
 ous to be entered upon, as well as very doubtful 
 in the result. 
 
 " I am of opinion, therefore, you should, if 
 possible, proceed directly by sea to some port 
 on the east or north-east coast of the Chinese 
 empire, and request a safe conduct for your 
 advance to the capital, in order to deliver your 
 credentials, with the letter from your Royal 
 Master to his Imperial Majesty. This precau- 
 tion will be absolutely necessary, if, as I pre- 
 sume to be the case, no embassador enters the 
 Chinese dominions but with permission pre- 
 viously obtained. 
 
 " If it shall be absolutely necessary to stop at 
 some southern port of China before you proceed 
 to the northward, you will touch at Macao or 
 Canton, where you will require, and collect from 
 the Company's Council, or by private enquiry, 
 such facts and information as may be useful to 
 you in the prosecution of the objects of your 
 embassy, and receive such further aid as may
 
 216 APPENDIX. 
 
 he necessary to enable you to proceed from 
 thence to the northward. If some cogent reason 
 should occur to render an approach to Pekin by 
 a northern port ineligible, you will be under the 
 necessity of proceeding by land from Canton > 
 and must require such further aid as may be 
 necessary to enable the Embassy to pursue that 
 route. 
 
 " His Majesty, from a hearty desire to pro- 
 mote the present undertaking, and in order to 
 give the greater dignity to the Embassy, has 
 been graciously pleased to order one of his own 
 frigates to convey you and your suite to the 
 coast of China, and it will be left to your option 
 to detach one of the lieutenants bearing his 
 Majesty's uniform to accompany the messenger 
 who announces at Pekin your arrival on the 
 coast. Perhaps in your progress to Pekin you 
 may meet with some intelligent Portuguese, 
 Spanish, or Italian missionary, who may be free 
 from any national attachment or prejudice, and 
 who may be a proper person to be employed in 
 your service. 
 
 " Should your answer be satisfactory, and I 
 will not suppose the contrary, you will then 
 assume the character and public show of an 
 embassador, and proceed to Pekin with as much
 
 APPENDIX. 217 
 
 ceremony as can be admitted without causing u 
 material delay, or incurring any unreasonable 
 expense. You will procure an audience as early 
 as possible after your arrival, conforming to all 
 ceremonials of that court, which may not com- 
 mit the honour of your sovereign or lessen your 
 own dignity, so as to endanger the success of 
 your negotiation. Whilst I make this reserve, 
 I am satisfied you will be too prudent and con- 
 siderate to let any trifling punctilio stand in the 
 way of the important benefits which may be 
 obtained by engaging the favourable disposition 
 of the Emperor and his ministers. It is not 
 unlikely that his curiosity may lead to a degree 
 of familiarity with ; you, in conversing upon the 
 manners or circumstances of Europe and other 
 countries ; and as despotic princes are frequently 
 more easy of access than their ministers and 
 dependents, you will not fail to turn such a con- 
 tingency to proper advantage. I do not pre- 
 tend to prescribe to you the particular mode of 
 your negotiation ; much must be left to your 
 own circumspection and the judgment to be 
 formed upon occurrences as they arise. But 
 upon the present view of the matter, my opi- 
 nion is briefly this, that instead of attempting 
 to gain upon the Chinese administration by arti- 
 
 L
 
 2 1 8 APPENDIX. 
 
 rice or deception, or by representations founded 
 upon the intricacies of either European or Indian 
 politics, you should honestly and fairly state, 
 after the general assurances of his Majesty's 
 friendly and pacific inclinations towards the 
 Emperor, and his respect for the reputed mild- 
 ness and equity of his administration. First, 
 the mutual benefits to be derived from a trade 
 between the two nations, in the course of which 
 we receive, besides other articles, to the amount 
 of 20,000,000lbs. of a Chinese herb, which would 
 h'nd no other vent, as being little used by any 
 other country, European or Asiatic, and for 
 which we return woollens, cottons, and other 
 articles useful to the Chinese, but the greater 
 part is actually paid to China in bullion. Se- 
 cond, that the great extent of our commercial 
 concerns in China requires a place of security as 
 a depot for our goods, which cannot be sold off 
 or shipped during the short season that is 
 allowed for our shipping to arrive and depart, and 
 that for this purpose we wish to obtain a grant 
 of a small tract of ground, or detached island, 
 in some more convenient situation than Canton, 
 where our warehouses lie at a great distance 
 from our ships, and we are not able to restrain 
 the irregularities which are occasionally com-
 
 APPENDIX. 219 
 
 mitted by the seamen of the Company's ships 
 and those of private traders. Third, that our 
 views are purely commercial, having not even a 
 wish for territory ; that we desire neither forti- 
 fication nor defence, but only the protection 
 of the Chinese Government for our merchants 
 or their agents, in trading or travelling through 
 the country, and to secure us against the en- 
 croachments of other powers, who might ever 
 aim at disturbing our trade. And you must 
 here be prepared to obviate any prejudice which 
 may accrue from the argument of our present 
 dominion in India, by stating it to have arisen 
 almost without our seeking it, from the neces- 
 sity of defending ourselves against the oppressors 
 of the revolted nabobs who entered into cabals 
 to our prejudice with other nations of Europe, 
 and disregarded the privileges granted us by 
 different Emperors, or by such other arguments 
 as your own reflections upon this subject may 
 suggest. 
 
 " This topic I have reason to believe it will be 
 very necessary to enforce by every means in 
 your power, as it is the great object of other 
 European nations to inspire not only the Indian 
 powers, but likewise the Emperor and Ministers 
 of China with an idea of danger in counte- 
 
 L 2
 
 220 APPENDIX. 
 
 nancing the subjects of Great Britain, it being 
 the intention of that country to aim at extend- 
 ing its sovereignty in every quarter ; as nothing 
 can be more untrue than those representations, 
 it will be your peculiar care to counteract the 
 effects of them. 
 
 "The difficulties and vexations under which 
 our trade has long laboured at Canton must be 
 forcibly represented as proceeding from the mal- 
 versations of the Viceroy and Merchants and 
 Ministers of Justice in contravention of the orders 
 and intentions of the Imperial Court, all which 
 his Britannic Majesty chose rather to lay before 
 the Emperor himself, in full confidence of re- 
 dress from his wisdom and justice, than suffer 
 his subjects to take any measures for redressing 
 themselves, which might give disquiet to any 
 branch of the Imperial Government. 
 
 " Should a new establishment be conceded, 
 you will take it in the name of the King of Great 
 Britain. 
 
 " You will of course endeavour to obtain it 
 in the most beneficial terms, with a power of 
 regulating the police, and exercising jurisdiction 
 over our own dependants, for which competent 
 powers would, of course, be given from our own 
 Legislature, so as effectually to prevent or punish
 
 APPENDIX. 221 
 
 the disorders of our people, which the Com- 
 pany's supra cargoes in their limited sphere of 
 action must see committed with impunity. 
 Should it be required that no native Chinese 
 be subject to be punished by our jurisdiction, 
 or should any particular modification of this 
 power be exacted, it is not material to insist 
 upon it, provided British subjects can be ex- 
 empted from the Chinese jurisdiction for crimes 
 they may commit, and that the British Chief be 
 not held responsible if any culprit should escape 
 the pursuit of justice, and after search has been 
 made by British and Chinese officers acting in 
 conjunction. 
 
 " If the Emperor should be inclined to allow 
 such an establishment, great care must be taken 
 in fixing upon the situation, that it be such as 
 may suit the conveniency and safety of our ship- 
 ping; that it may facilitate the vent of the 
 goods we may import there ; and that it may 
 be near the countries where the best sorts of 
 tea are produced, which are described as lying 
 between the 27th and 30th degrees of north 
 longitude. I mention these points as being 
 certainly consequential in themselves, at the 
 same time I am sensible that the choice of a 
 place, if you should be so fortunate as to have
 
 222 APPENDIX. 
 
 the option left to you, must be governed by a 
 variety of considerations, to which few, if any, 
 in this country can be totally competent ; and 
 you must therefore be regulated by the best in- 
 formation you are able to obtain from persons 
 you will meet with abroad conversant in the 
 subject, or by circumstances to arise, as you 
 proceed in the business. 
 
 " If, on the other hand, all your attempts to 
 obtain a new establishment should be decidedly 
 ineffectual, you must turn your whole attention 
 to the relief of our present embarrassments at 
 Canton by an extension of our privileges, and a 
 revision of the unjust proceedings which have 
 taken place there to our prejudice and discredit. 
 And whatever may be the decision of the Impe- 
 rial Government, unless, indeed, it should be a 
 rejection of all your requests, it will be desirable 
 to obtain it in writing, under such formalities 
 as may enable us to carry it with some eclat 
 to the province where the ill-treatment of our 
 subjects has originated. 
 
 " It is necessary you should be on your guard 
 against one stipulation which may perhaps be 
 demanded of you, that is, for the exclusion of 
 the trade of opium from the Chinese domi- 
 nions, as being prohibited by the laws of the
 
 APPENDIX. 22 
 
 empire. If this subject should come info dis- 
 cussion, it must be handled with the greatest 
 circumspection. It is beyond a doubt, that no 
 inconsiderable portion of the opium raised 
 within our Indian territories actually finds its 
 way to China, where the vicious manners of the 
 people call for an increasing use of that perni- 
 cious drug. But if it should be made a posi- 
 tive requisition, or an article of any supposed 
 commercial treaty, that we shall not send any 
 opium to China, you must accede to it, rather 
 than risk any essential benefit by contending for 
 a liberty in this respect, and the sale of our 
 opium in Bengal must be left to take its chance 
 in open market, or to find a consumption in the 
 dispersed and circuitous traffic of the Eastern 
 Seas. 
 
 " In case the Embassy should have an ami- 
 cable and prosperous termination, it may be 
 proposed to his Imperial Majesty to receive an 
 occasional or perpetual Minister from the King 
 of Great Britain, and to send one on his own 
 part to the Court of London, in the assurance 
 that all proper honours will be paid to any per- 
 son who may be deputed in that sacred cha- 
 racter. 
 
 " I have now, Sir, in conformity to his Ma-
 
 224 APPENDIX. 
 
 jesty's commands, laid before you every object 
 of leading importance, to which your present 
 deputation is directed. You will have free ac- 
 cess before your departure, under the directions 
 of the Secret Committee, to the East India 
 Company's correspondence with their supra 
 cargoes at Canton, and copies will be made for 
 your use of any particular papers you may wish 
 to carry with you. 
 
 " Agreeably to your request, you will be per- 
 mitted to take along with you 
 
 " 1st. Lieut, Young. 
 
 " 2nd. Captain Agnew. 
 
 " 3rd. Ensign Dowers. 
 
 " 4th. Dr. Ewart, and Mr. Galbert, 
 a gentleman whom you state to be conversant 
 in the Chinese Court language, and qualified to 
 act as your interpreter. 
 
 " Throughout the course of your proceedings 
 you will take every possible opportunity that 
 may arise for a communication with Earl Corn- 
 wallis, the Governor- General of India, and will, 
 to the utmost, be guided by the instructions 
 you may receive from him. 
 
 " I would recommend that you keep a diary 
 of occurrences from the time of your arrival in 
 China, and enter upon it all circumstances or
 
 APPENDIX. 225 
 
 occurrences upon political, commercial, and even 
 nautical subjects. It is particularly worthy 
 your enquiry, whether it may not be practicable 
 to increase our present exports to China, either 
 in the assortments usually sent, or in any other 
 products or manufactures of Great Britain, 
 which might be favourably received by the Chi- 
 nese. And you will naturally, in the course of 
 your residence in China, extend your remarks 
 as far as can be done without exciting jealousy, 
 which must be carefully avoided, to every article 
 likely to throw a light upon the present strength, 
 policy, and government of that empire, now less 
 understood in Europe than they were in the 
 preceding century. It would be likewise de- 
 sirable to ascertain whether any, and what in- 
 tercourse has taken place of late years between 
 the Emperor of China and any other European 
 State. 
 
 " You are to carry with you some considerable 
 presents for the Emperor and the chief persons 
 of his court. If you should find it necessary to 
 increase this designation, a reliance is placed in 
 your discretion that you will not be lavish in 
 expense, where you can in reason and propriety 
 be frugal, and your drafts upon the Company,
 
 226 APPENDIX. 
 
 
 
 or their Treasury at Canton, will be duly 
 honoured. 
 
 " Sincerely wishing you a prosperous voyage 
 and complete success in the very important ob- 
 ject of it, 
 
 " I have the honour to subscribe myself, 
 
 " Sir, 
 
 " Your most obedient, humble servant, 
 (Signed) " H. DUNDAS."
 
 APPENDIX. 227 
 
 C. 
 
 LETTER ADDRESSED BY HIS MAJESTY GEORGE 
 III. TO THE EMPEROR OF CHINA UPON THE 
 MISSION OF COLONEL CATHCART. 
 
 " GEORGE THE THIRD, by the Grace of God, 
 King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, &c. 
 &c. &c. 
 
 "To the Most August Sovereign, &c. &c., 
 Emperor of China. 
 
 " As it is a truth established by the practice 
 of your Majesty's imperial predecessors, and 
 confirmed by the experience of your own long 
 and prosperous reign over the extensive Empire 
 of China, that the establishment of a well-regu- 
 lated trade between nations distantly situated 
 tends to their mutual happiness, invention, in- 
 dustry, and wealth ; and that the blessings which 
 the Great God of Heaven hath conferred upon 
 various soils and climates are thus distributed
 
 228 APPENDIX. 
 
 amongst his creatures scattered over the whole 
 earth, I am persuaded that your royal mind 
 has long been convinced of the policy of en- 
 couraging such an interchange of commodities 
 between our respective subjects, conducted upon 
 fair and equitable principles consistent with the 
 honour and safety of both sovereigns. It is a 
 subject of regret to me that no intercourse has 
 hitherto taken place between your Majesty and 
 me, in order to ratify and invigorate the friend- 
 ship which it is the anxious wish of my heart to 
 maintain ; and to afford a speedy remedy to all 
 those inconveniences or misunderstandings which 
 are liable to arise between our subjects in mer- 
 cantile transactions of so much magnitude. 
 
 " Under these circumstances I have judged it 
 expedient to depute an ambassador to your sub- 
 lime court. For this commission I have chosen 
 the Honourable Charles Cathcart, a gentleman 
 of noble birth, who bears the rank of Lieutenant- 
 Colonel in my armies, and is a member of the 
 legislative body of Great Britain, with credentials 
 under the Great Seal of my kingdoms, and my 
 own sign manual ; to whom I entreat your Ma- 
 jesty to give a gracious reception, and a fa- 
 vourable ear to his representations. 
 
 " I rely on your Majesty's wisdom and justice
 
 APPENDIX. 229 
 
 that you will afford my subjects, as long as they 
 conduct themselves with propriety, a secure re- 
 sidence within your dominions, and a fair access 
 to your markets, under such laws and regulations 
 as your Majesty shall think right; that their 
 lives and properties shall be safe under your im- 
 perial protection ; that one man shall not suffer 
 for another's crime; but that every necessary 
 measure shall be taken on the part of your Ma- 
 jesty's Government, as it certainly shall on mine } 
 to bring to condign punishment all persons who 
 may transgress the laws, and any way disturb 
 the peace and friendship subsisting between us. 
 
 " I have sent a few presents from this country, 
 not as being worthy of your Majesty's notice, but 
 as a mark of my regard and friendly disposition 
 to your imperial Majesty. 
 
 "May the Almighty have you in His holy 
 keeping, &c. 
 
 " Given at our Court at St. James's, &c."
 
 230 APPENDIX. 
 
 D. 
 
 LETTER ADDRESSED BY HIS MAJESTY GEORGE 
 THE THIRD TO THE EMPEROR OF CHINA, 
 UPON THE MISSION OF LORD MACARTNEY, 
 IN 1792. 
 
 " His most Sacred Majesty George the Third, by 
 the Grace of God, King of Great Britain, France, 
 and Ireland, Sovereign of the Seas, Defender of 
 the Faith, and so forth, To the Supreme Empe- 
 ror of China Kien-long, worthy to live tens of 
 thousands and tens of thousands thousand years, 
 sendeth greeting. 
 
 " The natural disposition of a great and be- 
 nevolent Sovereign, such as is your Imperial 
 Majesty, whom Providence has seated upon a 
 throne, for the good of mankind, is, to watch 
 over the peace and security of his dominions 
 and to take pains for disseminating happiness, 
 virtue, aad knowledge among his subjects, ex-
 
 APPENDIX. 231 
 
 tending also the same beneficence with all the 
 peaceful arts, as far as he is able, to the whole 
 human race. Impressed with such sentiments 
 from the beginning of our reign when we found 
 our people engaged in war, We granted to our 
 enemies, after obtaining victories over them in 
 the four quarters of the world, the blessings of 
 peace upon the most equitable conditions. Since 
 that period, not satisfied with promoting the 
 prosperity of our own subjects in every respect, 
 and beyond the example of any former times, 
 We have taken various opportunities of fitting 
 out ships, and sending in them some of the 
 most wise and learned of our own people, for 
 the discovery of distant and unknown regions, 
 not for the purpose of conquest, or of enlarging 
 our dominions, which are already sufficiently 
 extensive for all our wishes, not for the purpose 
 of acquiring wealth, or even of favouring the 
 commerce of our subjects, but for the sake of 
 increasing our knowledge of the habitable globe, 
 of finding out the various productions of the 
 earth, and for communicating the arts and 
 comforts of life to those parts where they were 
 hitherto little known ; and we have since sent 
 vessels with the animals and vegetables most 
 useful to man, to islands and places where it
 
 232 APPENDIX. 
 
 appeared they had been wanting. We have 
 been still more anxious to enquire into the arts 
 and manners of countries where civilization has 
 been perfected by the wise ordinances arid vir- 
 tuous examples of their sovereigns through a 
 long series of ages ; and, above all, our ardent 
 wish has been to become acquainted with those 
 celebrated institutions of your Majesty's popu- 
 lous and extensive empire which have carried 
 its prosperity to such a height as to be the 
 admiration of all surrounding nations. And 
 now that we have by prudence and justice 
 avoided the calamities of war, into which dis- 
 cord and ambition have plunged most of the 
 other kingdoms of Europe, and by engaging 
 our allies in Hindostan to put an end to hos- 
 tilities occasioned by the attack of an ambitious 
 neighbour, even when it was in our power to 
 destroy him, We have the happiness of being 
 at peace with all the world ; no time can be so 
 propitious for extending the bounds of friend- 
 ship and benevolence, and for proposing to com- 
 municate and receive those benefits which must 
 result from an unreserved and amicable inter- 
 course between such great and civilized nations 
 as China and Great Britain. Many of our sub- 
 jects have also frequented for a long time past
 
 APPENDIX. 233 
 
 a remote part of your Majesty's dominions for 
 the purpose of trade. No doubt the interchange 
 of commodities between nations distantly situated 
 tends to their mutual convenience, industry, and 
 wealth, as the blessings which the Great God 
 of Heaven has conferred upon various soils and 
 climates are thus distributed among his creatures 
 scattered over the surface of the earth. But 
 such an intercourse requires to be properly con- 
 ducted, so as that the new comers may not in- 
 fringe the laws and customs of the country they 
 visit, and that on the other hand they may be 
 received on terms of hospitality, and meet the 
 justice and protection due to strangers ; We 
 are indeed equally desirous to restrain our sub- 
 jects from doing evil or even of showing ill 
 example in any foreign country, as we are that 
 they should receive no injury in it. There is no 
 method of effectuating so good a purpose, but 
 by the residence of a proper person authorized by 
 us to regulate their conduct, and to receive com- 
 plaints whenever they should give occasion for 
 any to be made against them, as well as any 
 they might consider as having just cause to 
 make of ill-treatment towards them. 
 
 " By such means every misunderstanding may 
 be prevented, every inconvenience removed, a
 
 234 APPENDIX. 
 
 firm and lasting friendship cemented, and a 
 return of mutual good offices secured between 
 our respective empires. All these considerations 
 have determined us to depute an Embassador 
 Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to your Court, 
 and willing to make choice for this purpose of a 
 person truly worthy of representing us and of 
 appearing before your august presence, We have 
 fixed upon our right trusty and well-beloved 
 cousin and counsellor, the Right Honourable 
 George Lord Viscount Macartney, Baron of 
 Lissanoure, and one of our most honorable 
 Privy Council of our Kingdom of Great Britain, 
 Knight of the most honorable order of the Bath 
 and of the most ancient and royal order of the 
 White Eagle, and Fellow of our Royal Society of 
 London for the promotion of natural knowledge, 
 a nobleman of high rank and quality, of great 
 virtue, wisdom, and ability, who has filled many 
 important offices in the state of trust and honor, 
 has already worthily represented our person in 
 an Embassy to the Court of Russia, and has 
 governed with mildness, justice, and success, 
 several of our most considerable possessions 
 in the eastern and western parts of the world, 
 and appointed to the Government General of 
 Bengal, to be our Embassador Extraordinary
 
 APPENDIX. 235 
 
 and Plenipotentiary to your Imperial Majesty, 
 with credentials under our great seal of our 
 Kingdoms and our sign manual, to whom we 
 entreat your Majesty to grant a gracious recep- 
 tion as well as a favourable attention to his 
 representations. 
 
 " And in order to avoid every possibility of 
 interrruption in this amicable communication 
 which we wish to establish and maintain with 
 your sublime person and court, and which might 
 happen after the departure of our said Embas- 
 sador Extraordinary whose presence may be 
 necessary to our affairs elsewhere, or in case of 
 his death or occasional absence from your 
 capital, We have appointed our trusty and 
 well-beloved Sir George Staunton, Bart., hono- 
 rary Doctor of Laws of our University of Oxford, 
 and Fellow of our Royal Society of London for 
 the promotion of natural knowledge, whom we 
 have appointed our Secretary of Embassy under 
 the direction of our Embassador as a gentleman 
 of wisdom and knowledge who hath already 
 served us with fidelity and zeal as a member of 
 our honourable council and colonel of militia in 
 some of our dominions in the West Indies, and 
 appointed by us our attorney general in the 
 same, and hath since exercised with ability and
 
 236 APPENDIX. 
 
 success the office of commissioner for treating: 
 
 O 
 
 and making peace with Tippoo Sultaun, one of 
 the most considerable princes of Hindostan, to 
 be also Minister Plenipotentiary to your august 
 person, with credentials likewise under our great 
 seal, and for whom, in case of the death, depar- 
 ture, or occasional absence of our said Embassa- 
 dor Extraordinary, we entreat in like manner 
 your Majesty's gracious reception and attention 
 to his representations in our name. 
 
 " We rely on your Imperial Majesty's wisdom 
 and justice and general benevolence to mankind so 
 conspicuous in your long and happy reign that 
 you will please to allow our ambassador and re- 
 presentative at your court to have the opportunity 
 of contemplating the example of your virtues, 
 and to obtain such information of your celebrated 
 institutions, as will enable him to enlighten our 
 people on his return. We, on our part, being 
 directed to give, as far as your Majesty shall 
 please to desire it, a full and free communication 
 of any art, science, or observation, either of use or 
 curiosity, which the industry, ingenuity, and expe- 
 rience of Europeans may have enabled them to ac- 
 quire : and also that you will be pleased to allow to 
 any of our subjects frequenting the courts of your 
 dominions, and conducting themselves with pro-
 
 APPENDIX. 237 
 
 priety, a secure residence there, and a fair access 
 to your markets, under such laws and regulations 
 as your Majesty shall think right, and that their 
 lives and properties shall be safe under your im- 
 perial protection ; that one man shall not suffer 
 for the crime of another, in which he did not 
 participate, and whose evasion from justice he 
 did not assist, but that every measure shall be 
 taken on the part of your government as our 
 ambassador is instructed strictly to direct to be 
 taken on the part of our people to seize and 
 bring to condign punishment any of our subjects 
 transgressing the laws or good order of your 
 empire, or disturbing the peace and friendship 
 subsisting between us. 
 
 " We have particularly instructed our am- 
 bassador to take every method in his power to 
 mark our regard and friendly disposition to 
 your imperial Majesty, and it will give us the 
 utmost satisfaction to learn that our wishes in 
 that respect have been amply complied with, 
 and that as we are brethren in sovereignty, 
 so may a brotherly affection ever subsist be- 
 tween us. 
 
 "May the Almighty have you in his holy 
 protection !
 
 238 APPENDIX. 
 
 " Given at our Court at St. James's in London 
 the . . *':; j and in the 32nd year of 
 our Reign. 
 
 " Imperator Augustissime 
 
 " Vester bonus frater et Amicus 
 " GEORGIUS R. 
 
 " Augustissimo Principi 
 
 " Kien Long 
 " Sinarum Supremo Imperatori."
 
 APPENDIX. 239 
 
 E. 
 
 LETTER OF THE EMPEROR OF CHINA TO HIS 
 MAJESTY GEORGE III., BROUGHT HOME BY 
 LORD MACARTNEY FROM PEKIN.* 
 
 Epistola missa ab Imperatore Suiarum ad 
 Regem Anglice. 
 
 [N.B. This letter was declared to be the Emperor of 
 China's answer to the King of Great Britain's 
 letter by the first minister Cho-chan-tong, ac- 
 companied by the Ison-tonc or Viceroy of 
 Canton, and his Brother the Foulion, at the 
 Palace of Pekin, October 3rd, 1793, and sent 
 in a few hours after, in great state, accom- 
 panied by sixteen mandarins, to the am- 
 bassador's house.] 
 
 Cum moreris, O Rex, ultra plurimos tractus 
 marium urbanitate ductus, dignatus es mittere 
 ad me legatum, qui pro anniversaria natalis mei 
 
 * MSS. 150. Board of Control.
 
 240 APPENDIX. 
 
 die, reverentiam mihi faceret, tradidisti ei literas 
 patentes ad me mandans ut ad praesentiam 
 meam veniret et in signum sincerse afFectionis 
 tuae erga me offeret mihi dona et res regionis 
 tu, ut fecit. Ego lecta epistola tuse ex verbis 
 illius plenis amore et sinceritate agnovi in- 
 tentionem tuam, O Rex, devotam et affectuosam 
 esse erga me, qua propter tibi gratias ago. 
 Animo perpendens quod Primarius Legatus tuus, 
 qui et literas patentes et dona tua obtulit et Se- 
 cundarius Legatus ex longinquis terris hue vene- 
 rant, eos benigne accepi, gratiose; recepi. Super 
 etiam magnatibus, ut ad prsesentiam meam eos 
 ducerent. Dedi eis convivium ; repetitis vicibus 
 munera eis impertitus fui. Effeci ut ipsimet 
 intelligerent me usque ad blanditias bene agere 
 cum illis, et quamvis naves eorum reverse 
 fuerint ad locum dictum Tehao-tchou-chan et 
 officiales navium et sex centi illi et amplius in- 
 feriores homines non venerint Pekinum, Ego 
 nihilominus peramanter eos tractavi et donis 
 cumulavi Quod vero spectat ad petitionem tuam 
 in literis patentibus contentam, ut eligam scilicet 
 unum ex subditis tuis et relinquam in regno 
 meo, ut curam habeat mercatoribus Anglis hue 
 venientibus, id non est conforme moribus nostri 
 Imperii, adeoque non potest habere locum et ef-
 
 APPENDIX. 24 1 
 
 fectum. Quando est Europreus, qui ex quo. 
 cunque regno sit, vult venire hue, ad mihi in- 
 serviendum, do illi permissum veniendi Pekinum ; 
 sed post quam venerit, statim induere debet 
 vestes Sinicas et habitare in ecclesiis et non pro- 
 test reverti ad proprium regnum. Hac con- 
 suetudo jam stabilita est in Sinis, et ut puto, tu 
 ipsemet. O Rex, hoc non ignoras. Nunc, O 
 Rex, si velis eligere unum ex subditis tuis, ut 
 maneat Pekini, debet ipse sicut alii Europii, qui 
 hue veniunt, ad inserviendurn mihi, mavere hie 
 perpetub et non amplius reverti in patriam et 
 non habere commercium literarium ad libitum, 
 et libertatem eundi quo vult. Hoc supposito ver& 
 nulla inde utilitas vobis provenire posset. Praeter- 
 quam quod loca, quse ab Imperio gubernantur 
 sunt valde ampla et longinqua, quando venit 
 aliquis legatus ex exteris regionibus ad ha.nc 
 urbem regiam, assignatur illi ad habitandum 
 hospitium proportionatum ex publico ; et sunt 
 determinata regula pro accessu et recessu et 
 commercio cum alienis : non potest ad arbitrium 
 suum ire quo velit. Nunc etiamsi relinquetur 
 Pekini unus ex vestris non intelligemus linguam 
 illius, neque possumus permittere ut aliena veste 
 utatur et egat alio modo ac alii Europaei hie de- 
 gentes. Si vero dicas nostrum esse et efficere 
 
 M
 
 242 APPENDIX. 
 
 ut illi vestem et modum agendi mutet; nun- 
 quam hie fuit iste mos cogendi aliquen ut agat 
 contra voluntatem ac placitum suum. Exempli 
 gratia si nos velimus mittere aliquam ex nostris 
 ad vos, et ilium perpetuo morari in vestro regno, 
 cert idem ab illo exigeretis alioquim nullo modo 
 acquiesceretis, cumque nolletis recipere. Hoc 
 quoque addendum est. Regna Europaea sunt 
 multa, vestrum regnum non est solum et uni- 
 cum. Si alii regis ad exemptum tuum exsub- 
 ditis propriis O Rex, velint eligere unum, et 
 rogent ut possit manere Pekini, potestne con- 
 cedi hoc omnibus ? Hac Res fieri absolute non 
 licet : decetne ut propter instantaneam petitionem 
 tuam, O Rex, mutare leges et consuetudines 
 statutas in hoc regno a centum et amplius an- 
 nis. Si dicas, hoc petere te in bonum et utili- 
 tatem subditorum tuorum, qui hie mercaturam 
 faciunt, vestri homines in Macao mercimonium 
 agunt jam a multis annis, non ab uno die, Ego- 
 que exemplo eos peramanter tractavi. Olim 
 ex Lusitania et Italia pluries mihi missi fuere 
 Legati ad hanc aulam postulantes ut protegeran- 
 tur eorum mercatores. Imperatores sinarum 
 perspecta sincera intentione regum illorum favore 
 suo semper protexerunt eorum subditos merca- 
 tores ; paucis ab hinc annis, quia unus mercator
 
 APPENDIX. 243 
 
 cantonensis, nomine Ou-tchao-ping debebat uni 
 mercatori Europaeo naulum navis, hac aula com- 
 misit Vice-regi illius provincina, ut extracta ex 
 serario publico pecunia, solvere hujusmodi debi- 
 tum, punivit etiam sever delinquentera sinen- 
 sem. Istud factum, ut reor, notum et vobis. 
 Res cum ita se habeant et impunitse non relin- 
 quantur injustitia, ad quid petere, et contra con- 
 suetudines ? Imperil relinquatur unus ex sub- 
 ditis tuis Pekini. Prseterea licet unus ex vestris 
 moretur Pekini, vestri mercatores utpote de- 
 gentes Macai distant ab illo per plura millia sta- 
 diorum, quomodo poterit curare eorum negotia ? 
 Si dicas, O Rex, te magni facere et diligere im- 
 perium nostrum, velleque hominem hujusmodi 
 scrutari et ediscere leges et mores regionis in 
 regno nostro Sinarum habemus nostra statuta 
 et cerimonias diversas a statutis et cerimoniis 
 vestri regni : vester homo etiamsi possit ea bene 
 discere, quandoquidun discrepant a consuetudi- 
 nibus, quae inter vos jam diu vigent, cert imi- 
 tari et sequi non poteritis; ille discet quidem 
 sed inutiliter discet. Politica regni sinensis in 
 gubernando est tota in hoc, ut pax et tranquil- 
 litas ubique vigeat et conservetur : hoc tantum 
 intendit et meditatur. Non multum estimat res 
 exteras et pretiosas. Quse ad me hac vice mi- 
 ll 2
 
 244 APPENDIX. 
 
 sistl dona, O Rex, de longinquis regionibus, 
 quia indicia sunt animi tui sinceri et benevoli 
 erga me, decrevi ut omnia exciperentur omnino. 
 Re autem vera, cum Sinense imperium virtutes, 
 famam et majestatis splendorem longe: latique 
 extendent et exteri populi o mille et mille locis 
 veniant ad prsestandum nobis obsequium et per 
 montium et marium iter aiferant mihi rara et 
 prestiosa dona, quse res esse potest quse hie de- 
 sideretur ? Legati quos majestas tua misit ip- 
 simet viderunt hoc non obstante ego proprie 
 non magni facio hujusmodi quod rarum est et 
 artificiosum, et non indigeo rerum quse fiunt in 
 vestro regno. Quod petis, O Rex, ut subditus 
 tuus maneat Pekini, id non solum opponitur 
 statutis hujus regni, sedetiam mullius utilitatis 
 est pro vestro regno ; idcircb ita clare et dis- 
 tincti exposui Majestati tuse mentem meam, et 
 judicavi cum bona varia tua remittere Legates, 
 qui dona tua mihi obtulerunt. Rogo te, O 
 Rex ut intentioni nrhi, intentioni tua respondeat, 
 quod justum et verum est prosequere. Cum 
 omni solutia et benignitate age semper. Vaca 
 rebus publicis, defende a malis regnum tuam, 
 effice ut gaudeamus invicem bon pacis, et tran- 
 quillitatis. Praeter munera quse de more dedi 
 Primario et Secundario Legato et omnibus offi-
 
 APPENDIX. 245 
 
 cialibus interpreti, militibus et inferioribus ho- 
 minibus addidi alia, quae in diversa catalogo 
 notata sunt. Nunc occasione reditus Legati 
 Magestatis tuae tradidi dona quse de consuetu- 
 dine offero tibi ; O Rex, serica variegata, silicet 
 ut res pulchras addidi plurium colorem serica, 
 Cha-ling-tse, et utensilia ad scribendum et ad 
 alios usus quse omnia descripta sunt in alia pa- 
 pyro. Excipias, oro, ista omnia, O Rex, et 
 affection benevolentiaque mea respondeas Idcirco 
 Majestati tuse hanc epistolam scripsi. 
 
 " Imperii Kien-long, anno quinquagessimo 
 octavo, nonaa Luna die tertio." 
 
 PEKIN GAZETTE, 
 KEA-KING, 19TH YEAR, I()TH MOON, 2nn DAY. 
 
 (NOVEMBEK 13, 1814.) 
 
 N.B. On Governing with Sincerity. 
 Drawn up by His Majesty. 
 
 M GOVERN with truth and sincerity, and order 
 will be the result; if not, then anarchy will 
 ensue. To an individual, a family, even to the
 
 246 APPENDIX. 
 
 Sovereign and the whole empire, nothing further 
 is requisite than truth. 
 
 " At this moment great degeneracy prevails : 
 the magistrates are destitute of truth, and great 
 numbers of the people are false arid deceitful. 
 The magistrates are remiss and inattentive ; 
 the people are all given up to visionary schemes 
 and infernal arts. The link that binds together 
 superiors and inferiors is broken. There is little 
 of either conscience or a sense of shame. Not 
 only do they neglect to obey the admonitions 
 which I give them ; but, even with respect to 
 those traitorous banditti, who make the most 
 horrible opposition to me; it affects not their 
 minds in the least degree : they never give the 
 subject a thought. It is indeed monstrously 
 strange ! That which weighs with them in their 
 persons and families ; the nation and government, 
 they consider light as nothing. 
 
 " He who sincerely serves his country, leaves 
 the fragrance of a good name to a hundred ages ; 
 he who does not, leaves a name that stinks for 
 tens of thousands of years. 
 
 " The utmost limit of man's life is not more 
 than an hundred years. What hearts have 
 those, who, being engaged in the service of
 
 APPENDIX. 247 
 
 their Sovereign, but destitute of talent, yet choose 
 to enjoy the sweets of office, and carelessly spend 
 their days. 
 
 " The means used by the sages to perfect their 
 virtue, is expressed in one word, ' Sincerity.' 
 Sincerity ! or in other words, Truth and Up- 
 rightness. Let my servants (the officers of the 
 Empire) examine themselves, whether or not 
 they can be sincere ; whether or not they can be 
 upright ? I fear they will give but a poor ac- 
 count. 
 
 " The virtue of the common people is like the 
 waving grain, (it bends with every wind that 
 blows.) If superiors have little truth or sincerity 
 in their hearts, the disorderly intentions of the 
 people will certainly be numerous. Small iu 
 the beginning, and not affecting the mass of the 
 people, they gradually increase, till at last the 
 bludgeon is seized, and rebellion and anarchy 
 ensue. In ancient times the heads of rebellion 
 styled themselves Wang and Te, Kings and 
 Emperors ;* but it was never heard in ancient 
 times, that any assumed the name of San Hwang 
 (or the King of Heaven, the King of Earth, and 
 
 * By this it would appear that some person had re- 
 cently assumed this title.
 
 248 APPENDIX. 
 
 the King of Men).* The hearts of the men of 
 this age are daily degenerating. 
 
 " As we are the superiors of this people, shall 
 we bear not to exert our hearts and strength to 
 the utmost shall we not bend under the labour 
 even to lassitude, if we may thereby save a ten- 
 thousandth part ! 
 
 " If in coming forward, or in retiring, the sole 
 object be personal gain ; does a man not lower 
 himself thereby to the common mass ; nay, sink 
 low as the filth of the age ? Think, what kind 
 of men will future ages describe you ! Will 
 they not engrave infamy on your back ! 
 
 " For every portion of sincerity exerted by the 
 officers of government, the nation receives u 
 portion of felicity, and the people are spared a 
 portion of misery. The prince and the people 
 alike depend on the officers of government. 
 The happy state of things in the time of Tang 
 and Yuf was the result of the exertions of the 
 officers of government. 
 
 " Because of my moral defects, I met with a 
 great convulsion, which took place the last year. 
 Day nor night can I banish it from my breast. 
 
 * Alluding to the fabulous ages of Chinese history, 
 f About the year of the world 1 700.
 
 APPENDIX. 249 
 
 My anxious and constant desire is to bring 
 things to a well-governed state. How shall I 
 dare to be remiss or inattentive to it? But 
 my servants of late gradually forget the affair. 
 When I call them into my presence, they say, 
 1 There is nothing wrong !' 
 
 " O, alas ! The residue of the rebels, not yet 
 taken ; commotion excited by various reports ; 
 to sit down with repose is impracticable. Shall 
 men still treat it with indifference, and allow 
 themselves to say, ' There is nothing wrong ! 
 If this may be endured, what may not be en- 
 dured !' 
 
 I speak with the utmost sincerity of heart, 
 and call upon all the officers of my court to act 
 with sincerity of heart, and sincerely fulfil the 
 duty of good servants. Thus they will aid my 
 sincere wishes, and accord with my sincere de- 
 clarations. If you are able to disregard this, 
 and consider the words of your Sovereign as of 
 no importance, you are, indeed, harder than the 
 rocks. You are unfit to be spoken to ; and the 
 fault of speaking to those who are unfit to be 
 spoken to, devolves on me. But it will be im- 
 possible for you to escape being charged by the 
 pen of the historian as false and treacherous 
 deceivers. The distinction betwixt a patriot
 
 250 APPENDIX. 
 
 and a traitor is expressed by the two words 
 * True, False.' In the morning and at night 
 lay your hands upon your hearts, and you will 
 understand without the aid of words."
 
 APPENDIX. 25 1 
 
 G. 
 
 ORDER IN COUNCIL, ADDRESSED TO THE LORD 
 MAYOR OF LONDON, 1?TH AUGUST, 1661, 
 FROM THE ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT PRESERVED 
 IN THE CITY LIBRARY IN GUILDHALL, FOLIO 
 V., P. 107. 
 
 " AFTER our hearty commendations, these are 
 to acquaint you that his Majesty, having this 
 day taken into his princely consideration how 
 necessary it is for the good of this kingdom that 
 trade and commerce with foreign parts be with 
 all due care encouraged and maintained; and 
 for the better settling thereof, declared his gra- 
 cious intention to appoint a committee of under- 
 standing, able persons to take into their particu- 
 lar consideration all things conducible thereunto 
 we do, by his Majesty's special command, and 
 in order to the better carrying on so truly royal 
 and profitable, and advantageous a design, desire
 
 252 APPENDIX. 
 
 you to give notice hereof unto the Turkey, the 
 Merchant Adventurers, the East India, 
 Greenland, and Eastland companies, and likewise 
 to the unincorporated traders to Spain, France, 
 Portugal, Italy, and the West India Plantations, 
 willing them out of their respective societies to 
 present unto his Majesty the names of four of 
 their most noted men, of whom, when his Ma- 
 jesty shall have chosen two of each four so 
 nominated, and unto this number of merchants 
 added some other ahle and well experienced per- 
 sons, dignified also with the presence and as- 
 sistance of some of his Majesty's Privy Council, 
 all those to be by the king approved, constituted, 
 and authorised by commission under the Great 
 Seal, as a standing Committee to inquire into 
 and rectify all things tending to the advancement 
 of trade and commerce ; that so by their pru- 
 dence, and faithful counsel and advice, his Ma- 
 jesty may now in the present conjuncture, whilst 
 most foreign princes and potentates do, upon 
 his Majesty's happy establishment upon the 
 throne, seek to renew their former alliances with 
 the crown, insert in the several treaties such 
 articles and clauses as may render this nation 
 more prosperous and flourishing in trade and 
 commerce ; thus, by prudence, care, and in-
 
 APPENDIX. 253 
 
 dustry, improving the highest point of felicity, 
 and those great advantages which, by its ad- 
 mirable situation, nature seems to have indulged 
 to this his Majesty's kingdom. So we bid you 
 heartily farewell. 
 
 " From the Court of Whitehall, this 17th day 
 of August, 1660. 
 
 "EowARoHYDEjC. " D.ROBERTS. 
 " ALBEMARLE. " ARTHUR ANNESLEY. 
 
 " T. SOUTHAMPTON. " W. NORRIS. 
 "MANCHESTER. "Rica. BROWN." 
 
 " V. SAY AND SEALE. 
 
 " Letter from the Lord Mayor ; in pursuance of 
 the foreign Order in Council^ to Eliab Harvey, 
 Esq., and Samuel Mill, Esq., to be communicated 
 to the Merchants trading with Italy ;" preserved 
 in the City of London Library, Guildhall, 
 Folio JV, No. 76. 
 
 " Gentlemen, 
 
 "In pursuance of the letter 
 whereof a copy is enclosed, from the Lords of 
 his Majesty's most honourable Privy Council, 
 and by the advice of the Court of Aldermen, I 
 desire you with all convenient speed to call 
 together the merchants of London trading with 
 Italy; and to make choice of some persons
 
 254 APPENDIX. 
 
 qualified, as in the same letter is mentioned for 
 the purposes therein expressed; and to certify 
 me of your effectual performance thereof before 
 this day sevennight. 
 " I rest 
 
 " Your assured friend, 
 " THOMAS ALEYN, 
 
 " MAYOR." 
 23rd Aug., 1660. 
 
 The body thus constituted, met for several 
 years at Mercers' Hall; and, from records of 
 their deliberations, still extant, it appears that 
 they did not disappoint the expectations formed 
 upon their inauguration, whether upon the sub- 
 ject of trade, or colonies. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 J. Hilling, Printer and Stereotype!', Guildford, Surrey.