148 VOYAGE TO THE 



What things ship got?" "Nothing, ping-chuen*." 

 " No got nothing?" " No, nothing." " Plenty mans, 

 plenty guns, no got nothing !" and turning to his se- 

 cretary he entered into a conversation with him, in 

 which it appeared almost evident that he did not 

 wholly credit our statement. It was, however, taken 

 down in writing hy the secretary. 



In order more fully to explain myself I showed them 

 some sentences written in Chinese, which informed 

 them that the ship was an English man-of-war ; that 

 the king of England was a friend of the emperor of 

 China ; and that ships of our nation had frequent in- 

 tercourse with the town of Canton. The secretary, 

 who read these sentences aloud, immediately wrote in 

 elegant Chinese characters-}- " What is your reason 

 for coming to this place ? How many men are there 

 on board your ship ?" and was both sorry and surprised 

 to find I could not understand what he had written. 

 Indeed he appeared to doubt my sincerity, particularly 

 after I had shown him the next sentence, which hap- 

 pened to be an answer to his question, but which na- 

 turally followed the first, stating that we were in want 

 of water and fresh provisions, and that the sick re- 

 quired to be landed to recover their health, and con- 

 cluding by specifying our desire to be allowed to pay 

 for every thing that was supplied to us. An-yah re- 

 ceived this information with satisfaction, and replied, 

 " I speakee mandarin ; Doo Chooman no want pay." 



These sentences were kindly furnished me by Dr. 



* A man-of-war in China is called ping-chuen or soldier-ship. 



-{• This, as well as several other papers written by the Loo 

 Chooans, was afterwards interpreted by Mr. Hultmann of the 

 Asiatic Society, to whom, and also to Sir William Ousely, I beg 

 permission to be allowed to express my thanks. 



