458 ANNUAL 
Eaft India Company's Service, to the 
Yellow Sea and Gulph of Pekin ; as 
well as of their Return to Europe: 
with Notices of the fevcral Places where 
they ftoed in their Way ont and 
ome. Taken chiefly from the Papers 
of his Excellency the Earl of Macartney, 
Knight of the Bath, his Majefty’s Am- 
baffador Ext acrdinary and Plenspo- 
tentiary to the Emperor of China ; Sir 
Evafmus Gower, Commander of the 
Expedition, and of other Gentlemen in 
the feveral Departments of the Embaffy. 
By Sir George Staunton, Baronet, Ho- 
_ norary Doétor of Laws of the Univerfity 
of Oxford, F. R. &. his Majefty’s 
Secretary of Embaffy to the Emperor of 
China, and Minifter Plenipotentiary in 
the Abfence of the Ambaffadcer. In 
TwoV olumes, 410, with Engravings ; 
befides a Folio Volume of Plates. 
4/1. 4s. Boards. — On large Paper, 
61. 6s. Boards. Nicol. 1797. 
r i ‘HIS is one of thofe perfor- 
mances that will characterife, 
under more views than one, the 
liberal {pirit of the age iifelf. It 
may indéed truly be faid that we 
are here prefented with much im- 
portant and multifarious informa- 
tion concerning the greateit em- 
ire of the world. Sir George 
iaunton enjoyed peculiar advan- 
tages for deicribing with accuracy 
the phyfical as well as moral ftate of 
China, The embafly was accom- 
panied by gentlemen verfed in the 
moft ufeful brauches of natural and 
nautical knowledge: the tranfac- 
tions in which the heads of it were 
employed, with the emperor and 
his minifters, were well calculated 
io exhibit the views, difpofitions, 
and talents of the Chinefe court; 
and the eftablifhed characters of the 
narrators, in refpect to probity and 
good fenfe, give a degree of au- 
RE GIS T ER, 197. 
thenticity ‘to’ their reports, which 
former deferiptions of China are 
not thought to poffefs. 
The firft and fecond chapters are 
employed in explaining the occa- 
fion of the embaffy, and the pre- 
parations for executing it with fuc- 
cefs. The author then proceeds, 
throughout the greater part of the 
firft volume, to defcribe the voyage . 
to China, by the way of Madeira, : 
the Canaries, Rio de Janeiro, Trif- 
tan D’Acunha in the fouthern part 
of the Atlantic, and the Ifles of St. 
Paul and Amfterdam in the Indian 
Ocean. A moftinterefting part of 
the voyage then follows, through 
the Straits of Sunda and Banca, to 
Pulo Condore, a fmall ifland near” 
the coaft of Cambodia; thence to 
Turon Bay, a defirable place of re- 
frefhment in Cochin-China; and 
from Turon Bay to the Chu-fan 
illes, above a thoufand miles beyond 
Canton, and on the fame eaftern 
coaft. At Chu-fan, the Lion man 
of war and Hindoftan Indiaman’ 
had reached the utmoft boundary 
of recorded navigation by Europe- 
ans. ‘The fea thence to the port 
neareft to Pekin, extending up- 
wards of ten degrees of latitude, 
was totally unknown, except to 
thofe who dwell around its fhores. 
Into this fea flow the waters of the 
great Whong-ho; which, in its long 
and circuitous courfe, carries with 
it fuch quantities of yellow mud, 
that it receives the name of the Yel- 
low River, and communicates the 
fame quality and the fame appella- 
tion to the adjoining fea. 
‘The accurate examination of this 
unknown fea is not one of the leaft 
benefits derived from the embafly. 
The Britifh veffels conveying the 
embafiv, its attendants, and prefents, 
were furnifhed each with a Chinefe 
pilot, 
