VI. PREFACE. 



nent feature of my instructions related specifically to 

 " the Coasts, Ports and Rivers of that Empire, laid open 

 by the new Treaty of 1842;" but the veto of Her 

 Majesty's Plenipotentiary forbidding " all approach to 

 any part of the Chinese Territories north of Canton," 

 my attention was directed to the off-lying Islands of 

 the Eastern Archipelago, including all that are compre- 

 hended within the limits of 50 N., and 10 S. Latitude, 

 and as far as 175 of E. Longitude. 



The territories of this wide domain were to be ex- 

 amined according to the tenor of my Instructions in 

 H.M.S. Sulphur :- 



"In all the operations connected with the several 

 branches of the Service thus allotted to you, you will 

 strictly guide yourself by the Instructions, mutatis mu- 

 tandis, under which you acted in the Pacific," and which 

 the following extract will illustrate. 



" In carrying this great Survey into effect, their Lord- 

 ships have placed the fullest reliance on the unabated 

 zeal and talents which you have heretofore displayed, 

 and they have cautiously and wisely abstained in your 

 orders, from fettering you in the selection of your 

 ground, or in that division and disposition of your time 

 which the periodic changes of season, or the occasional 

 necessities of the vessels may require." Voyage of 

 H.M.S. Sulphur, 1842. 



