X 
PREFACE. 
For that part of the “ Chart showing the track of the Alceste,” 
which gives the line of the Corean coast and the Corean archipelago, I 
have to thank the Rev. Mr. Taylor, chaplain of the Alceste. The 
more general map of China, and the map of the route of the Embassy 
on the Yang-tse-kiang, are reduced from the great map of the Jesuits. 
My object in giving the former has been to convey to the reader some 
notion of that very peculiar character of the country, which arises from 
its universal intersection by navigable rivers and canals, as well as to 
show the whole route of the Embassy. Its accuracy of course depends 
on that of the Jesuits, which we had no opportunity of verifying, but 
had no occasion to suspect. It so far, however, differs from the 
map of the Missionaries in containing the names of a greater number 
of places in the line of our route than the original, and in having 
the nature of the banks of the rivers passed over by the Embassy 
marked upon it, when this could be done without producing con- 
fusion by crowding the letter-press. The same observations apply 
to the map of the Yang-tse-kiang and Po-yang lake. 
The meteorological tables contained in the Appendix, although 
very imperfect, will be thought perhaps to have merited insertion as 
adding to the very few facts that we already possess regarding the 
atmospherical phenomena of a part of the world so little known. I 
have scarcely as much to say for the Itinerary of our route. It is of 
some consequence in reference to the maps, and in containing di- 
stances extracted from a Chinese Itinerary : an excuse for its insertion 
may be found in the small space which it occupies. 
In conclusion, I must not forget to point out the fidelity with 
which the engraver, Mr. Fielding, has executed his department of the 
work, or to acknowledge the interest he took in the progress of it, 
and his anxiety that the accuracy of his pencil should correspond 
with the nicety of my own wishes in subjects not so frequently under 
the eve of an artist. 
