VI 
PREFACE. 
I am in scarcely less difficulty respecting the natural history of the 
countries which I have visited. Sickness abridged, and shipwreck 
almost annihilated the materials which would have afforded extensive 
scientific communication- respecting China. My illness, indeed, was 
comparatively of little importance, except as it prevented my observ- 
ation of the country ; for the exertions of my friends more than 
compensated the loss of my individual efforts in making collections. 
But the shipwreck deprived me of all the fruits of those means 
which the wisdom and liberality of the East India Company placed 
at my command ; and has only left me the duty of stating, in 
justice to others, what was the nature of those means, and something 
of the results to which they led. 
My appointment to the Embassy was at first simply medical ; 
but through the recommendation of Sir Joseph Banks to the 
East India Company, I was permitted to take upon me the office 
of Naturalist, and received an ample outfit of all the apparatus 
for scientific research. To give greater effect to my exertions in 
collecting and preserving the vegetable productions of the coun- 
tries to be visited by the Embassy, a botanic gardener, from the 
Royal gardens at Kew, taking out with him a plant cabin, for the 
preservation of living specimens, was placed under my directions ; 
and to assist generally in my pursuits my brother-in-law, Mr. Poole, 
was allowed to attend me. With such facilities, it would have been 
strange, even in countries often trod by scientific men, if I had not 
gleaned some new and important facts. But in China, scarcely 
touched by the foot of the naturalist, nothing short of a rich harvest 
could have been received as a token of my due exertions. The 
proofs of what these were, of their efficiency or abortiveness, are 
buried in the straights of Gaspar. But it is incumbent on me 
to bear testimony to the exertions of Mr. Hooper, the Botanic 
Gardener, whose industry was equally unremitting and availing. 
His more peculiar department having been to collect and preserve 
seeds, he placed, on our leaving China, three hundred packages, 
