YELLOW SEA. 
63 
number of its population. Patches of rice, small plantations of yams, 
and a little buck-wheat, were all their visible means of vegetable 
support. 
Hong-kong sound is represented by my naval friends as affording 
admirable shelter for ships of any burden ; but its description in this 
point of view does not fall within my province. 
His Excellency, during our stay here, received despatches from 
Macao, with the Emperor of China’s reply to a report made by the 
Viceroy of Canton, relating to the expected arrival of the British 
Embassy, from which he learnt that orders had been issued to the 
Viceroy of Pe-tchee-lee, and other high Mandarins who were likely 
to have any communication with the mission, to receive us “ in a 
liberal, gracious, safe, and suitable manner.”* 
Elated with this auspicious intelligence, we sailed from Hong-kong 
on the 13th of July for the Yellow Sea. The south-west monsoon 
favoured our progress till the 20th, when, being off the coast of Corea, 
the wind shifted to the northward, and brought with it large flights 
of Libellulce. It continued variable, but not unfavourable, during the 
remainder of the voyage to the gulf of Pe-tchee-lee; and although 
we frequently experienced severe thunder and lightning, nothing ap- 
proaching to a gale of wind interrupted our agreeable progress 
through a smooth sea. Neither did we meet with any of those thick 
fogs described by the historians of the former Embassy, whose tract 
we followed as far as the streights of Formosa. These we entered 
on the 15th, and on the 16th passed a small island not correctly 
laid down in any chart, and which was ascertained to be in latitude 
25° N., and in longitude 119° 32' E. On the 17th we cleared these 
streights, shaping our course well off the land, and on the 18th passed 
the Chusan Islands. On the 21st we made some islands off the coast 
C orea, and on the 26th anchored for the night amidst the JVIee- 
a-tau Islands, which exhibited a distinct stratification, and appeared 
* See Edict 1. in Appendix, E. 
