86 
PLANTS. 
The Chinese preserve it in the usual way, by burying it deep in the 
ground during the summer. 
Trackers being at length supplied to my boat, I soon rejoined mv 
companions. W e passed, during the day, many of the junks which 
convey corn to Pekin, answering, in number and magnitude, to the 
description given of them by the writers of the former Embassy ; 
and having, from the manner and order of their arrangement, a very 
imposing appearance : they were moored in regular succession along- 
shore, their lofty and highly-ornamented square sterns meeting us as 
we ascended the river. 
Immediately after quitting Tien-sing, the country exhibited much 
of the same characters of wildness and flatness which they possessed 
from Ta-koo to that place. The chief difference consisted in an 
addition to the kinds of cultivated plants. Besides millet and beans, 
the Sida filnz folia, one of the hemp plants of the Chinese, the Sesamum 
Orientale , from which they extract an esculent oil, and the Ricinus 
communis, castor-oil plant, continually occurred in patches, or in fields. 
Our progress up the river was slow, in consequence of the repeated 
visits paid by the Mandarins to His Excellency, in order to press his 
performance of the ceremony of prostration. 
On the morning of the 16 th of August, at the termination of a con- 
ference which the Ambassador had held with the Legate, the boats, 
instead of advancing, dropped down the stream, and anchored before 
a village called Tsai-tsun. Lord Amherst informed the gentlemen 
of his suite, at breakfast, that there was great probability of the 
immediate return of the Mission, in consequence of his refusal to 
perform the ceremony. We therefore concluded, that this retrograde 
movement was preparatory to our going back ; but were glad to learn 
that intelligence had been received of the departure of our ships from 
the Gulf of Pe-tchee-lee, as the Chinese would consequently be obliged 
to conduct us through the country to Canton. 
During the delay of the boats, I visited the shore, and penetrated 
into the country to some distance beyond the banks of the river in 
search of plants, but was not well rewarded for my trouble. The 
