142 
ILLNESS OF THE AUTHOR, 
been exerted. There could be no doubt, from the resigned manner in 
which the exactions of the soldiers were endured, and the public 
manner in which they were committed, that these infamous acts 
were sanctioned by their paternal government. 
I have now reached that part of my narrative at which I must 
cease, for some time, to depend on my own journal for an account 
of the progress of the Embassy, and the nature of the country 
through which it passed. 
On the 12th of September, after a long walk in an ardent sun, I 
was attacked with a sudden affection of the brain, which confined 
me to bed for several weeks. My suffering was great, but received 
all the alleviation that friendship and benevolence could bestow. 
I must not here pause to tell how much I owe to the skill of my 
medical attendants, my friend Mr. Pearson and Dr. Lynn ; or to the 
numberless kind attentions of His Excellency, and all the gentlemen 
of his suite j but I must be allowed to declare, that all the purposes 
of my appointment as naturalist were largely answered during my 
illness through the exertion of my friends. I may venture to affirm, 
that no vegetable or mineral production of China occurred within 
their reach that was not placed in my collection, with such notices 
as were sufficient to determine their habits and localities. Indeed 
such was the amount of my collections through these means, that I 
looked forward to giving a full account of the geological and bota- 
nical characters of the soil gone over by the Embassy during my 
illness, as well as in other parts of its progress. This hope was 
blasted by the shipwreck of the Alceste. I must now confine myself 
to such notices of the plants and rocks of China, as are afforded 
by the memoranda remaining to me, and the few duplicates I have 
recovered through the kindness of Sir George Staunton and my friend 
Captain Basil Hall. 
With respect to the history of the progress of the Embassy during 
my incapacity to observe, my readers will have little to regret, if I 
do justice to the materials which the liberality of my friends has 
placed in my hands. To Mr. Morrison and Mr. Cook I shall be 
