CHARACTER OF CHANG. 
143 
chiefly indebted for my facts from the period of my illness to that ol 
my recovery. 
The Embassy having continued to pass through a country uniformly 
flat, but becoming more and more marshy, arrived on the borders of 
Shan-tung on the evening of the 16th, and anchored at the town of 
Sang-yuen. 
In quitting the province of Pe-tchee-lee, I had added very few speci- 
mens to my former collection of plants. The Salsola altissima , 
Euphorbia tithymaloides, Lepidium latifolium , Hedysarmn striatum , 
Lonicera caprifolia , Pontederia vaginata, Menyanthes nymphoides , con- 
stituted the greater number of the plants brought to me after leaving 
Tien-sing. 
Our conductors, Chang and Yin, left us at Sang-yuen, relinquish- 
ing their charge to other officers. They had both ingratiated them- 
selves so far in our good opinion, that we parted from them with 
regret. They were men of different characters. Chang, under an 
appearance of indifference for every thing European, was anxious to 
become acquainted with some of our most useful manufactures. He 
particularly admired our glass and plated goods ; and in a conversation 
with me, through the medium of Mr. Morrison, asked many questions 
respecting them. After satisfying him on these points, I took advan- 
tage of this opportunity to tell him that we had metals which, on 
coming in contact with water, burst into flame. I had some potas- 
sium with me, and was desirous of showing its properties to him. 
He immediately inquired respecting its uses ; and when these could 
not be very satisfactorily explained to him, looked too contemptuously 
to induce me to venture an experiment. 
In return for my answers to his questions, Chang freely gave me 
true or false statements on any subject that excited my curiosity. 
After his evasion respecting the sick, I could not avoid receiving his 
information with much suspicion, and soon found fresh reason to 
suppose him fallacious from principle. Having put many questions 
to him about the localities of several stones, amongst others, the Yu 
which he wore in his girdle, he rightly concluded that I should con- 
