148 REMINISCENCES OF A VOYAGE TO AND FROM CHINA. 
nations, (except French,) in which number were the Lion British ship 
of the line, and the Hindostan Indiaman, then recently returned from 
the Y ellow Sea, where they had landed Lord Macartney and suite, 
and were waiting the return of the embassy over-land. 
On the same afternoon we proceeded to Canton in a Chinese barge, 
along with the captain s establishment, and were safely lodged in the 
British Hong, where we constantly resided for three months. 
Our first business w r as to deliver our letters of introduction; one was 
from Sir Joseph Banks to Hr. Duncan, Physician to the Company’s 
supercargoes at Canton; and another from T. Evans, Esq., of Stepney, 
to — Arthur, Esq., the Company’s Inspector of Teas at the same city. 
From these gentlemen -we received much valuable advice, as well in 
regard of the plants we were in quest of, as of the means of procuring 
them, and the manner of dealing with the nurserymen. 
We were advised to visit first of all the picture-shops. This was 
an excellent plan; for there we purchased a good many well-executed 
and faithful drawings of many of the plants we particularly wanted, 
and by them we were enabled to explain to Samay (“ the old gardener,” 
as he was called by the English residents) what we wanted. At first 
he brought a few true sorts, but mixed with a few false ones ; the 
latter were instantly rejected. Samay was astonished, having never 
met with such a customer before; he even appeared careless about 
dealing with us afterwards ; but when he was told that a few dollars 
were no object, he relented, and afterwards always brought what was 
wanted, or told us at once that such and such plauts could not be had 
at Canton. 
During the voyage out, we had accurate dimensions of the vacant 
places about the ship in which boxes of plants might safely stand; 
and calculating their capacity as to the numbers they would contain, 
we had only to make a selection of the most valuable for transportation. 
Giving orders for the construction of the boxes, procuring cane baskets 
to shift the plants into, and preparing a compost for them, were the 
first of our proceedings at Canton. 
We had with us a copy of Kcempfer’s Amcenitates Exoticce, as well 
as Thunberg’s Illustrations of Koempfer's Japanese and Chinese Pro¬ 
vincial Names of Plants; but though w r e got some of the plants by 
the figures given of them by those authors, the attached characters were 
of no use, the most learned of the Chinese declaring that the charac¬ 
ters w T ere “ old men s writing.” We were often beset by seedsmen, 
who offered us boxes of many different sorts of seed put up among rice- 
meal, neatly folded in showy yellow paper, and superscribed w r ith fine 
