428 
A VOYAGE TO 
i 779 . him equally difpofed to haften my departure ; and yet, as 
December^ f oon as recovere( j the courage to fpeak, he began to 
recount the unavoidable delays that would occur in my 
bulinefs, the difficulty of gaining admittance to the Vice¬ 
roy, the jealoulies and fufpicions of the Mandarins^ refpedt- 
ing our real deligns, which had rifen, he faid, to an extra¬ 
ordinary height, from the ftrange account we had given 
of ourfelves. 
After waiting feveral days, with great impatience, for the 
event of our application, without underftanding that the 
matter was at all advanced toward a conclulion, I applied to 
the Commander of an Engliffi country ffiip, who was to fail 
on the 25th, and who offered to take the men and ftores on 
board, and to lie to, if the weather fhould permit, off Ma¬ 
cao, till we could fend boats to take them out of his ffiip. 
At the fame time he apprized me of the danger there might 
be of his being driven with them out to fea. Whilft I was 
doubting what meafures to purfue, the Commander of ano¬ 
ther country ffiip brought me a letter from Captain Gore, 
in which he acquainted me, that he had engaged him to 
bring us down from Canton, and to deliver the ftores we 
had procured, at his own riik, in the Typa. All our diffi¬ 
culties being thus removed, I had leifure to attend to the 
purchafe of our proviftons and ftores, which was completed 
on the 26th; and the day following, the whole ftock was 
fent on board. 
As Canton was likely to be the mo ft advantageous mar¬ 
ket for furs, I was deftred by Captain Gore to carry with 
me about twenty fea-otters Ikins, chiefly the property of 
our deceafed Commanders, and to difpofe of them at the 
beft price I could procure ; a commiffion, which gave me an 
opportunity of becoming a little acquainted with the ge¬ 
nius 
