prefents fo r the Minifters o f State, but they calmly fuflered
thefe gentlemen to trick them out o f the only curious and valuable
articles among the prefents intended' for the Emperor, and
to fubftitute others, o f a mean and common nature, in their
place. Secondly, they not only complied with going through
the ufual ceremony o f faluting the Emperor, but alfo o f falut-
ing the Emperor’s name, painted on a piece o f filk, at leaft fifty
times, on their journey to and from the Capital: which degrading
ceremony they even condefcended to perform before
the perfon o f the Prime Minifter. With regard to the third
point, it certainly appears that no expence had been fpared in
providing themfelves with iplendid robes for the oecafion j but,
unfortunately, they had but few opportunities o f making ule
o f them, their baggage not arriving at the Capital till many
days after they had been there. Nor does it feem that the
drefs o f a foreign Embafiador is confidered o f much confe-
quence in the eyes o f the Chinefe ; for, when thefe gentlemen
wilhed to excufe themfelves from going to court, on account
o f their dufty and tattered clothes, in which they had performed
a mofi painful journey, the Mailer o f the Ceremonies
obferved, that it was not their drefs, but their perfons, which
the Emperor, his mailer, was defirous to fee. And, it can
hardly be fuppofed, they would omit obferving the fourth
article, which, Mr. Grammont is o f opinion, was negle&ed by
Lord Macartney. And, in the lail place, they ftand fully
acquitted of any want of humility in the tone and ilyle o f their
communications, after having allowed their credentials to be
new modelled by the officers 'o f Government at Canton; from
which city they had alfo an interpreter, a very proper one, no.
doubt, appointed to attend them.
3 Their
Their million, it is true, was not well calculated for making
terms or rejecting propofals. The Chinefe were not unacquainted
with the declining finances* o f the Dutch ; they knew
very well that the embaify had originated in Canton, and that it
was accredited only from their fuperiors in Batavia. In their
journey they were harafled beyond meafure; fometimes they
were lodged in wretched hovels, without furniture and without
co v e r ; fometimes they were obliged to pafs the night in the
open air, when the temperature was below the freezing point;
frequently for four and twenty hours they had nothing to eat.
Van Braam obferves that, owing to the fatigues o f the journey,
the badnefs o f the viftuals, their early rifing and expofure to
the cold, he loft about five inches in the circumference o f his
body. Being rather corpulent, and not very expert in performing
the Chinefe ceremony at their public introdu&ion, his hat
happened to fall on the ground, upon which the old Emperor
began to laugh. “ Thus,” fays he, “ I received a mark o f dif-
“ tin£tion and predileftion, fuch as never Embafiador was ho-
“ noured with before. I confefs,” continues he, “ that the recol-
“ ledlion o f my fufierings from the cold in w aiting fo long in the
“ morning, was very much foftened by this incident.” No man
will certainly envy this gentleman’ s happy turn o f mind, in
receiving fo much fatisfa&ion in being laughed at.
The tone o f the Emperor’s letter, with which they were dif-
milled,, while it fpeaks the vain and arrogant fentiments o f this
haughty government, ihews at the fame time how well acquainted
they were with the circumftances that gave rife to the
million, and the degree o f eftimation in which they held it. It
. . . was.