Journey to' In some spotswere grovesof mulberry trees.' Along
~ the river, as the party'approached Canton, were nurseries,
full of curious plants; and also .country hoyjsgs Jag-
longing to the. principal native merchants of that .city.
To one of those the Company’s Commissioners, together
with several English gentlemen and Chinese connected
with them, came to meet the Embassador. - ;
The Viceroy had.already gone on before, in order to
prepare, at Canton, for his Excellency’s reception there.
He sent from thence large aiid magnificent barges, adorned
with profusion of glass, gilding, and painting, in which
the Embassy made its entrance into Canton. They arriv-*
ed there on the nineteenth of December, 13S9J. *T1&
uncommon honours paid to his Excellency, by order of
the Viceroy, and his own personal attentions, had not the
mere effect of idle and transitory show; but taught the
inhabitants of Canton to consider the English the rein a
longer as destitute of protection, or unworthy of respect.
At Canton almost every individual of the Embassy
enjoyed at length the satisfaction, after many disap«
pointed hopes, of hearing from their private friends. Ac?
counts also had arrived, that the government of France
had declared war against Great Britain; and the Embas«
sador felt therefore the greater satisfaction, in being informed,
that the Lion man of war had been overtaken
b y a messenger from the Company’s Commissioners,
before Sir Erasmus Gower had made any progress in
EMBASSY i p i p . SI 9
bis way to themorthward; after ’having been supplielt Passage of
with wlrat he-iwlmtecl' fröm Canton; an d 'th a t h IS jSllip dostanfrom
was tm fr^ p n g at1 the Boccaff igi^s^*9 Sne hadSailed ikcrm
ChtMSan*ohthe’’eighteenth ofe^ctirom'! 'During.her Say ’
thêrlytof ‘about sè^ëirweSksf his crew ha^ecovered al-
ffibsfc éntir^ly.frorri the dysentery with which^they had
been long tomjenihd. BesMethe henéfitoFttir and exeh-
cree,t'they had tne'advaniage^of a ’frMn.anil wholesome
diet'. rrThéy #éfe supplied With .animkl jo d d ’ > p^rtihu-
1 airly poultry ,iaé wellus v egeMbfeis, Vr rea son abl e ra ted,
especially’whe‘n ptAchased withöütr th e 'intervention of
"men in hffieëy who' generally tekactedféeS*frofif,<;he^s!ëller
which felTultimatll^üjron theicohsumer/h Kruijwbfall
K&dki^^tpifentiful andchea’p ' Tea ;wks;ch^eapeLthan
in a n y other'part of’Chiha. A month BMbre their depaï-'
tüïe, a, dreadful storm Mp^ened’ p h ^ h la rly of light-
hiég; which -was'so1 low4asJ'to. ^ppeiar tógraSs afongthfe
^muzstlé of thenguns, an!d continued ,rfr such 'violent and
constantly siitceedihg flashes’, as to drive êVery^erson off
the decks. The wind, during the severity of thefbmpest,
‘was mchthdil^, and contrary to wlfarhad blown for the
late ptécedihfg months; and the whole was&onsid'er-
ed b y 'th e ’ seamen as a ncqpstefstf6Etween theftWo mon-
soOtfSeWhich shoufd get the'better-. The south-west wind
became, hoWeVêrV 'prevalent' ag&in.J The weather afterwards
wass incbnstaÉt^nd: 'th é^ in® ?chahgpfelé,l u h t l
the end o f September, wïfeA a stroriglfhbrth-èa:St gale