PBA Galleries

2 volumes. (iii)-xii, 442, [2]; (iii)-viii, 359, [1] pp. Portrait frontispiece in Volume 1; large folding map in Volume 2. (8vo) 21.5x13 cm (8½x5¼") old tan calf, gilt borders, morocco labels. Second Edition.

First published the prior year. Account of the events and adventures surrounding the embassy of Earl Amherst's to China in 1816, sent out by King George III to protest ill-treatment of British subjects. Sir Henry Ellis, a noted diplomat and historian, served as the third commissioner, and, as Hill describes, "Unfortunately this honor was short-lived. Amherst and his retinue were sent home in disgrace after he refused to "kow-tow" (nine strikings of the forehead on the ground) at his presentation to the Emperor Khien Lung in Peking. As if this humiliation was not enough, their ship, the Alceste, was wrecked off the coast of Sumatra on the return voyage. Happily, all hands survived, and another ship was found to carry them home again. On the return voyage the ship stopped at St. Helena; included in the text is Sir Henry's interview with Napoleon Bonaparte. On the Journey out, the Alceste had visited Madeira, Rio de Janeiro, Cape Town, Java, and Macao.