vii, [1], 526, [2] pp. With 7 hand-colored aquatint plates, drawn by Charles Abbott, engraved by J. Clark, with tissue guards; stipple-engraved frontispiece portrait of Lord Amherst; 3 copper-engraved maps, including one large folding map. (4to) 28.5x21.5 cm (11¼x8½"), modern half calf & marbled boards. First Edition.
Account of the events and adventures surrounding the Earl Amherst's embassy 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. This edition, with hand-colored aquatints, is much prized..." These delicately-colored plates include views of the Summer Palace of the Emperor, the bustling anchorage at Tong-Chow, the Temple of Quan-Yin-Mun near Nankin, etc. Abbey, Travel, 536; Hill, Pacific Voyages, 1st ed., p.413; Hill, 2nd ed., 542; Tooley 208.
Condition:
Some light foxing and a bit of soiling, frontispiece with stain at gutter margin, a bit of loss to fore-edge, darkening to the untrimmed page edges; very good or better, a nice, full-margined copy, with bright color plates.