Journal of the Proceeding of the Late Embassy to China; Comprising A Correct Narrative of the Public Transactions of the Embassy, of the Voyage to and from China, and of the Journey from the Mouth of the Pei-Ho to the return to Canton.

FIRST EDITION, engraved portrait frontispiece, 7 hand-coloured aquatints, 3 engraved maps, 1 folding, light browning to final map, occasional light foxing, old owners signature of H.W. Vincent to title, armorial bookplate and signature to pastedown, contemporary half calf over grey boards, rebacked, original spine laid down, 4to, for John Murray, 1816

First edition of this account of the short lived embassy to China. Sir Henry Ellis (1788-1855) was a career diplomat who joined the East India Company in 1805. In 1815 the English Government sent an envoy, under the command of Lord Amherst, to go to Peking to negotiate with the Emperor Kea K’ing on behalf of the British subjects suffering under his rule. In 1816 Ellis joined the mission as Third Commissioner. Ellis was unimpressed by the Chinese, whom he considered xenophobic, ultra-tradition, and uniteresting. The mission ended in failure after Amherst refused to ‘kow-tow’ (nine strikes of the forehead on the ground) to the emperor. On the return voyage their ship, the Alceste, was wrecked off the coast of Sumatra. Ellis and his companions were rescued by an open boat. The ship stopped at St. Helena and allowed Ellis the opportunity to interview Napoleon Boneparte. Napoleon later disputed Ellis’s account of the meeting. On the journey out, the Alceste had visited Madeira, Rio de Janeiro, Cape Town, Java, and Macao. A mission to China was then so rare an event in Europe that Ellis’s 1817 account of the voyage was authorized. The detailed aquatint plates were prepared by J. Clark from the drawings of Ellis’ friend Charles Abbot.

Provenance: Henry William Vincent was a Clerk in the Treasury (1813-23) and Queen’s Remembrancer of the Exchequer (1823-55)

[Tooley 208; Abbey, Travel 536; Cordier 239304; Hill 542; Prideaux pp 250-1, 335;]