Page:To the Court of the Emperor of China - vol I.djvu/12

xii have suffered anything to escape him which was worthy of the attention of a discerning public.

The narrative of his journey may even be considered, in some degree, as an official account of the Dutch Embassy, since having been submitted to the inspection of the persons belonging to that Embassy, it did not afford them the least room for criticism, and since the Ambassador himself took copies of it, with a view of sending them to the Regency of Batavia, and to the Prince Stadtholder.

The age of M. Van-Braam, the success that attended his undertakings, the ties of nature, and those of friendship, at last induced him to quit Canton on the sixth of December 1795, with a view to pass the rest of his days in the United States of America, He arrived at Philadelphia on the 24th of April 1796.

Never, I will venture to assert, did a foreigner leave China with a like treasure, or with so many testimonies of his veracity; and if M. Van-Braam had only exhibited his numerous drawings of every thing which that Empire presented to him as worthy of a place in his immense collection, China would be better known by them alone than by all that has been written concerning it till the present day. To give an idea of what is experienced upon a sight of all the drawings which M. Van-Braam has collected, and which represent China in every shape, and in every point of view, I will only say, that after