Page:To the Court of the Emperor of China - vol I.djvu/16



JOURNEY from Canton to the city of Pe-king, where the Imperial Court resides — a Journey made across parts of the Empire of China, which never yet were marked with the footstep of an European, and where his inquisitive eye never yet had an opportunity of making the smallest observation, cannot but be highly interesting to the Public, both in Europe, and throughout the United States of America; and will no doubt be received as an agreeable offering. In this hope it was that I undertook to write a relation of that Journey, and that I made a point with myself of commiting to paper, with the least possible delay, every thing I should see and observe, in order that I might give a faithful description of if to my countrymen.

Whenever I travelled by water, I had my Journal always on the table, that every thing