CHINA -- LORD AMHERST'S EMBASSY TO CHINA AND THE WRECK OF HMS ALCESTE
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CHINA -- LORD AMHERST'S EMBASSY TO CHINA AND THE WRECK OF HMS ALCESTE
Manuscript account, in the form of an apparently autograph letter from the carpenter on board HMS Alceste, to his father, 'August on board the Merchant Ship Ceasar on our passage to England from St Helena ...' [c.1817], 13 pages, folio, sewn into one quire, incomplete (dampstained and worn, a few tears, two corners torn across with loss).
A crew member's account of Lord Amherst's failed diplomatic mission to China of 1816, and the subsequent shipwreck of HMS Alceste in the Straits of Gaspar. William Pitt, 1st Earl Amherst of Arracan (1773-1857), diplomatist and governor-general of Bengal, was called to lead an embassy to the court of the Jiaqing emperor in 1816. Following his refusal to perform the ritual 'kowtow', Amherst was turned away from Peking without an audience. The present letter comprises a detailed and lively account of the voyage, via Java, ('you all ready [sic] know of my going to China with the Embassy to China on board HMS Alcest My old ship and Captain the Ambassandor [sic] the right Honourable Lord Amherst and his suit And no doubt but you have herd [sic] of our Misfortune'), of working life on board ship, the trials suffered by the ship's crew in supporting the mission and of life in the East Indies; it records the hostility shown by the Chinese ('the Chineas kept a very strict look out after us with a very jealous eye') and the point at which Lord Amherst was refused an audience at the Chinese court ('we heard that His Lordship was not received by the Emperer [sic] of China ... on 20 January His Lordship was received on board His Majestys ship the Alceste with three cheers ... we set sail down the river of Canton').
On the return journey, the Alceste struck some rocks off the island of Lee-Chew (Okinawa), where the survivors were forced to take refuge, whilst Lord Amherst's party departed for the safety of Java. The present manuscript provides a vivid account of the crew's bravery againt Malay pirates, 'we counted our enemys and to our sorrow the men we supposed to be about seven hundred and our number about one hundred and seventy men and boys and one woman, the Boatswain took his wife to sea and I think that is the Dammablest thing a man can be troubled with but she stood it like a Brittan'; 'so we became every hour more and more in danger of our lives for we well knew if those savage bruts were to beat us they would not only murder us but tortor by the most crewel totors which made our situation much worse.' Surviving the ordeal, the crew eventually returned to barracks on Java, from where their passage back to England was secured on the Caesar, via St Helena.
Manuscript account, in the form of an apparently autograph letter from the carpenter on board HMS Alceste, to his father, 'August on board the Merchant Ship Ceasar on our passage to England from St Helena ...' [c.1817], 13 pages, folio, sewn into one quire, incomplete (dampstained and worn, a few tears, two corners torn across with loss).
A crew member's account of Lord Amherst's failed diplomatic mission to China of 1816, and the subsequent shipwreck of HMS Alceste in the Straits of Gaspar. William Pitt, 1st Earl Amherst of Arracan (1773-1857), diplomatist and governor-general of Bengal, was called to lead an embassy to the court of the Jiaqing emperor in 1816. Following his refusal to perform the ritual 'kowtow', Amherst was turned away from Peking without an audience. The present letter comprises a detailed and lively account of the voyage, via Java, ('you all ready [sic] know of my going to China with the Embassy to China on board HMS Alcest My old ship and Captain the Ambassandor [sic] the right Honourable Lord Amherst and his suit And no doubt but you have herd [sic] of our Misfortune'), of working life on board ship, the trials suffered by the ship's crew in supporting the mission and of life in the East Indies; it records the hostility shown by the Chinese ('the Chineas kept a very strict look out after us with a very jealous eye') and the point at which Lord Amherst was refused an audience at the Chinese court ('we heard that His Lordship was not received by the Emperer [sic] of China ... on 20 January His Lordship was received on board His Majestys ship the Alceste with three cheers ... we set sail down the river of Canton').
On the return journey, the Alceste struck some rocks off the island of Lee-Chew (Okinawa), where the survivors were forced to take refuge, whilst Lord Amherst's party departed for the safety of Java. The present manuscript provides a vivid account of the crew's bravery againt Malay pirates, 'we counted our enemys and to our sorrow the men we supposed to be about seven hundred and our number about one hundred and seventy men and boys and one woman, the Boatswain took his wife to sea and I think that is the Dammablest thing a man can be troubled with but she stood it like a Brittan'; 'so we became every hour more and more in danger of our lives for we well knew if those savage bruts were to beat us they would not only murder us but tortor by the most crewel totors which made our situation much worse.' Surviving the ordeal, the crew eventually returned to barracks on Java, from where their passage back to England was secured on the Caesar, via St Helena.
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