Rare, c.18th hand coloured engraved chart of Europe, Africa, and the Far East which records tracks of the Lion, flagship of George Macartney, ambassador to the court of the Chinese emperor Qianlong Emperor.
George Leonard Staunton, secretary to the mission, was tasked with producing an account of the voyage. This work extended to several volumes and included ethnographic, botanical, zoological, and geographical information concerning the Chinese Empire, much of which had not previously been recorded in Britain.
The Macartney Embassy to China, the first official British mission to the Qing Empire, undertook a prolonged and complex voyage before reaching its destination. The route proceeded via Madeira, Tenerife, Rio de Janeiro, the Cape of Good Hope, and Indonesia. While the principal purpose of the mission was diplomatic, the journey also yielded observations of the regions encountered along the route.
The mission was led by George Macartney and included George Leonard Staunton, accompanied by his eleven-year-old son, George Thomas Staunton. Although formally appointed as the ambassador’s page, the younger Staunton was the only member of the delegation able to speak Mandarin, enabling direct communication with the Qianlong Emperor. This capacity assumed particular importance because the other interpreters available were Chinese Catholic priests trained to translate Chinese into Latin rather than English.
An account of the mission was subsequently published as An Authentic Account of an Embassy from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China, co-authored by George Leonard Staunton and his son, documenting the proceedings and observations of the embassy.
From: Staunton, G. An Authentic Account of an Embassy from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China. with notices of several places where they stopped in their way out and home Taken chiefly from the papers of the Earl of Macartney Sir Erasmus Gower and of the gentlemen in the several departments of the Embassy.
