A Journal of the First French Embassy to China, 1698–1700

This 1859 translated journal of the seventeenth-century first French embassy to China seeks to improve public attitudes towards the Chinese.

François Froger (Author), Saxe Bannister (Translated by)

9781108045537, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 2 August 2012

418 pages
21.6 x 14 x 2.4 cm, 0.53 kg

It was not until the early twentieth century that the previously unpublished source of this 1859 work was identified as being itself a reworking of François Froger's Relation du premier voyage, fait en 1698, 1699 et 1700, a journal of his experiences as a young engineer while sailing with the first French ambassadorial party to China. This translation by Saxe Bannister (1790–1877) supplements the original official account with anecdotes and notes: the work is therefore based on composite primary evidence. This does not detract, however, from the worth of this book, in which Bannister uses a lengthy introduction and appendices of further primary evidence to apply what can be learned from earlier works to the contemporary context of the Opium Wars, aiming to promote a more peaceful and balanced attitude towards China. It is a useful example of scholarly propaganda in the history of nineteenth-century Anglo-Chinese relations.

Dedication
Introduction: 1. The urgent need of better intelligence respecting China and Japan
2. The need of improved principles of intercourse with the Chinese
3. The Chinese government well disposed in the last two centuries to encourage friendly intercourse with foreign governments
4. The general opinion, respecting the dislike of foreigners by the Chinese, erroneous
5. The four British missions to Pekin in 1787, 1792, 1804, and 1816
6. The Honourable Colonel Charles Cathcart's mission to Pekin in 1787
7. Lord Macartney's embassy, 1792
8. The success of Lord Macartney's embassy to Pekin in 1792. The results
9. Lord Amherst's embassy to Pekin, in 1816
10. Gio Ghirardini's residence in China in 1698
11. Father Bouvet, the Jesuit, in China, 1698
12. British antecedents to the French mission of 1698
13. The law of administrative justice in China
14. The corruption of opinion, and of our home colonial administration from 1806 to 1858
15. British conquests, or British commerce in China
16. Christianity in China
17. The ceremony of the Kotou
18. Japan
The Journal of the First French Embassy to China, in 1698, 1699, and 1700: 1. From La Rochelle to the Cape of Good Hope
2. Table Bay at the Cape of Good Hope
3. From the Cape of Good Hope to Achen
4. Achen
5. From Achen to Malacca
6. Malacca
7. From Malacca to Governor's Strait
7. [sic] From Governor's Island to the Lunettes
8. From the Lunettes to the Sancian Island
9. From Sancian Islands to Macao
10. Macao
11. From Macao to Whampoa
12. Canton River and Canton
13. Canton and the River Tiger
14. From Canton River to the Coast of Cambodia
15. The Coast of Cambodia to Banca and Bantam
16. Bantam to Java Head by the Straits of Sunda
17. Java Head to Mauritius and Bourbon
18. Bourbon to St Helena
19. St Helena to Fayal
Appendix.

Subject Areas: Asian history [HBJF]