A Journal of the First French Embassy to China 1698-1700

It was not until the early twentieth century that the previously unpublished source of this 1859 work was identified as being itself a reworking of Franois Froger''s Relation du premier voyage fait en 1698 1699 et 1700 a journal of his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 (17901877) 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.