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Very good. Even toning. Soiling in the bottom margin. Size 17.25 x 13.25 Inches. A map central Vietnamese coast near Da Nang and Hoi An, drawn in 1793 by John Barrow and Henry William Parish, engraved by Benjamin Baker, and included in the first edition of George Leonard Staunton's 1797 An Authentic Account of an Embassy from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China . A Closer Look The coastal region around Da Nang in central Vietnam is depicted. Da Nang's original name in Vietnamese was Cá»a Han, a reference to its location at the mouth of the Han River, which flows parallel to the coast as seen here. The French called the area Tourane or Turon, perhaps a garbled transliteration of the indigenous name. The Vietnamese name 'Da Nang' is possibly derived from the Cham word daknan , meaning 'big river.' Although an ancient settlement, Da Nang was for much of its history overshadowed by the cosmopolitan port of Hoi An (here as Fai-fo) just to the south. In 1835, the Nguyen Emperor Minh Mạng designated Da Nang as the only port where trade with European and American ships would be permitted, leading to the city's rapid growth (akin to Shanghai and Yokohama). The island of Callao mentioned in the title is Cà Lao, which along with the mountains on either side of the harbor, is mostly maintained as parkland today, a refuge from the nearby rapid urban development. At bottom is a view of the harbor looking northwest from the Tien-tcha (SÆ¡n Tra) Peninsula. The 'Jackall' The track of the ship the Jackall is noted, along with soundings, shoals, hazards, anchorages, and a number of features on land, including a 'boat builders village' near the main town of Da Nang. The Jackall was one of the Macartney Embassy's original retinue of ships that left Portsmouth in 1792, along with the HMS Lion , a Royal Navy warship, and the Hindostan , a ship belonging to the East India Company. However, the fleet was soon hit by a storm off the English coast and the Jackall was separated from the other two ships and presumed lost. Macartney's mission continued on, eventually replacing the Jackall with another ship, but after returning to England for repairs the Jackall managed to catch up to the rest of the fleet at Jakarta (then Batavia). The Macartney Mission The Macartney Embassy was a diplomatic mission by Great Britain to the Qianlong Emperor of the Qing Dynasty meant to expand British trading rights in China and establish a permanent embassy in Beijing. Thirty-five years earlier, British traders of the East India Company (EIC) were confined to trading with an officially sanctioned set of Chinese traders in Canton (Guangzhou). Although the Canton System was profitable, the EIC found it too cumbersome and restrictive, while also feeling that a direct line to Beijing was necessary to resolve disputes, rather than working through several layers of intermediaries and bureaucrats. A mission led by Charles Cathcart had been sent to Beijing in 1787, but Cathcart died before reaching China and the embassy was abandoned. George Macartney's mission left Britain in September 1792 with a retinue of translators, painters, secretaries, scholars, and scientists. The embassy traveled via Madeira, Tenerife, Rio de Janeiro, the Cape of Good Hope, Indonesia, and Macau, before moving up the Chinese coast and reaching Beijing on August 21, 1793. Macartney's second in command was George Leonard Staunton who served as the expedition's secretary and chronicler. Staunton's eleven-year-old son, George Thomas Staunton, nominally the ambassador's page, learned Chinese during the voyage, became very adept at the language, and served as a translator for the mission alongside the Catholic priests Paolo Zhou (å ä¿ ç¾…) and Jacobus Li Zibiao (æ è ªæ ). The younger Staunton later became chief of the East India Company's factory at Canton, translated works between Chinese and English, and helped found the Royal Asiatic Society. The embassy was poorly managed from the beginni.
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