overcome the fickleness and knavery of the Chinese.  He pays a high compliment to our countrymen, especially Mr Drummond, president of the factory, who interfered in his behalf when at Whampoa, and with effect, when they could easily have thwarted his plan, and embroiled his government with that of China.  “That they pursued a very different line of conduct,” says he, “will appear by the above account of their proceedings; nor can I sufficiently rejoice at the zeal and eagerness manifested by them in this business.  Had we been detained only twenty-four-hours longer (he had applied for leave to depart, which was granted with much difficulty, and actually revoked a day after he had gone,) we must have fallen into the absolute power of these savages, who have been emboldened by an useless moderation, not only to call the polite nations of Europe barbarians, but also to treat them as such.”—­E.]

When this weighty affair was thus in some degree regulated, the commodore invited him and his two attendant mandarines to dinner, telling them at the same time, that if his provisions, either in kind or quantity, were not what they might expect, they must thank themselves for having confined him to so hard an allowance.  One of his dishes was beef, which the Chinese all dislike, though Mr Anson was not apprized of it; this seems to be derived from the India superstition, which for some ages past has made a great progress in China.  However, his guests did not entirely fast; for the three mandarines completely finished the white part of four large fowls.  But they were extremely embarrassed with their knives and forks, and were quite incapable of making use of them:  So that, after some fruitless attempts to help themselves, which were sufficiently awkward, one of the attendants was obliged to cut their meat in small pieces for them.  But whatever difficulty they might have in complying with the European manner of eating, they seemed not to be novices in drinking.  The commodore excused himself in this part of the entertainment, under the pretence of illness; but there being another gentleman present, of a florid and jovial complexion, the chief mandarine clapped him on the shoulder, and told him by the interpreter, that certainly he could not plead sickness, and therefore insisted on his bearing him company; and that gentleman perceiving, that after they had dispatched four or five bottles of Frontiniac, the mandarine still continued unruffled, he ordered a bottle of citron-water to be brought up, which the Chinese seemed much to relish; and this being near finished, they arose from table in appearance cool and uninfluenced by what they had drank, and the commodore having, according to custom, made the mandarine a present, they all departed in the same vessels that brought them.