his interpreter, and began with reciting the various methods he had formerly taken to get an audience; adding, that he imputed the delays he had met with to the insincerity of those he had employed, and that he had therefore no other means left, than to send, as he had done, his own officer with a letter to the gate.  On the mention of this the viceroy stopped the interpreter, and bid him assure Mr Anson, that the first knowledge they had of his being at Canton, was from that letter.  Mr Anson then proceeded, and told him, that the subjects of the king of Great Britain trading to China had complained to him, the commodore, of the vexatious impositions both of the merchants and inferior custom-house officers, to which they were frequently necessitated to submit, by reason of the difficulty of getting access to the mandarines, who alone could grant them redress:  That it was his, Mr Anson’s, duty, as an officer of the king of Great Britain, to lay before the viceroy these grievances of the British subjects, which he hoped the viceroy would take into consideration, and would give orders, that for the future there should be no just reason for complaint.  Here Mr Anson paused, and waited some time in expectation of an answer; but nothing being said, he asked his interpreter if he was certain the viceroy understood what he had urged; the interpreter told him, he was certain it was understood, but he believed no reply would be made to it.  Mr Anson then represented to the viceroy the case of the ship Haslingfield, which, having been dismasted on the coast of China, had arrived in the river of Canton but a few days before.  The people on board this vessel had been great sufferers by the fire; the captain in particular had all his goods burnt, and had lost besides, in the confusion, a chest of treasure of four thousand five hundred tahel, which was supposed to be stolen by the Chinese boat-men.  Mr Anson therefore desired that the captain might have the assistance of the government, as it was apprehended the money could never be recovered without the interposition of the mandarines.  And to this request the viceroy made answer, that in settling the emperor’s customs for that ship, some abatement should be made in consideration of her losses.

And now the commodore having dispatched the business with which the officers of the East-India company had entrusted him, he entered on his own affairs; acquainting the viceroy, that the proper season was now set in for returning to Europe, and that he waited only for a licence to ship off his provisions and stores, which were all ready; and that as soon as this should be granted him, and he should have gotten his necessaries on board, he intended to leave the river of Canton, and to make the best of his way for England.  The viceroy replied to this, that the licence should be immediately issued, and that every thing should be ordered on board the following day.  And finding that Mr Anson had nothing farther to insist