(*Note. Anson, of course, had no intention of sailing for England. His
reason for the deception is given in chapter 33.)
A MANDARIN COMES ON BOARD.
This letter was written on the 17th of December, and on the 19th in the
morning a mandarin of the first rank, who was Governor of the city of
Janson, together with two mandarins of an inferior class, and a great
retinue of officers and servants, having with them eighteen half-galleys
decorated with a great number of streamers, and furnished with music, and
full of men, came to grapnel ahead of the Centurion; whence the mandarin
sent a message to the Commodore, telling him that he (the mandarin) was
ordered by the Viceroy of Canton to examine the condition of the ship,
and desiring the ship's boat might be sent to fetch him on board. The
Centurion's boat was immediately despatched, and preparations were made
for receiving him; for a hundred of the most sightly of the crew were
uniformly dressed in the regimentals of the marines, and were drawn up
under arms on the main-deck, against his arrival. When he entered the
ship he was saluted by the drums and what other military music there was
on board; and passing by the new-formed guard, he was met by the
Commodore on the quarter-deck, who conducted him to the great cabin. Here
the mandarin explained his commission, declaring that his business was to
examine all the particulars mentioned in the Commodore's letter to the
Viceroy; that he was particularly instructed to inspect the leak, and had
for that purpose brought with him two Chinese carpenters.
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