carpenters and proper workmen to refit his ship, and to furnish himself
with provisions and stores, thereby to enable him to pursue his voyage to
Great Britain with this monsoon;* hoping at the same time that these
orders would be issued with as little delay as possible, lest it might
occasion his loss of the season, and he might be prevented from departing
till the next winter.

(*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.

This mandarin appeared to be a person of very considerable parts, and
endowed with more frankness and honesty than is to be found in the
generality of the Chinese. After the proper inquiries had been made,
particularly about the leak, which the Chinese carpenters reported to be
as dangerous as it had been represented, and consequently that it was
impossible for the Centurion to proceed to sea without being refitted,
the mandarin expressed himself satisfied with the account given in the
Commodore's lette