Directory_and_Chronicle_1841 — Page 534

1841.

Six Months with the Chinese Expedition.

517

The 30th of August was fixed upon as the day for an interview with Keshen. On that morning captain Elliot, accompanied by the gentlemen attached to the mission and three or four naval officers, pushed off from the steamer before daylight, and proceeded towards the shore in a number of boats, manned and privately armed. Au encampment had been thrown up on shore for the reception of the

mission.

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“A blue screen was placed at the entrance, so as to hide the in- terior from the gaze of the public, and here we were met by many more mandarins, and marshaled into the presence of Keshen; he rose at our entrance, and received the mission with great courtesy and civility. Indeed, the manners of these high mandarins would have done honor to any courtier in the most polished court in Eu- rope. He begged us to remain covered, and was introduced to each person separately, and expressed his hopes that the supplies had been received by the squadron. He made some excuse for the reception in the tents, but intimated that Takoo was some distance from the landing-place. Judging from appearance, he might have been a man of forty, and looked, what he is said to be by his countrymen, a per- son of great ability: his tail, the Chinese appendage to men of all ranks except priests, was remarkable from its length, and the care that was evidently bestowed upon it. He was dressed in a blue silk robe, with a worked girdle; on his legs were the white satin boots common to all the higher orders; his head was covered with a man- darin summer cap, made of a fine straw; in it was placed the deep red coral button, denoting the rank of the wearer, and the peacock's feather drooping between the shoulders. On the whole, his dress was plain; but the mandarins when in full costume, judging from specimens taken at Chusan, must have a gorgeous appearance. The encampment was surrounded with a high canvass wall, resembling that which encircles the private apartments of great men and native rajahs when traveling through India. Inside this screen were eight small tents, in each of which a table and forms were placed. These formed an oval; and in the centre was erected a canvass cottage, of rather an ingenious description; whilst at the upper end, concealed by another screen, stood the tent of conference. This was lined with yellow silk (the royal color), and worked with the arms of the empire at the back. The interpreters and captain Elliot remained with the commission, whilst the rest of the officers and gentlemen sought the different tents around, in which the lower orders of man- darins were busy preparing a breakfast for the party; for it was an

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