Chinese Embassy
In late 1805, a Chinese Embassy arrived in Britain to demand the return of the Celestial dragon Lung Tien Xiang (known to the British as Temeraire). They had come to Britain on four ships confiscated from the East India Company, a choice which one embassy member explained to a British naval officer as "they were the largest of your ships in Canton at the time."
The Embassy spent several months in England attempting to persuade Temeraire to leave behind his captain, William Laurence, and return to China, something that he refused to do. In the end, Temeraire was convinced to travel to China on the condition that Laurence and his crew were to accompany him. The Chinese Embassy then journeyed with them on the HMS Allegiance back to China.
Following this, the Embassy may have disbanded, as their services were no longer required. No more contact was made with Temeraire or his crew, save by Prince Yongxing and the two envoys, the latter of whom were on good terms with the aviators.
Members of the Embassy[edit]
- Prince Yongxing - Brother to the Jiaqing Emperor.
- Liu Bao - Envoy.
- Sun Kai - Envoy.
- About fifteen soldiers (two of whom perished in the Valerie engagement]]).
- Three physicians; one for Prince Yongxing, one for the envoys and the last for the remainder of the embassy.
- Assistants to the three physicians.
- An English/Chinese translator.
- Two cooks with assistants.
- About twelve body servants, including Feng Li and Huang.
- About twelve other men, including a poet. Two known Chinese passengers; Ye Bing and Li Honglin, may have been part of this group.
Travel plans[edit]
The Embassy's original destination and departure date are unknown. The "East Indiamen" of that time typically took about one year to sail from China to Britain, which would have begun their outbound journey in late 1804.
However, at that date, Temeraire's egg was still unhatched and in French possession aboard the Amitie. This suggests that the Embassy initially left with the intention of checking on Temeraire's welfare in France, before heading for England after hearing the details of the Battle of Dover. This does not explain why the Embassy targeted British ships for confiscation, unless all foreign-owned ships were being viewed on a roughly equal basis and the East Indiaman were Canton's largest ships of any non-Chinese nationality.
