and four hundred coolies, employed to transport the effects of the embassy and the presents to the emperor and high officials.[1]
It was received with the highest marks of distinction by the Chinese authorities; but when Lord Macartney met the emperor's representatives to ask for an audience, he was told that he would be required to make the prostrations observed at all ceremonies attending the audience of tribute-bearers. Much time was taken up in the discussions on this point, but finally it was agreed that the ambassador should be received by the emperor kneeling only as he delivered the king's letter. The emperor was at Jehol, an imperial hunting lodge some distance north of the Great Wall, and thither the embassy had to wend its way. When the audience was over, Lord Macartney was told that the business of his mission would be discussed with the emperor's ministers on his return to Peking. But he had scarcely arrived at the capital when he was ordered to depart and quit the country. No opportunity was afforded him to dispatch or even to discuss the business which had brought him on this long and expensive journey, and the entire embassy had been kept constantly under close surveillance during its stay. The departure was effected almost with precipitation. The author of one of the narratives of the embassy writes: "We entered Peking like paupers; we remained in it like prisoners; and we quitted it like vagrants."[2] The return journey was made overland to Canton, attended by high mandarins and a display of
