Amidst the excitement around the publication of accounts of the Macartney embassy to China in the 1790s, another book appeared recording a voyage to Canton, along with commentaries on both Macartney’s and the contemporaneous Dutch embassy of Titsingh and van Braam. Joseph-François Charpentier de Cossigny, born in the Isle de France (now Mauritius) spent almost two years sailing to Canton from France and back, recording his observations, dislike of the British, and with a keen eye for agriculture and crops. Over the years he was responsible for bringing back litchis and other fruit species from China and South East Asia, testing them in his own botanical garden, along with sugar cane and other commercial crops. Cossigny’s account seems never to have been translated into English, and its worth reading. There is much about tea, a swimming cat, the lack of love in Chinese society, and much more. You can read about it in the attached article, along with a rough translation, in a separate piece.