The 18th Century saw more than 30 voyages to China by the Swedish East India Company. On some of them, often as chaplains, were disciples, or students and friends, known as the Apostles, of the great Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus, the Enlightenment scientist who transformed taxonomic systems of describing plants and animals. Prominent amongst them was Pehr Osbeck who sailed away in 1750, returning in 1752 after spending some months in Canton, collecting plants and animals, observing, and eventually publishing his account of his voyage and botanical studies. In the same book, published first in Sweden in 1757, and translated into English from a German edition by Johann Forster in 1771, are letters from another Linnaean disciple Olaf Torén, and an account of Chinese husbandry by yet another friend of Linnaeus, the sea captain, explorer, naturalist, physician and artist Carl Ekeberg.

You can read about Osbeck and his book, and the wider group of naturalists in the attached article.