"Apart from its Chinese importance, it [this account] is of considerable interest owing to the descriptions of various places en route which were visited, including Madeira, Teneriff, Rio de Janeiro, St. Helena, Tristan d'Acunha, Amsterdam Island, Java, Sumatra, Cochin-China, etc. -- Maggs, No. 521. Great Britian was anxious to establish formal diplomatic relations with China and thus open the way for unimpeded trade relations. But the pall of Chinese reserve and self-sufficiency, which for many centuries seldom admitted penetration, still hung over this empire and effectually resisted Lord Macartney's arguments and gifts ... His visit was not in vain, however, for it gave us a most interesting account of Chinese manners and customs at the close of the eighteenth century" (Cox).