THE JOURNAL OF TWO VOYAGES ALONG THE COAST OF CHINA, IN 1831, & 1832; The First in a Chinese Junk; The Second in the British Ship Lord Amherst: With Notices of Siam, Corea, and the Loo-Choo Islands; and Remarks on the Policy, Religion, etc., of China. de Gutzlaff, Charles [ie. Karl Friedrich August Gützlaff] - 1833

New York: John P. Haven, 1833. 12mo (in sixes). xi, [1], 332 pages. Original cloth with gilt spine lettering. [20.5 cm.] Ex-Sondley Reference Library with faint shadow of removed call number near tail of spine, bookplate on front pastedown, embossed stamp on title, and small number stamp on verso of title. Otherwise a good copy. Cloth on spine and most of covers faded from original purple to tan; closed tear to cloth covering rear hinge (6.5 cm); short tear head of front hinge (1.5 cm); light wear to spine ends; some soil to covers; light scattered foxing. FIRST EDITION. The first English edition followed the next year, with an addition of one chapter and with the title beginning "Journal of Three Voyages along the Coast of China, in 1831, 1832 & 1833 ... " The first German edition was a translation of the London edition and was issued later in 1834. The journal of the first voyage was originally printed in the "Chinese Repository" (vol. I, 1832). Karl Friedrich August Gützlaff (1803-1851), a native of Pomerania, was the first German Protestant to serve as a missionary in China. After a classical schooling, he studied at Janicke's Mission Institute in Berlin (where his tuition was paid by King Frederick William III) and at the Netherlands Missionary Society in Rotterdam. In 1826, he went to Java, where he learned Chinese. In 1827, he traveled to Singapore and settled in nearby Bintan. Ignoring the requests of the Dutch Missionary Society to return to Sumatra, he went to Bangkok in 1828. He remained there for most of the next three years (excepting visits to Bintan, Cochin China, Malacca, and Singapore) and translated the New Testament into Siamiese. In 1831, he sailed with a Chinese trader from Bangkok, northward along the coast of China as far as Liaoning in Manchuria, and back south to Guangdong. In 1832, he served as an interpreter and surgeon on the Lord Amherst, a British East India Company ship, which left from Macao, visited ports along the Chinese coast, and reached Korea. These are the first two of his Chinese voyages, as described in the present volume. His third voyage, during the fall of 1832 and spring of 1833, was aboard the Sylph, an opium smug. In 1834, he became an interpreter for the British superintendent of trade in China. He continued to travel and to evangelize, collaborated on a translation of the Bible into Chinese, and published numerous religious and secular works in Chinese. During the Opium War (1840-1842), he played a key role in British military and diplomatic efforts, serving as an interpreter on military expeditions and a civil magistrate in British occupied cities. He also helped to negotiate the Treaty of Nanjing. Afterwards, he served as Chinese secretary for the British in Hong Kong. Since the interior was now closed to foreigners, he founded the Chinese Union to train native missionaries. He later established the Chinese Evangelisation Society, whose first missionary, Hudson Taylor, became the leader of the China Inland Mission. His published works were very popular and helped encourage new interest in China among European and America missionaries. Cordier, BS, 2111. See Lust 371 (English ed.) AI 19145 (under "Guetzlaff").