ABSTRACT
We have a notion here,’ wrote Lord Auckland privately to Lord Minto on 14 April 1840, ‘that there is a magnificent map of China either at the India House or at Windsor Castle. Pray inquire about it. It might be useful to have portions of it copied and lithographed for the fleet.’ 1 Whether or not the map arrived in due course, the twenty tour ships of the British expeditionary force, under Commodore Sir Gordon Bremer in the Wellesley, left Singapore for China on 30 May. And it would be a mistake to suggest that no one knew where they were going in cartographical terms – Jardine had provided Palmerston with his firm’s charts and map. There was a divergence of opinion, though, over priorities.
