of his literary probity, which in a traveller cannot be too highly prized.
The Editor will conclude this Advertisement by a reflection which will no doubt strike the Reader as it does him: it is, that M. Van Braam's journal, not being a work undertaken with a view to reason upon China in a systematic manner, but to give an account of what he has met with and perceived, it cannot be supposed or expected that he should reduce facts to an agreement with any particular opinions. It is simple facts that he relates; he commits them to paper in the order in which they present themselves; he even does it with a sort of eagerness admitting of no studied arrangement, or combination over which the usual vanity, of an Author might have exerted its influence: all these circumstances are so many vouchers that his relation has been dictated by truth.
To exhibit this Journal in the French language in all its original purity has been the uniform study of the Editor; and the suffrage of the Author, under whose immediate inspection his labours have been carried on, is a favourable omen of his success. He shall esteem himself happy, if his feeble efforts are honoured with the approbation of the Reader.
