details for certain facts, it is at the same time difficult to secure a true relation, from the existing distrust, which puts the Reader upon his guard against the Narrator.
Accordingly, to expect always extraordinary things from a Traveller who speaks of China, and to doubt his veracity merely because he relates things which seem extraordinary — is the disposition of mind of those, who read any thing written concerning that astonishing country.
It is to shew the well-informed reader what degree of confidence he may place in the Travels now submitted to his inspection, that the Editor has thought it adviseable to give him some idea of the character of the person who presents them to the public.
M. André Everard Van-Braam Houckgeest, born in 1739, in the province of Utrecht, in Holland, first served his country in the Dutch navy, in which two of his brothers, still alive, have more than once displayed great talents, and have both obtained the rank of Admiral, as a just reward for their services.
Determined by circumstances, which a state whose peculiar characteristic it is to be commercial, often affords, M. Van-Braam quitted the navy in 1758, and went to China, in quality of Supercargo of the Dutch East-India Company. He resided at Macao and Canton till 1773, except during two very short voyages to Europe.
