To the honourable Governor Christopher Clitherow,

I am happy to report my safe arrival in Hong Kong, as well as a vocal and vigorous satisfaction with our wares from the locals. I foresee a profitable future. With our delivery settled, I will spend a week completing business on the mainland before setting sail for home. Indeed, by the time you receive this, I am back at sea already. All in all, my voyage can be marked a complete success. The Company is well on its way to being China’s lifeline to civilisation.

A curious update: do you recall the HCS Neptune, lost two years past? Our prediction it ran aground may have been accurate. A pair of blues came to me yesterday to tell me they’d found remains on the Southern side of Pratas. I’m not familiar with the isle, but the proximity to the same reef that has damaged hulls since our arrival in the region cannot be ignored. One of these remains is an intriguing journal; dozens of bamboo strips stacked to make pages, bound into a book. It is half the size of the Bible, with a dozen pages of words carved into the wood. A peculiar thing! The words have not lost legibility, though it almost certainly took a dip. The sailors explained the Chinese make these and tie the strips vertically, as befits their writing. This book had its strips tied horizontally, which made them think it belonged to an Englishman; the owner identifies himself as one of the Neptune’s crew. I have included it with this letter.

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This is why I write. Certainly the descriptions of porpoise, pelicans, and spiders will be of interest to the biologists, but there’s more which snagged my attention. Read through and see what you make of the religious figurines he mentions. I don’t recognise them based on his description, which infuriates. Hoping this might be one of my elusive shen. Poor chap goes quite mad by the end, of course. I don’t expect every blue-jacket to be of strong mind, but this one seems to have been betrayed by his profligate imagination. At a certain point, starvation has clearly set in; I couldn't read any further. It may be of interest, were someone able to parse it.

I look forward to discussing when I return.

Your servant,

William Hawthorpe