Travels from St Petersburg in Russia, to Diverse Parts of Asia Travels from St Petersburg in Russia, to Diverse Parts of Asia 2 Volume Set Series

John Bell (1691?1780) trained as a physician, but preferred a life of travel and diplomacy. He entered the service of Tsar Peter the Great of Russia, and had already taken part (as the expedition's doctor) in a government mission to Persia in 1715?18 when he was asked to join a further embassy to China. This two-volume work, published in 1763, describes both these journeys. Volume 2 takes up the story with the embassy's reception in Beijing, with accounts of the Chinese emperor and his court, and the return journey. It also includes the journal of Lorenz Lange (c.1690?1752), a Swede in Russian service who was an agent at the court of Beijing at the time of Bell's own mission, and short accounts of Bell's later visits to Derbent on the Caspian Sea, and to Constantinople. This is a delightful account of an area then hardly known in the west.

9. Occurrences at Pekin, audience of the ambassador, etc.; 10. Continuation of occurrences at Pekin, etc.; 11. Occurrences at Pekin continued; 12. Some account of the present emperor of China; 13. Our departure from Pekin; 14. Our arrival at the town of Surgute; Journal of Mr De Lange; A journey to Derbent; A journey to Constantinople.