Narrative 9: A Biography of James Dinwiddie
A supplementary aim of the Embassy had been to impress the Chinese with current British technological developments. Just as the Embassy itself met a formal refusal, so Dr Dinwiddie, brought along to demonstrate diving bell, hot-air balloon and the latest scientific apparatus, found himself at cross-purposes with his Chinese audience.
Dr Dinwiddie later ascribed the failure of the Embassy to the inability of the English to understand or speak Chinese.
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