Neel was fortunate also in being able to acquire a copy of a book that illuminated his experiences on Great Nicobar Island: John Gottfried Haensel’s Letters on the Nicobar Islands (London, 1812). He was not so fortunate in stumbling upon Elijah C. Bridgman’s A Chinese Chrestomathy in the Canton Dialect (S. W. Williams, Macau, 1841). He subsequently gave up all hope of publishing his own Celestial Chrestomathy and took the work in a different direction (fragments of which are available on certain websites, including www.amitavghosh.com).

Much that is said by the characters in this book is taken from their own words. Some of John Slade’s speeches are adapted from his editorials and articles, published in the Canton Register; some of Charles King’s utterances are similarly adapted from the reports of the Canton Register and from his own writings, most notably Opium Crisis: A Letter Addressed to Charles Elliot Esq. (London, 1839). Some of the speeches given by Dinyar Ferdoonjee, William Jardine, Charles W. King and H. H. Lindsay are also adaptations based upon published accounts.

Quotations from edicts and proclamations issued by Chinese officials (including Commissioner Lin) are generally adapted from translations published contemporaneously in the Chinese Repository, the Canton Register, Portfolio Chinensis and Correspondence Relating to China. In rendering passages of Neel’s Bengali version of Commissioner Lin’s letter to Queen Victoria, I have relied partly on W. C. Hunter’s translation; but mostly I have adapted it from Arthur Waley’s beautiful translation in The Opium War Through Chinese Eyes (Stanford University Press, 1968).

As a supplement to Neel’s library I have relied also on the work of many contemporary and near-contemporary scholars and historians. To list all the books, articles and essays that have enriched this narrative would be impossible here, but it would be remiss of me not to acknowledge my gratitude for, and indebtedness to, the work of the following: E. N. Anderson, Robert Antony, S. F. Balfour, Jack Beeching, David Bello, Henry and Sidney Berry-Hill, Kingsley Bolton, J. M. Braga, Lucile Brockway, Anne Bulley, Hsin-Pao Chang, Gideon Chen, Weng Eang Cheong, Craig Clunas, Alice Coats, Patrick Conner, A. H. Crook, Carl L. Crossman, Stephen Dobbs, Jacques M. Downs, Wolfram Eberhard, Mark Elvin, Fa-ti Fan, Amar Farooqui, Peter Ward Fay, R. W. Ferrier, S. N. Gajendragadkar, Valery M. Garrett, John Gascoigne, L. Gibbs, Basil Greenhill, Martin Gregory, Mary and John Gribbin, Amalendu Guha, Deyan Guo, G. A. C. Herklots, A. P. Hill, Bret Hinsch, Ke-en Ho, Nan Powell Hodges, A. W. Hummell, Robin Hutcheon, Christopher Hutton, Graham E. Johnson, Russell Jones, Maneck Furdoonji Kanga, Frank Kehl, Maggie Keswick, Jane Kilpatrick, Paul Kriwaczek, Roy Lancaster, Daniel Irving Larkin, Thomas N. Layton, Zhiwei Liu, Hosea Ballou Morse, H. Le Rougetel, Elma Loines, David R. MacGregor, Joyce Madancy, Pierre-Yves Manguin, John McCoy, Wilson Menard, Erik Mueggler, Yong Sang Ng, E. H. Parker, Glen D. Peterson, James Duncan Phillips, Behesti Minocher N. Pundol Saheb, Peter Raby, Desmond Ray, H. E. Richardson, Dingxu Shi, Asiya Siddiqi, Helen F. Siu, Anthony Xavier Soares, Tan Chung, Madhavi Thampi, Adrian P. Thomas, G. R. Tibbetts, G. H. R. Tillotson, Yun Hui Tsu, Peter Valder, Paul A. Van Dyke, Arthur Waley, Barbara E. Ward, Rubie S. Watson, Tyler Whittle, G. R. Worcester, Ching-chao Wu and Liu Yu.