The collecting activities of James Cuninghame FRS on the voyage of Tuscan to China (Amoy) between 1697 and 1699

Abstract

James Cuninghame's visit to China (1697–99) yielded a great deal of valuable information on both natural and artificial objects as well as items of contemporaneous trade interest (for example china clay and a scarlet dye). However, the circumstances surrounding the voyage have long been unclear. Although it has previously been assumed that Cuninghame must have travelled on an East India Company vessel, it now seems that he was aboard Tuscan, one of two private trading ships (interlopers) bound for Amoy under the command of Henry Gough. After an incident in La Palma (Canary Islands), only Tuscan proceeded to China after her release by the Spanish authorities. Study of surviving correspondence between Cuninghame and a Canarian cleric, Juan Bautista Poggio, has contributed to a better understanding of the events in the early part of the voyage. Cuninghame made extensive natural history collections during the six months that Tuscan remained in Amoy, before returning to England in 1699, where his specimens delighted his London supporters, James Petiver and Hans Sloane.