In 1816, the brig Lyra was commissioned to accompany HMS Alceste to China in order to convey Lord Amherst’s embassy to the country. After leaving Amherst in Peking (now Beijing) the ships split up to explore the Gulf of Liaodong in the Yellow Sea. Rendezvousing at Jiaozhou Bay, the ships then sailed east to survey the coast of the Korean peninsula, where they made landfall in present-day Seocheon County. The ships spent only a short amount of time in Korea before heading south towards the Ryuku Islands (then known as the ‘Loo-Choo Islands’, now part of Okinawa), where they remained for six weeks. This account of the voyage was compiled by Basil Hall, the commanding officer of Lyra and provides one of the earliest European accounts of Korea and Okinawa.