Du nouveau sur la mystérieuse mission de Batavia à Saïgon en 1890

This note in part solves the mystery of the Chinese travelogue of 1890 published with a translation and introduction by Claudine Salmon and Ta Trong Hiêp in Archipel 47 (1994). The emissary Qu Molin is the Dutch sinologist and then member of the Council of the Indies W. P. Groeneveldt, and the interpreter Yang is the Dutch sinologist A. A. de Jongh. The purpose of this mission to French Indo-China was to study the advantages and disadvantages of the opium monopoly there, in view of its possible introduction in the Netherlands Indies. The identity of the author can be tentatively established. His name is Tan Siu Eng (1833-1906), he was a xiucai from Xiamen, who was brought to the Indies by Groeneveldt in 1874 as his personal teacher/ clerk and remained his assistant afterwards.Kuiper Koos. Du nouveau sur la mystérieuse mission de Batavia à Saïgon en 1890. In: Archipel, volume 77, 2009. pp. 27-44