China and the West

Baring, Maurice. Lost diaries. (London : Duckworth & Co., 1913).
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/42542/42542-0.txt.
Little wind, or calm, all day. Send-off very fine; but now that we have started wonder whether I have been wise after all. Wonder whether we shall reach Western India and China…
The doctor, who has always scoffed at the idea of the sea serpent, which, he said, was a travellers' tale (adding, sarcastically, and, I think, very inconsiderately, "like the western passage to China"), was silent all the evening…
Expect to reach China in ten days' time, should the weather be favourable. Officers and ship's company in decidedly less good spirits since the foggy weather began. Sea serpent incident also caused a good deal of disappointment, the men being convinced we had reached the coast of China, although I had repeatedly explained that we could not possibly make that land for some time yet…
Confess am disappointed; wonder whether there is such a country as China after all…
He said at dinner yesterday that we might come home by the Nile, as we should certainly encounter its source in China…
Feel certain we cannot be near China or India. Unfortunately, my conviction, which I have never expressed, is shared by the ship's company, who showed signs of positive mutiny to-day…
The land is, of course, the coast of China. I always said it was somewhere about here…
Hoisted Spanish flag; took possession of the country, which seems to be India, and not China, after all…