Complex sentence: In 1863 he was appointed clerk in the Chinese Maritime Customs, serving in Tientsin and Shanghai before being sent in 1864 as a student interpreter to Peking, being appointed interpreter in Canton.
Split into simpler sentences: In 1863 he was appointed clerk in the Chinese Maritime Customs, serving in Tientsin and Shanghai. He was sent in 1864 as a student interpreter to Peking, then appointed interpreter in Canton.