Drawing by William Alexander, draughtsman of the Macartney Embassy to China in 1793. A group of Chinese laborers-trackers eating their meal of rice, which they cooked on the earthen stove. The flat boards with ropes which were applied to the breast when pulling junks or other vessels are in the foreground. Trackers dragged the vessels when the tide or wind was unfavorable; around twenty were usually employed driven by a task-master. Image taken from "The Costume of China, illustrated in forty-eight coloured engravings", published in London in 1805.