CHAP. II.

Occurrences and Observations in the Navigation of the Yellow Sea, and the Passage up the Pei-ho, or White River.

Different Testimonies that have been given of the Chinese Character.--Comparison of China with Europe in the sixteenth Century.--Motives of the Missionaries in their Writings.--British Embassy passes the Streights of Formosa.--Appearance of a Ta-fung.--Chu-san Islands.--Instance of Chinese Amplification.--Various Chinese Vessels.--System of their Navigation--their Compass, probably of Scythian Origin--foreign Voyages of.--Traces of Chinese in America--in an Island of the Tartarian Sea--in the Persian Gulph--traded probably as far as Madagascar.--Commerce of the Tyrians.--Reasons for conjecturing that the Hottentots may have derived their Origin from China.--Portrait of a Chinese compared with that of a Hottentot.--Malays of the same descent as the Chinese.--Curious coincidences in the Customs of these and the Sumatrans.--Cingalese of Chinese Origin.--One of the Brigs dispatched to Chu-san for Pilots.--Rapid Currents among the Islands.--Visit to the Governor.--Difficulties in procuring Pilots.--Arbitrary Proceeding of the Governor.--Pilots puzzled with our Compass--Ignorance of--Arrive in the Gulph of Pe-tche-lee.--Visit of two Officers from Court, and their Present--enter the Pei-ho, and embark in convenient Yachts.--Accommodating Conduct of the two Officers.--Profusion of Provisions.--Appearance of the Country--of the People.--Dress of the Women.--Remarks on their small Feet.--Chinese an uncleanly and frowzy People.--Immense Crowds of People and River Craft at Tien-sing.--Decent and prepossessing Conduct of the Multitude.--Musical Air sung by the Rowers of the Yachts.--Favourable Traits in the Chinese Character.--Face and Products of the Country.--Multitudes of People Inhabitants of the Water.--Another Instance of arbitrary Power.--Disembark at Tong Tchoo, and are lodged in a Temple.

"If any man should make a collection of all the inventions, and all the productions, that every nation, which now is, or ever has been, upon the face of the globe, the whole would fall far short, either as to number or quality, of what is to be met with in China." These, or something similar, are the words of the learned Isaac Vossius.

The testimony given by the celebrated authors of the Encyclopédie des Connoissances humaines is almost equally strong: "The Chinese who, by common consent, are superior to all the Asiatic nations, in antiquity, in genius, in the progress of the sciences, in wisdom, in government, and in true philosophy; may, moreover, in the opinion of some authors, enter the lists, on all these points, with the most enlightened nations of Europe."

How flattering, then, and gratifying must it have been to the feelings of those few favoured persons, who had the good fortune to be admitted into the suite of the British Embassador, then preparing to proceed to the court of that Sovereign who held the government of such an extraordinary nation; how greatly must they have enjoyed the prospect of experiencing, in their own persons, all that was virtuous, and powerful, and grand, and magnificent, concentrated in one point--in the city of Pekin!

And if any doubts might have arisen, on consideration that neither the learned Canon of Windsor, nor the celebrated Authors of the Encyclopédie, were ever in China; that the first was wonderfully given to the marvellous, and the latter had no other authorities, than those of the Jesuits, and other missionaries for propagating the Christian faith, yet such doubts were more inclined to yield to the favourable side, as being supported by the almost unanimous concurrence of a multitude of testimonies, contained in the relations that have, at various times, been published not only by the missionaries, but also by some other travellers.

The late Sir William Jones, indeed, who deservedly took the lead in oriental literature, had observed, in speaking of the Chinese, that "By some they have been extolled as the oldest and wisest, as the most learned, and most ingenious, of nations; whilst others have derided their pretensions to antiquity, condemned their government as abominable, and arraigned their manners as inhuman; without allowing them an element of science, or a single art, for which they have not been indebted to some more ancient and more civilized race of men."

It is true, also, the researches of Mr. Pauw, the sagacious philosopher of Berlin, and the narrative of the elegant and impressive writer of Lord Anson's Voyage, convey to the reader's mind no very favourable ideas of the Chinese character; yet, as the enquiries of the one were entered upon in a spirit of controversy, and directed to one single point, and the author, as justly has been observed of him, delights sometimes to take a swim against the stream, many deductions were clearly to be made from the conclusions of Mr. Pauw. And with regard to the Narrative of Mr. Robins, it may be remarked that, to decide upon the general character of the Chinese, from the dealings Lord Anson had with them in the port of Canton, would be as unfair, as it would be thought presumptuous in a foreigner to draw the character of our own nation from a casual visit to Falmouth, Killybeggs, or Aberdeen. The same remark will apply to the accounts given of this nation by Toreen, Osbeck, Sonnerat, and some others, who have visited Canton in trading ships, none of whom were five hundred yards beyond the limits of the European factories.

It would also have been highly illiberal to suppose, that a body of men, remarkable, as the early Jesuit missionaries were thought to be, for probity, talent, and disinterestedness, should studiously sit down to compose fabrications for the mere purpose of deceiving the world. Even Voltaire, who had little partiality for the sacerdotal character, is willing to admit, that their relations ought to be considered as the productions of the most intelligent travellers that have extended and embellished the fields of Science and Philosophy. This remark, with proper allowances being made for the age in which they were written, may perhaps be applied to the narratives of the early missions to China, though not exactly to some others of a more modern date. All the praises bestowed by the former on this nation, the latter, it would seem, have, injudiciously, considered themselves bound to justify; without taking into account the progressive improvements of Europe within the last century and a half.

That China was civilized to a certain degree before most of the nations of Europe, not even Greece excepted, is a fact that will not admit of a doubt; but that it has continued to improve, so as still to vie with many of the present European states, as the missionaries would have it supposed, is not by any means so clear. From the middle to the end of the sixteenth century, compared with Europe in general, it had greatly the superiority, if not in science, at least in arts and manufactures, in the conveniences and the luxuries of life. The Chinese were, at that period, pretty much in the same state in which they still are; and in which they are likely to continue. When the first Europeans visited China, they were astonished to find an universal toleration of religious opinions; to observe Lamas and Tao-tzes, Jews, Persees, and Mahomedans, living quietly together, and each following his own creed without molestation; whilst most of the countries in Europe were, at that time, torn in pieces by religious schisms; and man was labouring with enthusiastic fury to destroy his fellow-creatures, in honour of his Creator, for a slight difference of opinion in matters of no real importance, or even for a different acceptation of a word. In China, every one was allowed to think as he pleased, and to chuse his own religion. The horrid massacre of the Protestants in Paris had terrified all Europe. China knew nothing of internal commotions, but such as were sometimes occasioned by a partial scarcity of grain. The art of improving vegetables by particular modes of culture, was just beginning to be known in Europe. All China, at that time, was comparatively a garden. When the King of France introduced the luxury of silk stockings, which, about eighteen years afterwards, was adopted by Elizabeth of England, the peasantry of the middle provinces of China were clothed in silks from head to foot. At this period, few or none of the little elegancies or conveniences of life were known in Europe; the ladies' toilet had few essences to gratify the sense of smell, or to beautify, for a time, the complexion; the scissars, needles, pen-knives, and other little appendages, were then unknown; and rude and ill-polished skewers usurped the place of pins. In China, the ladies had their needlework, their paint-boxes, their trinkets of ivory, of silver in fillagree, of mother-pearl, and of tortoise-shell. Even the calendar, at this time so defective in Europe, that Pope Gregory was urged to the bold undertaking of leaping over, or annihilating, ten days, was found to be, in China, a national concern, and the particular care of government. Decimal arithmetic, a new and useful discovery of the seventeenth century in Europe, was the only system of arithmetic in use in China. In a word, when the nobility of England were sleeping on straw, a peasant of China had his mat and his pillow; and the man in office enjoyed his silken mattress. One cannot, therefore, be surprized if the impressions made upon these holy men were powerfully felt, or if their descriptions should seem to incline a little towards the marvellous. Nor may perhaps their relations be found to be much embellished, on a fair comparison of the state of China with that of Europe in general, from the year 1560 to the close of the same century.

These religious men, however, might have had their motives for setting this wonderful people in the fairest point of view. The more powerful and magnificent, the more learned and refined they represented this nation to be, the greater would be their triumph in the event of their effecting a change of the national faith. It may also have occurred to them, that common prudence required they should speak favourably, at least, of a nation under whose power and protection they had voluntarily placed themselves for life. There is every reason to suppose, that in general they mean to tell the truth, but by suppressing some part of it, or by telling it in such a manner as if they expected it would one day get back to China in the language of that country, their accounts often appear to be contradictory in themselves. In the same breath that they extol the wonderful strength of filial piety, they speak of the common practices of exposing infants; the strict morality and ceremonious conduct of the people are followed by a list of the most gross debaucheries; the virtues and the philosophy of the learned are explained by their ignorance and their vices; if in one page they speak of the excessive fertility of the country, and the amazing extension of agriculture, in the next, thousands are seen perishing by want; and whilst they extol with admiration the progress they have made in the arts and sciences, they plainly inform us that without the aid of foreigners they can neither cast a cannon, nor calculate an eclipse.

Upon the whole, however, the British embassy left England under a favourable impression of the people it was about to visit. Whether the expectations of all those who composed it, independent of any political consideration, were realized, or ended in disappointment, may partly be collected from the following pages. The opinions they contain are drawn from such incidents and anecdotes as occurred in the course of an eight months' visit and from such as seemed best calculated to illustrate the condition of the people, the national character, and the nature of the government. A short residence in the imperial palace of Yuen-min-yuen, a greater share of liberty than is usually permitted to strangers in this country, with the assistance of some little knowledge of the language, afforded me the means of collecting the facts and observations which I now lay before the public; and in the relation of which I have endeavoured to adhere to that excellent rule of our immortal poet,

----"Nothing extenuate, Nor set down aught in malice."

And as the qualities of good and evil, excellence and mediocrity, in any nation, can only be fairly estimated by a comparison with those of the same kind in others, wherever a similitude or a contrast in the Chinese character or customs with those of any other people ancient or modern occurred to my recollection, I have considered it as not wholly uninteresting to note the relation or disagreement.

The dispatches from China, received by the British Embassador on his arrival at Batavia, communicated the agreeable intelligence that his Imperial Majesty had been pleased, by a public edict, not only to declare his entire satisfaction with the intended embassy, but that he had likewise issued strict orders to the commanding officers of the several ports along the coast of the Yellow Sea, to be particularly careful that Pilots should be ready, at a moment's notice, to conduct the English squadron to Tien-sing, the nearest port to the capital, or to any other which might be considered as more convenient and suitable for the British ships.

By this communication a point of some difficulty was now considered to be removed. It was deemed a desirable circumstance to be furnished with the means of proceeding directly to Pekin through the Yellow Sea, and thus to avoid any intercourse with the port of Canton; as it was well known the principal officers of the government there were prepared to throw every obstacle in the way of the embassy, and if not effectually to prevent, at least to counteract, any representations that might be made at the imperial court, with regard to the abuses that exist in the administration of the public affairs at that place, and more especially to the exactions and impositions to which the commercial establishments are liable of the different nations whose subjects have established factories in this southern emporium of China. It could not be supposed, indeed, that their endeavours would be less exerted, in this particular instance, than on all former occasions of a similar nature.

The navigation of the Yellow Sea, as yet entirely unknown to any European nation, was considered as a subject of some importance, from the information it would afford the means of supplying, and which, on any future occasion, might not only lessen the dangers of an unknown passage, but prevent also much delay by superseding the necessity of running into different ports in search of Chinese Pilots, whom, by experience, we afterwards found to be more dangerous than useful.

We passed through the streight of Formosa without seeing any part of the main land of China, or of the island from whence the streight derives its name, except a high point towards the northern extremity. The weather, indeed, during three successive days, the 25th, 26th, and 27th July was so dark and gloomy, that the eye could scarcely discern the largest objects at the distance of a mile, yet the thermometer was from 80° to 83° the greater part of these days. A heavy and almost incessant fall of rain was accompanied with violent squalls of wind, and frequent bursts of thunder and flashes of lightning; which, with the cross and confused swell in the sea, made the passage not only uncomfortably irksome, but also extremely dangerous, on account of the many islands interspersed in almost every part of the strait.

On the evening of the 25th the sun set in a bank of fog, which made the whole western side of the horizon look like a blaze of fire, and the barometer was observed to have fallen near one third of an inch, which, in these latitudes and at sea, is considered as a certain indication of a change of weather. There were on board some Chinese fishermen who had been driven out to sea in one of the East India company's ships, which we met with in the straits of Sunda. These men assured us that the appearance of the heavens prognosticated one of those tremendous gales of wind which are well known to Europeans by the name of Ty-phoon and which some ingenious and learned men have supposed to be the same as the Typhon of the Egyptians or [Greek: typhôn] of the Greeks. The Chinese, however have made use of no mythological allusion in naming this hurricane. They call it Ta-fung which literally signifies a great wind. The wind was certainly high the whole of the night and the following day, the thunder and lightning dreadful, and the variable squalls and rain frequent and heavy; the depth of the sea from 25 to 30 fathoms.

The charts, however, of this passage into the Yellow Sea, constructed by Europeans when the Chinese permitted foreign nations to trade to Chu-san, are considered as sufficiently exact for skilful navigators to avoid the dangerous rocks and islands. By the help of these charts our squadron ventured to stand through the still more intricate and narrow passages of the Chu-san Archipelago, where, in the contracted space of about eight hundred square leagues, the surface of the sea is studded with a cluster, consisting, nearly, of four hundred distinct islands.

These islands appeared to us, in sailing among them, to be mostly uninhabited, extremely barren of trees or shrubs, and many of them destitute even of herbage, or verdure of any kind. In some of the creeks we perceived a number of boats and other small craft, at the upper ends of which were villages composed of mean looking huts, the dwellings most probably of fishermen, as there was no appearance of cultivated ground near them to furnish their inhabitants with the means of subsistence.

The squadron having dropped anchor, we landed on one of the largest of these islands; and walked a very considerable distance before we saw a human being. At length, in descending a valley, in the bottom of which was a small village, we fell in with a young peasant, whom with some difficulty, by means of an interpreter, we engaged in conversation. Embarrassed in thus suddenly meeting with strangers, so different from his own countrymen, in dress, in features, and complexion, his timidity might almost be said to assume the appearance of terror. He soon, however, gained confidence, and became communicative. He assured us that the island on which we were, and of which he was a native, was the best in the whole groupe, and the most populous, except that of Chu-san; the number of its inhabitants being ten thousand souls. It was discovered, however, before we had been long in the country, that when a Chinese made use of the monosyllable van, which in his language signifies ten thousand, he was not to be understood as speaking of a determinate or precise number, but only as making use of a term that implied amplification. A state criminal, for example, is generally condemned to undergo the punishment of being cut into ten thousand pieces; the great wall of China is called the van-lee-tchin, or wall of ten thousand lee, or three thousand English miles, a length just double to that which the most authentic accounts have given of it. But when he means to inform any one that the emperor has ten thousand large vessels, for the purpose of collecting taxes paid in kind, on the grand canal, instead of the monosyllable van he invariably makes use of the expression nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine, as conveying a fixed and definite number, and, in this case, he will be understood to signify literally ten thousand. In this manner, I suppose, we were to understand the population of the island Lo-ang.

[Illustration: W. Alexander del^t T. Medland sculp^t

A Foreign Trader.]

[Illustration: W. Alexander del^t T. Medland sculp^t

A Rice Mill.

Pub. May 2, 1804, by Mess^rs. Cadell, & Davies, Strand, London.]

At the sight of our large ships, so different in their appearance from any of those belonging to the Chinese, a vast number of boats, issuing from every creek and cove, presently crowded together, in such a manner, and with so little management, as to render it difficult to pass through without danger of oversetting or sinking some of them; a danger, however, to which they seemed quite insensible. Vessels of a larger description, and various in the shape of their hulls and rigging, from twenty tons burden and upwards, to about two hundred tons, were observed in considerable numbers, sailing along the coast of the continent, laden generally with small timber, which was piled to such a height upon their decks, that no extraordinary force of wind would seem to be required to overturn them. Beams of wood, and other pieces that were too long to be received upon the deck of a single ship, were laid across the decks of two vessels lashed together. We saw at least a hundred couple thus laden in one fleet, keeping close in with the coast, in order to be ready, in case of bad weather, to put into the nearest port, being ill calculated to resist a storm at sea. The ships indeed that are destined for longer voyages appear, from their singular construction, to be very unfit to contend with the tempestuous seas of China. The general form of the hull, or body of the ship, above water, is that of the moon when about four days old. The bow, or forepart, is not rounded as in ships of Europe, but is a square flat surface, the same as the stern; without any projecting piece of wood, usually known by the name of cutwater, and without any keel. On each side of the bow a large circular eye is painted, in imitation, I suppose, of that of a fish. The two ends of the ship rise to a prodigious height above the deck. Some carry two, some three, and others four masts. Each of these consists of a single piece of wood, and consequently not capable of being occasionally reduced in length, as those of European ships. The diameter of the mainmast of one of the larger kind of Chinese vessels, such as trade to Batavia, is not less than that of an English man of war of sixty-four guns. And it is fixed in a bed of massive timber laid across the deck. On each mast is a single sail of matting, made from the fibres of the bamboo, and stretched by means of poles of that reed, running across, at the distance of about two feet from each other. These sails are frequently made to furl and unfurl like a fan. When well hoisted up and braced almost fore and aft, or parallel with the sides of the ship, a Chinese vessel will sail within three and a half, or four points of the wind; but they lose all this advantage over ships of Europe by their drifting to leeward, in consequence of the round and clumsy shape of the bottom, and their want of keel. The rudder is so placed, in a large opening of the stern, that it can occasionally be taken up, which is generally done on approaching sands and shallows.

The Chinese, in fact, are equally unskilled in naval architecture, as in the art of navigation. They keep no reckoning at sea, nor possess the least idea of drawing imaginary lines upon the surface of the globe, by the help of which the position of any particular spot may be assigned; in other words, they have no means whatsoever of ascertaining the latitude or the longitude of any place, either by estimation from the distance sailed, or by observation of the heavenly bodies, with instruments for that purpose. Yet they pretend to say, that many of their early navigators made long voyages, in which they were guided by charts of the route, sometimes drawn on paper, and sometimes on the convex surface of large gourds or pumpkins. From this circumstance, some of the Jesuits have inferred, that such charts must have been more correct than those on flat surfaces. If, indeed, the portion of the convex surface, employed for the purpose, was the segment of a sphere, and occupied a space having a comparative relation to that part of the surface of the earth sailed over, the inference might be allowable; but this would be to suppose a degree of knowledge to which, it does not appear, the Chinese had at any time attained, it being among them, in every period of their history, an universally received opinion, that the earth is a square, and that the kingdom of China is placed in the very center of its flat surface.

The present system of Chinese navigation is to keep as near the shore as possible; and never to lose sight of land, unless in voyages that absolutely require it; such as to Japan, Batavia, and Cochin-China. Knowing the bearing, or direction of the port intended to be made, let the wind be fair or foul, they endeavour, as nearly as possible, to keep the head of the ship always pointing towards the port by means of the compass. This instrument, as used in China, has every appearance of originality. The natives know nothing, from history or tradition, of its first introduction or discovery; and the use of the magnet, for indicating the poles of the earth, can be traced, from their records, to a period of time when the greatest part of Europe was in a state of barbarism. It has been conjectured, indeed, that the use of the magnetic needle, in Europe, was first brought from China by the famous traveller Marco Polo the Venetian. Its appearance immediately after his death, or, according to some, while he was yet living, but at all events, in his own country, renders such a conjecture extremely probable. The embassies in which he was employed by Kublai-Khan, and the long voyages he performed by sea, could scarcely have been practicable without the aid of the compass. Be this as it may, the Chinese were, without doubt, well acquainted with this instrument long before the thirteenth century. It is recorded in their best authenticated annals merely as a fact, and not as any extraordinary circumstance, that the Emperor Chung-ko presented an embassador of Cochin-China, who had lost his way in coming by sea, with a Ting-nan-tchin "a needle pointing out the south," the name which it still retains. Even this idea of the seat of magnetic influence, together with the construction of the compass-box, the division of the card into eight principal points, and each of these again subdivided into three, the manner of suspending the needle, and its diminutive size, seldom exceeding in length three quarters of an inch, are all of them strong presumptions of its being an original, and not a borrowed invention.

By some, indeed, it has been conjectured, that the Scythians, in the northern regions of Asia, were acquainted with the polarity of the magnet, in ages antecedent to all history, and that the virtue of this fossil was intended to be meant by the flying arrow, presented to Abaris by Apollo, about the time of the Trojan war, with the help of which he could transport himself wherever he pleased. The abundance of iron ores, and perhaps of native iron, in every part of Tartary, and the very early period of time in which the natives were acquainted with the process of smelting these ores, render the idea not improbable, of the northern nations of Europe, and Asia, (or the Scythians,) being first acquainted with the polarity of the magnet.

Yet even with the assistance of the compass, it is surprizing how the clumsy and ill-constructed vessels of the Chinese can perform so long and dangerous a voyage as that to Batavia. For, besides being thrown out of their course by every contrary wind, their whole construction, and particularly the vast height of their upper works above the water, seems little adapted to oppose those violent tempests that prevail on the China seas, known, as we have already observed, by the name of Ta-fung. These hurricanes sometimes blow with such strength that, according to the assertion of an experienced and intelligent commander of one of the East India Company's ships, "Were it possible to blow ten thousand trumpets, and beat as many drums, on the forecastle of an Indiaman, in the height of a Ta-fung, neither the sound of the one nor the other would be heard by a person on the quarter-deck of the same ship." In fact, vast numbers of Chinese vessels are lost in these heavy gales of wind; and ten or twelve thousand subjects from the port of Canton alone are reckoned to perish annually by shipwreck.

When a ship leaves this port on a foreign voyage, it is considered as an equal chance that she will never return; and when the event proves favourable, a general rejoicing takes place among the friends of all those who had embarked in the hazardous enterprize. Some of these ships are not less than a thousand tons burden, and contain half that number of souls, besides the passengers that leave their country, in the hope of making their fortunes in Batavia and Manilla. A ship is seldom the concern of one man. Sometimes forty or fifty, or even a hundred different merchants purchase a vessel, and divide her into as many compartments as there are partners, so that each knows his own particular place in the ship, which he is at liberty to fit up and to secure as he pleases. He ships his goods, and accompanies them in person, or sends his son, or a near relation, for it rarely happens that they will trust each other with property, where no family connexion exists. Each sleeping place is just the length and breadth of a man, and contains only a small mat, spread on the floor, and a pillow. Behind the compass is generally placed a small temple, with an altar, on which is continually kept burning a spiral taper composed of wax, tallow and sandal-wood dust. This holy flame answers a double purpose; for while the burning of it fulfils an act of piety, its twelve equal divisions serve to measure the twelve portions of time, which make up a complete day. It should seem that the superstitious notions inculcated in the people have led them to suppose, that some particular influence resides in the compass; for, on every appearance of a change in the weather, they burn incense before the magnetic needle.

The losses occasioned among the ships that were employed to transport the taxes paid in kind from the ports of the southern and middle provinces to the northern capital, were so great, at the time of the Tartar Conquest, in the thirteenth century, that the successors of Gengis-Khan were induced to open a direct communication between the two extremes of the empire, by means of the rivers and canals; an undertaking that reflects the highest credit on the Mongul Tartars, and which cannot fail to be regarded with admiration, as long as it shall continue to exist. The Chinese, however, say, that the Tartars only repaired the old works that were fallen into decay.

Six centuries previous to this period, or about the seventh century of the Christian æra, the Chinese merchants, according to the opinion of the learned and ingenious Mr. de Guignes, carried on a trade to the west coast of North America. That, at this time, the promontory of Kamskatka was known to them under the name of Ta-Shan, many of their books of travels sufficiently testify; but their journies thither were generally made by land. One of the missionaries assured me that, in a collection of travels to Kamskatka, by various Chinese, the names of the several Tartar tribes, their manners, customs, and characters, the geographical descriptions of lakes, rivers, and mountains, were too clearly and distinctly noted to be mistaken. It is, however, extremely probable that, as furs and peltry were always in great demand, they might also have some communication with the said promontory from the isles of Jesso, to which they were known to trade with their shipping; and which are only a very short distance from it. Mr. de Guignes, in support of his opinion, quotes the journal of a bonze, as the priests of Fo have usually been called, who sailed eastward from Kamskatka to such a distance as, in his mind, puts it beyond a doubt that the country he arrived at was no other than the coast of California. The Spanish writers, indeed, of the early voyages to this country, make mention of various wrecks of Chinese vessels being found in different parts of the western coast of the New Continent; and they observe that the natives here were, invariably, more civilized than in the interior and eastern parts of America.

Even those on the eastern coast of South America have a very strong resemblance to the Chinese in their persons, though not in their temperament and manners. The Viceroy of the Brazils retains a dozen of these people in his service, as rowers of his barge, with the use of which he one day honoured us, to make the tour of the grand harbour of Rio de Janeiro. We observed the Tartar or Chinese features, particularly the eye, strongly marked in the countenances of these Indians; the copper tinge was rather deeper than the darkest of the Chinese; but their beards being mostly confined to the upper lip and the point of the chin, together with their strong black hair, bore a very near resemblance.

The island of Tcho-ka, or Saghalien, in the Tartarian sea, opposite the mouth of the Amour, has evidently been peopled by the Chinese. When Monsieur la Perouse visited this island, he found the inhabitants clothed in blue nankin, and "the form of their dress differed but little from that of the Chinese; their pipes were Chinese, and of Tootanague; they had long nails; and they saluted by kneeling and prostration, like the Chinese. If," continues the navigator, "they have a common origin with the Tartars and Chinese their separation from these nations must be of very ancient date, for they have no resemblance to them in person, and little in manners." Yet from his own account it appears that both their manners and customs have a very close resemblance.

The Chinese at one period carried on a very considerable commerce with Bussora and other sea-ports in the Persian gulph, particularly Siraff, near which some small islands, as well as several remarkable points and headlands of the coast, still bear Chinese names. In some of the voyages it is observed that a Colony of Chinese had apparently settled in the kingdom of Soffala, the descendants of whom were, in the time of the writers, easily distinguished from the other natives, by the difference of their colour and their features. The early Portuguese navigators also observe that on the island St. Laurence or Madagascar they met with people that resembled the Chinese. That the celebrated traveller Marco Polo visited Madagascar in a Chinese vessel there can be little doubt, unless indeed, like his own countrymen, we chuse rather to reject the probable parts of his narrative as fabulous, and to believe the miracles performed by the Nestorian Christians in Armenia as the only truths in his book.

It is impossible not to consider the notices given by this early traveller as curious, interesting and valuable; and, as far as they regard the empire of China, they bear internal evidence of being generally correct. He sailed from China in a fleet consisting of fourteen ships, each carrying four masts, and having their holds partitioned into separate chambers, some containing thirteen distinct compartments. This is the exact number of divisions into which all the holds of those sea-faring vessels were partitioned that transported the presents and baggage from our own ships in the gulph of Pe-tche-lee into the river Pei-ho; and we observed many hundreds of a still larger description, that are employed in foreign voyages, all carrying four masts; such vessels, our sailors who are remarkable for metamorphosing foreign names, usually called Junks, from Tehuan which signifies a ship; the Tsong-too or viceroy of a province is called by them John Tuck.

Not only the form of the ships, but the circumstances of the voyage taken notice of by this ancient navigator stamp his relation with authenticity. The strong current between Madagascar and Zanzebar rendering it next to impossible for ships to get back to the northward; the black natives on that coast, the products of the country which he enumerates; the true description of the Giraffe or Camelopardalis, at that time considered in Europe as a fabulous animal, are so many and such strong evidences in favour of his narrative, as to leave little doubt that he either was himself upon the east coast of Africa, or that he had received very correct information from his Chinese shipmates concerning it. Yet Doctor Vincent has asserted, in his Periplus of the Erythrean Sea[4], that in the time of this Venetian traveller none but Arab or Malay vessels navigated the Indian Ocean. With all due deference to such high authority I cannot forbear observing that the simple relation of Marco Polo bears internal and irresistible evidence that the fleet of ships in which he sailed were Chinese, of the same kind to all intents and purposes as they now are. Nor have we any reason for doubting the authority of the two Mahomedans who visited China in the ninth century, when they tell us that Chinese ships traded to the Persian gulph at that time. In a chart made under the direction of the Venetian traveller and still preserved in the church of St. Michael de Murano at Venice, the southern part of the continent of Africa is said to be distinctly marked down, though this indeed might have been inserted after the Cape of Good Hope had been doubled by the Portuguese.

[4] In the very next page (202) he however corrects himself, by observing that either the Chinese or Malays navigated as far as Madagascar.

Whether the Prince of Portugal had seen or heard of this chart, or consulted the Arabian Geographers, or had read of the circumnavigation of Africa in the first translation of Herodotus that made its appearance but a few years before the discovery of the southern promontory of this continent by Bartholomew Diaz; or whether the voyages were undertaken at that time on a general plan of discovery, authors seem not to have agreed, but the opinion, I understand, among the Portugueze is that Henry had good grounds for supposing that the circumnavigation of Africa was practicable.

And whether the Phoenicians did or did not, in the earliest periods of history, double the Cape of Good of Hope there is abundant reason for supposing they were well acquainted with the east coast of Africa as far as the Cape of Currents. Nor is it probable that the extent and flourishing condition of the trade and commerce of Tyrus should have been limited to that part of the Indian ocean to the southward of the Red Sea, which is a more difficult navigation than to the northward. That this commerce was extensive we have the authority of the prophet Ezekiel, who, in glowing terms, has painted its final destruction, and who, it may be remarked, is supposed to have lived at the very time the Phoenicians sailed round Africa by order of Necho. "Thy riches and thy fairs, thy merchandise, thy mariners and thy pilots, thy caulkers, and the occupiers of thy merchandize, and all thy men of war that are in thee, and in all thy company which is in the midst of thee, shall fall into the midst of the seas in the day of thy ruin." It is probable therefore that the navigation of the Eastern Seas was known in the earliest periods of history, and there seems to be no reason for supposing that the Chinese should not have had their share in it.

Without, however, making any enquiry into the probability that an ancient intercourse might have subsisted between China and the East coast of Africa, either by convention for commercial purposes, or that Chinese sailors might have been thrown on that coast either in Phoenician, or Arabian, or their own vessels, I happened to observe in a former publication of "Travels in Southern Africa," as a matter of fact, "that the upper lid of the eye of a real Hottentot, as in that of a Chinese, was rounded into the lower on the side next the nose, and that it formed not an angle as in the eye of an European--that from this circumstance they were known in the colony of the Cape by the name of Chinese Hottentots." Further observations have confirmed me in the very striking degree of resemblance between them. Their physical characters agree in almost every point. The form of their persons in the remarkable smallness of the joints and the extremities, their voices and manner of speaking, their temper, their colour and features, and particularly that singular shaped eye rounded in the corner next the nose like the end of an ellipsis, probably of Tartar or Scythian origin, are nearly alike. They also agree in the broad root of the nose; or great distance between the eyes: and in the oblique position of these, which, instead of being horizontal, as is generally the case in European subjects, are depressed towards the nose. A Hottentot who attended me in travelling over Southern Africa was so very like a Chinese servant I had in Canton, both in person, features, manners, and tone of voice, that almost always inadvertently I called him by the name of the latter. Their hair, it is true, and that only differs. This, in a Hottentot, is rather harsh and wiry, than woolly, neither long, nor short, but twisted in hard curling ringlets resembling fringe. I possess not a sufficient degree of skill in physiology to say what kind of hair the offspring would have of a Chinese man and Mozambique woman; much less can I pretend to account for the origin of the Hottentot tribes, insulated on the narrow extremity of a large continent, and differing so remarkably from all their neighbours, or where to look for their primitive stock unless among the Chinese.

I am aware it will appear rather singular to those, who may have attended to the accounts that generally have been given of these two people, to meet with a comparison between the most polished and the most barbarous, the wisest and the most ignorant of mankind; and I am therefore the less surprized at at an observation made by the writers of the Critical Review "that the foetus of the Hottentots may resemble the Chinese, as the entrails of a pig resemble those of a man; but on this topic our ingenious author seems to wander beyond the circle of his knowledge." I hope these gentlemen will not be offended at my taking this occasion to assure them that the comparison was not even then made on loose grounds, although no inference was drawn from it, and that on a closer examination, I am the more convinced of their near resemblance in mental as well as physical qualities. The aptitude of a Hottentot in acquiring and combining ideas is not less than of a Chinese, and their powers of imitation are equally great, allowance being made for the difference of education; the one being continually from his infancy brought up in a society where all the arts and conveniences of life are in common use; the other among a miserable race of beings in constant want even of the common necessaries of life.

But as assertions and opinions prove nothing, I have annexed the portrait of a real Hottentot, drawn from the life by Mr. S. Daniell, in order to compare it with one of a Chinese, taken also from the life by Mr. Alexander; and I have no doubt that a close comparison of these portraits will convince the reader, as well as the reviewer, that the resemblance I remarked to have found was not altogether fanciful.

[Illustration: W. Alexander del^t T. Medland sculp^t

A Chinese]

[Illustration: T. Medland sculp^t S. Daniell del^t

A Hottentot]

Indeed the people that have derived their origins from the same stock with the Chinese, are more widely scattered over the Asiatic continent and the oriental islands than is generally imagined. All those numerous societies, known under the common name of Malays, are unquestionably descended from the ancient inhabitants of Scythia or Tartary; and it may perhaps be added, that their connection with the Arabs and their conversion to Islamism first inspired, and have now rendered habitual, that cruel and sanguinary disposition for which they are remarkable; for it has been observed that the natives of those islands, to which the baleful influence of this religion has not extended, have generally been found a mild and inoffensive people; as was the case with regard to the natives of the Pelew islands when discovered by Captain Wilson.

The perusal of Mr. Marsden's excellent history of Sumatra leaves little doubt on my mind that a Chinese colony at some early period has settled on that island. This author observes that the eyes of the Sumatrans are little, and of the same kind as those of the Chinese; that they suffer their nails to grow long; that they excel in working fillagree, making gunpowder, &c. that they register events by making knots on cords; that they count decimally, write with a style on bamboo; that they have little hair on their bodies and heads, which little, like the Chinese, they extract. In their language, many words, I perceive, are similar; and the corresponding words express the same idea in both languages; but on etymological comparisons I would be understood to lay little stress, for reasons which will be assigned in the sixth chapter. The similitude of a religious ceremony is much stronger ground to build upon; and the coincidence is sufficiently remarkable, that the manner practised by the Sumatrans in taking a solemn oath should exactly agree with the same ceremony which is used in giving a solemn pledge among the common people of China, namely, by wringing off the head of a cock. Captain Mackintosh told me that having once occasion to place great confidence in the matter of a Chinese vessel, and doubting lest he might betray it, the man felt himself considerably hurt, and said he would give him sufficient proof that he was to be trusted. He immediately procured a cock, and, falling down on both knees, wrung off his head; then holding up his hands towards heaven, he made use of these words: "If I act otherwise than as I have said, do thou, o tien, (Heaven) deal with me as I have dealt with this cock!"

I have since been informed, from the best authority, that whenever, in the course of the concerns of the British East India Company with the merchants of China, it may be necessary to administer an oath to a Chinese, the same ceremony is gone through of wringing off the head of a cock, which is by them considered in a very serious light, a sort of incantation, whose effects upon their minds are not unlike those produced by supposed magic spells, once common in our own country, by which the vulgar were persuaded that the Devil was to be made to appear before them. In a Chinese court of justice an oath is never administered. In a late affair, where a Chinese was killed by a seaman of a British man of war, and the Captain was about to administer an oath to two of his people whom he produced as evidences in a Chinese court of justice, the chief judge was so shocked, that he ordered the court to be instantly cleared.

The Cingalese are unquestionably of Chinese origin. Those who are acquainted with the Chinese manners and character, will immediately perceive the very close resemblance, on reading Mr. Boyd's relation of his embassy to the King of Candy. Sin-quo, kingdom of Sin, (from whence Sina, or China,) are Chinese words; the termination is European. So also is the name of the island Chinese, See-lan, See-long, or See-lung, the Western Dragon, in conformity to an invariable custom of assigning the name of some animal to every mountain.

Having no intention, however, to investigate minutely the extent of Chinese navigation and commerce in ancient times, but rather to confine my observations to their present state, I return from this digression, in order to proceed on our voyage.

One of the small brigs, attending the expedition, was dispatched without loss of time to the port of Chu-san, to take on board the pilots that, agreeable to the order contained in the Imperial edict, were expected to be found in readiness to embark. In some of the passages, formed by the numerous islands, the currents ran with amazing rapidity, appearing more like the impetuous torrents of rivers, swelled by rains, than branches of the great ocean. The depth too of these narrow passages was so great as to make it difficult, dangerous, and frequently impossible, for ships to anchor in the event of a calm; in which case they must necessarily drive at the mercy of the stream. As we approached, in the Clarence brig, the high rocky point of the continent called Kee-too, which juts into the midst of the cluster of islands, the wind suddenly failed us; and the current hurried us with such velocity directly towards the point, that we expected momentarily to be dashed in pieces; but on coming within twice the length of the ship of the perpendicular precipice, which was some hundred feet high, the eddy swept her round three several times with great rapidity. The Captain would have dropped the anchor, but an old Chinese fisherman, whom we had taken on board to pilot us, made signs that it was too deep, and, at the same time, that there was no danger, except that of the bowsprit striking against the mountain. The Chinese vessels have no bowsprit. At this moment the lead was thrown, but we got no soundings at the depth of one hundred and twenty fathoms; yet the yellow mud was brought up from the bottom in such quantities, that the Nile, at the height of its inundations, or the great Yellow River of China, could not be more loaded with mud than the sea was in the whirlpool of Kee-too point. The current, in the Strait of Faro, setting directly upon the rocks of Scylla, and the whirlpool of Charybdis, those celebrated objects of dread to ancient navigators, could not possibly have been more awfully terrific, though perhaps more dangerous, than the currents and the eddies that boiled tumultuously round this promontory of the Chinese continent, where,

"When the tide rushes from her rumbling caves The rough rock roars, tumultuous boil the waves; They toss, they foam, a wild confusion raise, Like waters bubbling o'er the fiery blaze."

The second whirl removed us to a considerable distance from the point, and, after the third, we were swept rapidly along in a smooth uniform current. Our interpreter, a Chinese priest, who had been educated in the college de propaganda fide at Naples, was not quite so composed as his countryman the pilot. The poor fellow, indeed, had nearly been thrown overboard by the boom of the mainsail, in the first, which was the most rapid, whirl of the ship; the same blow striking a sailor tossed his hat overboard; and it afforded some amusement, in our supposed perilous situation, to hear the different ejaculations of these two persons on the same occasion. Sanctissima Maria, est miraculum, est miraculum! exclaimed the priest, with great eagerness; whilst the sailor, rubbing his head, and walking away, with much composure observed, that the d--n'd boom had carried away his fore-top-gallant cap!

The Chinese, it seemed, had already been apprized of our arrival, for we had not proceeded far before a large vessel bore down towards us, and, hailing the brig in their own language, desired we would bring her to anchor, and that they would conduct us early the following morning into the harbour of Chu-san. Some of the officers came on board, were extremely civil, and presented us with a basket of fruit; but they affected to know nothing of the occasion that had brought us thither. Our old fisherman took out of the sea, (among thousands that had floated round out vessel) one of those animal substances which, I believe, we vulgarly call sea blubbers (Mollusca medusa porpita). If was at least a foot in diameter. Having dressed it for his supper, and seeing it wear the inviting appearance of a transparent colourless jelly, I was tempted to taste it; but the effect produced by this, or the fruit, or both, was a severe sickness, which continued for several days.

We weighed anchor at day-break, and, with a pleasant breeze, sailed in company with the clumsy-looking junk, which, however, to the surprise of our seamen, sailed quite as well as the smart-looking Clarence.

Having anchored before the town, in a spacious bason formed by several islands, and paid the usual compliment of a salute, a few Mandarines (officers of government so named by the early Portugueze from mandar, to command) came on board. To every question that led to the main point of our visit, these people gave us evasive answers, affecting the most complete ignorance of every thing relating to the affairs of the embassy. They said the Tsung-ping, or military governor of the island, was then absent, but that he would return in the course of the day, and would be happy to see us on shore the following morning. Chinese etiquette, I suppose, required that a day should elapse before our reception in form.

Accordingly, at an early hour in the morning the gentlemen of the embassy, who had been sent on this business, went on shore, and were received by the Governor with great politeness, and abundant ceremony, in his hall of public audience, which, as a building, had little to attract our notice. The usual minute enquiries being gone through, which, it seems, Chinese good-breeding cannot dispense with, such as the health of his visitors, of their parents and relations, and particularly the name and age of each person, the object of our visit was explained to him; and at the same time a hope expressed that there would be no delay in getting the pilots on board. The old gentleman appeared to be much surprized at such violent haste, and talked of plays, feasts, and entertainments, that he meant to give us. Pilots, however, he said, were ready to take charge of the ships, and to carry them along the coast to the next province, where others would be found to conduct them still farther. On being told that such a mode of navigation was utterly impracticable for the large English ships, and that such pilots would be of no use to us, he begged to be allowed the remainder of the day to enquire for others. We little expected to have met with any difficulties with regard to pilots, in one of the best and most frequented ports in China, where, at that time several hundred vessels were lying at anchor. The remainder of the day was spent in a visit to the city of Ting-hai; but the crowd became so numerous, and the day was so excessively hot, that before we had passed the length of a street, we were glad to take refuge in a temple, where the priests very civilly entertained us with tea, fruit, and cakes. The officer who attended us advised us to return in sedan chairs, an offer which we accepted; but the bearers were stopped every moment by the crowd, in order that every one might satisfy his curiosity by thrusting his head in at the window, and exclaiming, with a grin, Hung-mau! Englishman, or, literally, Redpate! Rather disappointed than gratified, we were glad, after a fatiguing day, to throw ourselves into our cots on board the Clarence.

When we went on shore the following morning, we found the military governor, attended by a civil magistrate, by whom, after the usual compliments, we were addressed, in a long oration, delivered apparently with a great deal of solemnity, the intention of which was to convince us that, as it had been the practice of the Chinese, for time immemorial, to navigate from port to port, experience had taught them it was the best. Finding, however, that his eloquence could not prevail on his hearers to relinquish their own opinions on the subject, the governor and he consulted together for some time, and at length resolved that a general muster should be made of all the persons in that place, who had at any time visited by sea the port of Tien-sing.

A number of soldiers were accordingly dispatched, and soon returned, with a set of the most miserable-looking wretches I ever beheld; who were thrust into the hall, and dropping on their knees, were examined in that attitude, as to their qualifications. Some, it appeared, had been at the port of Tien-sing, but were no seamen; others followed the profession, but had never been at that port; and several were hauled in, who had never set a foot on board a vessel of any description whatsoever. In short, the greater part of the day was consumed to no purpose; and we were about to conclude that we had a great chance of leaving the central and much frequented harbour of Chu-san, without being able to procure a single pilot, when two men were brought in, who seemed to answer the purpose better than any which had yet been examined. It appeared, however, that they had quitted the sea for many years, and being comfortably settled in trade, had no desire to engage in the present service; on the contrary, they begged on their knees that they might be excused from such an undertaking. Their supplications were of no avail. The Emperor's orders must be obeyed. In vain did they plead the ruin of their business by their absence, and the distress it would occasion to their wives, their children, and their families. The Governor was inexorable; and they were ordered to be ready to embark in the course of an hour.

This arbitrary proceeding of the Governor conveyed no very exalted ideas of the justice or moderation of the government, or of the protection it afforded to the subject. To drag away from his family an honest and industrious citizen, settled in trade, and to force him into a service that must be ruinous to his concerns, was an act of injustice and violence that could not be tolerated in any other than a despotic government, where the subject knows no laws but the will of the tyrant. But we are yet on a distant island of the Great Empire, remote from the fountain of authority; and delegated power, in all countries, is but too liable to be abused. Besides, a Chinese might be impressed with sentiments equally unfavourable of our government, were he informed of the manner in which imperious necessity sometimes requires our navy to be manned.

One consideration, however, might with safety be drawn from the occurrences of this day, which was this, that long voyages are never undertaken where they can be avoided; but that the commerce of the Yellow Sea is carried on from port to port; and that the articles of merchandize so transported must necessarily have many profits upon them, before they come to the distant consumer; which may, in some degree, account for the high prices many of the products of the country, as we afterwards found, bore in the capital. In like manner was the inland commerce of Asia conducted by caravans, proceeding from station to station, at each of which were merchants to buy or exchange commodities with each other, those at the limits of the journey having no connection nor communication whatsoever with one another; which will partly explain the ignorance of the Greeks with regard to the Eastern countries, from whence they derived their precious stones, perfumes, and other valuable articles.

The old Governor was evidently relieved from a load of anxiety at his success; and the tears and entreaties of the poor men served only to brighten up his countenance. From civility, or curiosity, or perhaps both, he returned our visit on board the brig, which had been crowded with the natives from morning till night, since her first arrival in the harbour. The want of curiosity, which has been supposed to form a part of the Chinese character, was not perceived in this instance; but it was that sort of curiosity, which appeared rather to be incited by the desire of looking narrowly at the persons of those who were to have the honour of being presented to their Great Emperor, than for the sake of gratifying the eye or the mind, by the acquirement of information or new ideas. The vessel, although so very different from their own, was an object of little notice; and although eager to get a transient glance at the passengers, their curiosity was satisfied in a moment, and was generally accompanied with some vague exclamation, in which the words Ta-whang-tee occurred; and the main drift of which seemed to imply, "is this person to appear before our Great Emperor?" This was still more remarkable in the crowd of Ting-hai; nothing scarcely was there heard but the words Ta-whang-tee and Hung-mau, the Emperor and the Englishman.

The squadron had scarcely got under way, and cleared the narrow passages between the islands into the Yellow Sea, when it was perceived how very little advantage it was likely to derive from the Chinese pilots. One of them, in fact, had come on board without his compass, and it was in vain to attempt to make him comprehend ours. The moveable card was to him a paradox, as being contrary to the universal practice with them, of making the needle traverse the fixed points, and not the points described on the card to move (by the needle being attached to the card), as in those of Europe. The other was furnished with a compass, about the size of a common snuff-box, being an entire piece of wood, with a circular excavation in the centre, just large enough to admit the vibration of a very fine steel needle, not quite an inch in length, which, however, might be found sufficiently useful, in their short voyages, by means of a peculiar contrivance for preserving the center of gravity, in all positions of the ship, in coincidence nearly with the center of suspension. Nor is it necessary, in so short and fine a needle, to load one end more than the other, in order to counteract the dip, or tendency that the magnetic needle is known to have, more or less, towards the horizon in different parts of the world. The Chinese, however, do not seem to have adopted their small needle from any knowledge either of the variation, or of the inclination of the magnetic needle. Although the needle be invariably small, yet it sometimes happens that the margin of the box is extended to such a size, as to contain from twenty to thirty concentric circles, containing various characters of the language, constituting a compendium of their astronomical (perhaps more properly speaking) astrological knowledge. As numbers of such compasses are in the museums of Europe, it may not perhaps be wholly unacceptable to give some notion of what these circles of characters contain.

1. Central circle, or the needle.

2. 8 mystical characters denoting the first principles of matter, said to be invented by Fo-shee, the founder of the monarchy.

3. The names of the 12 hours into which the day is divided.

4 and 5. Names of the circumpolar stars.

6. Characters of the 24 principal meridians or colures.

7. The 24 subdivisions or seasons of the year.

8. The characters of the cycle of 60 years.

9. Numerical characters relating to the above cycle.

10. Characters denoting the 28 signs of the Zodiac.

11. Certain astrological characters.

12. Eight sentences explanatory of the 8 mystical characters on the second circle.

13. A different arrangement of the Chinese cycle.

14. Characters of the five elements.

15. Repetition of the characters on the eighth circle.

16. Repetition of the eighth circle.

17, and 18. Characters of obscure mythology.

19. Names of 28 constellations and their places in the heavens.

20. Relates to the sixth and fifteenth circles.

21. The world divided according to the sidereal influences.

22. Corresponds with the eighth and fifteenth circles.

23. Contains the same as the above with the addition of the fourteenth circle.

24, and 35. Are inexplicable even by the Chinese.

26. An arrangement of certain characters and marks for calculating lucky, unlucky, and neutral days.

27, is the same as the nineteenth, and surrounds the whole[5].

[5] If any argument were wanting to prove the originality of the magnetic needle as used in China, the circumstance of their having ingrafted upon it their most ancient and favourite mythology, their cycles, constellations, elements, and, in short, an abstract of all their astronomical or astrological science, is quite sufficient to settle that point. Those who are acquainted with the Chinese character will not readily admit that their long established superstitions should be found incorporated on an instrument of barbarian invention.

The greatest depth of the Yellow Sea, in the track of the ships, did not exceed thirty-six fathoms, and it was frequently diminished to ten fathoms. The weather, as usually happens in shallow seas, was generally hazy. In doubling the projecting promontory of the province of Shan-tung, the land was hidden in thick fogs. And on these, fortunately, dissipating, it was perceived that the whole squadron was within four miles of the main land, and one of the ships close upon a rocky island. The pilots were as ignorant of our situation as the meanest sailor in the squadron. Proceeding to the westward, a capacious bay was discovered. One of the pilots, after a minute examination of the land, which was now clear, asserted that he knew the place very well; that it was the bay of Mee-a-taw. The confidence with which he spoke, and the vast concourse of people, crowding down towards the shore, as if expecting our arrival, induced the Commander to steer directly into the bay: but the depth of water diminishing to five fathoms, and land appearing on every side, it was thought prudent to let go the anchor. Several boats from the shore were presently along-side; and we were soon convinced how little we had to trust to the knowledge of our pilots, even within sight of land. We were informed that the bay was called Kee-san-seu, and that Mee-a-taw was, at least, fifteen leagues farther to the westward.

The hills along this southern coast of the gulph of Pe-tche-lee have a very peculiar character. They are all of the same form and nearly of the same size, being regular cones with smooth sides as if fashioned by art, and entirely detached, each standing on its proper base, resembling in their shapes the summer caps worn by the officers of government; and having, as yet, no European names, they were noticed in the journals by the appellation of the first, second, third, &c., mandarin's bonnets.

Determining now to avail ourselves of the advice given by the magistrate of Chu-san, and to navigate from port to port, we here procured two new pilots to carry the ships to Mee-a-taw. They brought us indeed to this place, but, instead of a harbour, we found only a narrow strait, with a rapid tide setting through it, and rocky anchoring ground. On the shore of the continent was a city of considerable extent, under the walls of which next the sea was a bason or dock, filled with vessels whose capacity might be from ten to one hundred tons.

The Governor of this city (the name of which we learned to be Ten-tchoo-foo) paid his respects to the embassador on board the Lion, and observed in the course of conversation that his orders from court were to render all the service in his power to the embassy, and to provide proper means of conveyance, either by land or by sea. He seemed to be about the age of five and thirty, a man of frank and easy manners, courteous, intelligent, and inquisitive. He stood higher in the opinion of all of us than any we had yet seen. The following morning he sent off what he was pleased to call a trifling refreshment, which consisted of four bullocks, eight sheep, eight goats, five sacks of fine white rice, five sacks of red rice, two hundred pounds of flour, and several baskets of fruit and vegetables.

We have always been taught to believe that the Chinese consider us as barbarians; but we have hitherto no reason to say that they treated us as such. At all events it was obvious that the expected arrival of the British embassy had made no slight impression on the court of Pekin.

Here we once more ventured on another pilot to carry the ships across the gulph of Pe-tche-lee to Tien-sing. He was an old man of 70 years, and seemed to possess a perfect knowledge of all the bays and harbours in the gulph. He drew on paper the sketch of a port on the western coast to which he undertook to carry the ships. Fortunately, however, for us, it was considered more safe to send the small brigs a-head to sound, than to place any confidence in men who had already so often deceived us. They had scarcely departed before the signal of danger was made; a new course was steered for the night, and early the following morning, the same signal was repeated. No land was now in sight, yet the water had shallowed to six fathoms; it was therefore deemed prudent to come to an anchor. It was a very unusual situation for such large ships to ride thus at anchor in the middle of a strange sea, and out of sight of land, yet liable, in case of blowing weather, to strike against the bottom.

The commanders of the ships were exasperated against the pilots, and these on their part were almost petrified with fear. The poor creatures had done their best, but they possessed neither skill nor judgment, or, perhaps, it may be more charitable to suppose that they were confused by the novelty of their situation. It was in vain to endeavour to make them comprehend the difference in the draught of water between their own ships and ours, which, in the latter, was as many fathoms as feet in the former, although they were palpably shewn, by a piece of rope, the depth that was required.

As it was evidently impracticable to proceed farther with our own ships towards the land, which was now from twelve to fifteen miles distant, and so very low as not to be visible the deck, one of the tenders was dispatched to the mouth of the Pei-ho or white river to report our arrival. Here two officers from the court had already embarked to wait on the Embassador, carrying with them a present of refreshments, consisting of bullocks, hogs, sheep, poultry, wine, fruit, and vegetables, in such quantities, as to be more than sufficient for a a week's consumption of the whole squadron, amounting nearly to six hundred men. It consisted in twenty small bullocks, one hundred hogs, one hundred sheep, one thousand fowls, three thousand pumpkins, as many melons, apples, pears, plumbs, apricots, and other fruits, with an abundance of culinary vegetables. The wine was contained in large earthen jars whose covers were closely luted. Numbers of the hogs and the fowls had been bruised to death on the passage, which were thrown overboard from the Lion with disdain, but the Chinese eagerly picked them up, washed them clean and laid them in salt.

The number of vessels they had dispatched to take on shore the presents and the baggage was between thirty and forty, the capacity of each not being less, and many of them more, than two hundred tons; so imperfect a judgment had these people formed of the quantity of articles to be transhipped. These were the vessels whose holds were divided into thirteen distinct compartments, separated by partitions of two inch plank, the seams of which were caulked with a preparation of fine lime made from shells, and fibres of bamboo, in order to render them water-tight. Their sails, cables, rigging and cordage were all made of bamboo; and neither pitch nor tar was used on these or any part of the wood-work.

We detained about fifteen of these vessels to take on shore the Embassador's suite, the presents for the Emperor, and the baggage; after which the British ships returned to Chu-san without the assistance of the Chinese pilots, whose skill in navigation was held very cheap, by the lowest seamen on board.

On entering the Pei-ho we observed a number of buildings erected on the right bank, with roofs of matting, but decorated in the most fantastical manner, with different coloured ribbands and variegated silks; and about three hundred soldiers in their uniforms (which appeared to our eye not much adapted to military purposes) were drawn out, with a band of music, near a temporary landing-place constructed of wood; all of which we understood had been hastily prepared for the reception of the Embassador; but as his Excellency was desirous of reaching the capital without delay, he declined going on shore, preferring to step into the accommodation yachts at once, that were ready to receive him, a little higher up the river, the moment that the presents should be transhipped into the river-craft. The officers who were deputed to conduct him to the capital observed, that so much haste was not at all necessary, as the Emperor's birth-day was yet distant; these people having no other idea of an embassy, as it seemed, than that of its being a mere compliment to their Sovereign. The yellow flags displayed at the mast-heads of the river fleet, laden with the presents, and consisting of seventeen sail, gave, indeed, a more extended meaning of such a mission. These flags, in broad black characters, bore the following inscription; The English Embassador carrying Tribute to the Emperor of China.

We found the yachts that were destined to convey us exceedingly convenient, more so indeed than any I have seen on our canals of England. They are flat bottomed, and draw only about fifteen inches of water. Their upper works are high, appearing indeed like a floating house. They have three apartments for the accommodation of passengers; the first an antichamber for the servants and baggage; the middle a commodious sitting and dining room, about fifteen feet square; and the third divided into two or three sleeping rooms. Behind these is the kitchen; and still farther aft, small places like dog-kennels, for the boatmen. Sometimes there is a kind of second story, upon the apartments, divided into little cells, that are just the length and breadth of a man. A Chinese sailor requires no room for luggage, his whole wardrobe being generally on his back. In the different operations employed for making the yachts proceed, they give no interruption to the passengers. A projecting gangway on each side of the vessel, made of broad planks, serves as the passage from one end to the other.

The two officers that were sent from court, to conduct the Embassador to the capital, paid a visit to every yacht, and shewed the most earnest desire to please and to make us comfortable. Their names were Van and Chou, to which they annexed the title of Ta-gin, or great man. Van had the rank of Lieutenant-General in the army, and Chou was the Governor of a district in Pe-tche-lee. We observed in their manners no indication of that stiff and ceremonious conduct, which custom obliges them to put on in public. On the contrary, they sat down to table with us, endeavouring to learn the use of the knife and fork, and made themselves extremely agreeable; lamented they were not able to hold conversation with us in our own language; and on going away, shook hands with us like Englishmen.

Provisions, fruit, and wines (such as the country affords) were sent on board in such profusion, that I really believe the Chinese boatmen, in the course of the passage up this river, were enabled to lay by their winter's stock from the surplus. In truth, as Sir George Staunton has observed, the hospitality, attention, and respect we hitherto experienced, were such as strangers meet with only in the Eastern parts of the world.

Nothing that could convey the idea of extraordinary wealth or comfort among the inhabitants, or of extraordinary abundance and fertility in the country, (unless in the copious supplies of our provisions) had yet occurred, either at Chu-san or in the first three days' sail up the Pei-ho towards the capital. The land on both sides was low and flat, and instead of hedge-rows, trenches were dug to mark the boundaries of property. A small proportion only was under cultivation. The greater part appeared to be sour swampy ground, covered with coarse grass, with bushes, and the common reed. There were few trees, except near the villages, which were of mean appearance, the houses generally consisting of mud walls, one story in height, and thatched with straw or rushes. Here and there a solitary cottage intervened, but nothing that bore any resemblance to the residence of a gentleman, or that could even be called a comfortable farm-house. And although villages were numerous, no assemblage of houses were perceived, that properly could be classed under the name of a town, except that of See-koo, near the mouth of the river, and Ta-koo, a few miles higher, until we proceeded to the distance of about ninety miles, when we entered the suburbs of the large city of Tien-sing, stretching, like London on the Thames, for several miles along each bank of the river Pei-ho. But neither the buildings nor the river would bear any comparison, even with those parts about Redriffe and Wapping. Every thing, in fact, that we had hitherto seen wore an air of poverty and meanness. After a long confinement on board a ship, to those at least who are not accustomed to it, almost any country appears to possess the charms of a Paradise; yet on our first landing in this celebrated empire to the present place, which is no great distance from the capital, I am persuaded, that every individual of the embassy felt himself rather disappointed in the expectations he had formed. If any thing excited admiration, it was the vast multitudes of people that, from our first arrival, had daily flocked down to the banks of the river, of both sexes and of all ages. Their general appearance, however, was not such as to indicate any extraordinary degree of happiness or comfort. The best dressed men wore a sort of velvet cap on their heads; a short jacket, buttoned close round the neck, and folded across the breast, the sleeves remarkably wide; the materials cotton cloth, black, blue, or brown silk, or European camblet; they wore quilted petticoats, and black sattin boots. The common people were dressed in large straw hats, blue or black cotton frocks, wide cotton trowsers, and thick clumsy shoes, sometimes made of straw. Some had coarse stockings of cotton cloth; the legs of others were naked. A single pair of drawers constituted indeed the whole clothing of a great portion of the crowd.

Never were poor women fitted out in a style so disadvantageous for setting off their charms as those who made their appearance on the banks of the Pei-ho, and we afterwards found that the dress of these, with some slight variations, was the common mode of the country. Bunches of large artificial flowers, generally resembling asters, whose colours were red, blue, or yellow, were stuck in their jet-black hair, which, without any pretensions to taste or freedom, was screwed up close behind, and folded into a ridge or knot across the crown of the head, not very unlike (except in the want of taste) to the present mode in which the young ladies of England braid their locks. Two bodkins of silver, brass, or iron, were conspicuously placed behind the head, in the form of an oblique cross, which is the common mode of Malay women. Their faces and necks were daubed with white paint, the eye-brows blackened, and on the center of the lower lip, and at the point of the chin, were two spots, about the size of a small wafer, of a deep vermillion colour. A blue cotton frock, like that of the men, reaching in some to the middle of the thigh, in others to the knee, was almost universal. A pair of wide trowsers, of different colours, but commonly either red, green, or yellow, extended a little below the calf of the leg, where they were drawn close, in order the better to display an ankle and a foot, which for singularity at least, may challenge the whole world. This distorted and disproportionate member consists of a foot that has been cramped in its growth, to the length of four or five inches, and an ankle that is generally swollen in the same proportion that the foot is diminished. The little shoe is as fine as tinsel and tawdry can make it, and the ankle is bandaged round with party-coloured clothes, ornamented with fringe and tassels; and such a leg and foot, thus dressed out, are considered in China as superlatively beautiful.

The constant pain and uneasiness that female children must necessarily suffer, in the act of compressing, by means of bandages, the toes under the sole of the foot, and retaining them in that position until they literally grow into and become a part of it; and by forcing the heel forward, until it is entirely obliterated, make it the more wonderful how a custom, so unnatural and inhuman, should have continued for so many ages, at least such is the opinion, that its origin is entirely unknown, or explained by such fabulous absurdities as are too ridiculous to assign for its adoption.

Few savage tribes are without the unnatural custom of maiming or lopping off some part of the human body, as boring the lips and the cartilege of the nose, drawing or colouring the teeth, cutting off a joint from the fingers or toes, and otherwise practising, as they must suppose, improvements on nature. But on this consideration it would scarcely be fair to conclude, that maiming the feet of the Chinese ladies derived its origin from a period of time when they were yet in a savage state, since we are in the daily habit of observing the most civilized and enlightened societies studying to find out beauties in defects, and creating them where nature had intended perfection. The Chinese would no doubt be equally surprized at, and consider as egregiously absurd, the custom of circumcision, as practiced by a great portion of Asiatic nations; nor have we any reason to think they would not condemn the refinement of docks and crops among our horses as an absurd custom, not less ridiculous in their eyes, than the little feet of their ladies are in ours. If they could not refrain from bursting into fits of laughter on examining the grease and powder with which our hair was disfigured; and if they sometimes lamented that so much oil and flour had unnecessarily been wasted, we might, perhaps, in the vanity of self-importance, affect to pity their taste; but setting custom and prejudice apart, we had certainly no great reason to despise and ridicule the Chinese, or indeed any other nation, merely because they differ from us in the little points of dress and manners, seeing how very nearly we can match them with similar follies and absurdities of our own.

The silence of the earliest travellers into China on so extraordinary a custom, would almost warrant a conjecture that, notwithstanding the pretended ignorance of the Chinese with regard to its origin, both the fashion and the sentiment of its being vulgar for ladies to be seen abroad, were only adopted within the period of a few centuries. The Venetian traveller, although he makes frequent mention of the beauty and dress of the women, takes no notice of this singular fashion; and he observes that on the lake of Hang-tchoo-foo the ladies are accustomed to take their pleasure with their husbands and their families. The Embassadors also of Shah Rokh, the son of Tamerlane, who in the year 1419, were sent to congratulate the Emperor of China, state in the narrative of their expedition that, at their public reception, there stood two young virgins, one on each side of the throne, with their faces and bosoms uncovered; that they were furnished with paper and pencils and took down with great attention every word that the Emperor spoke. These Embassadors saw also numbers of women in open baths near the Yellow River; and, in one city, they remark that "there were many taverns, at the doors of which sat a number of young girls of extraordinary beauty." Nor do the travels of two Mahomedans into China in the ninth century, published by Mr. Renaudot, make any mention of the unnatural smallness of the women's feet; and they are not by any means deficient in their observations of the manners and customs of this nation, at that time so very little known to the rest of the world. Almost every thing they have related concerning China at this early period is found to be true at the present day, and as they particularly notice the dress and ornaments worn by the women, one would think they would not have omitted a custom so singular in its kind as that of maiming the feet, if it had then been as common as it now is.

This monstrous fashion has generally been attributed to the jealousy of the men. Admitting this to have been the case, the Chinese must be allowed to be well versed in the management of the sex, to have so far gained the ascendancy over them, as to prevail upon them to adopt a fashion, which required a voluntary relinquishment of one of the greatest pleasures and blessings of life, the faculty of locomotion; and to contrive to render this fashion so universal that any deviation from it should be considered as disgraceful. The desire of being thought superior to the rest of his fellows sometimes, indeed, leads a man into strange extravagancies. Upon this principle the men of learning, as they are pleased to style themselves, suffer the nails of their little fingers to grow sometimes to the enormous length of three inches for the sole purpose of giving ocular demonstration of the impossibility of their being employed in any sort of manual labour; and upon the same principle, perhaps, the ladies of China may be induced to continue the custom of maiming their female infants, in order that their children may be distinguished from those of the peasantry, who, in most of the provinces, are condemned to submit to the drudgery of the field.

The interior wrappers of the ladies' feet are said to be seldom changed, remaining, sometimes, until they can no longer hold together; a custom that conveys no very favourable idea of Chinese cleanliness. This, indeed, forms no part of their character; on the contrary they are what Swift would call a frowzy people. The comfort of clean linen, or frequent change of under-garments, is equally unknown to the Sovereign and to the peasant. A sort of thin coarse silk supplies the place of cotton or linen next the skin, among the upper ranks; but the common people wear a coarse kind of open cotton cloth. These vestments are more rarely removed for the purpose of washing than for that of being replaced with new ones; and the consequence of such neglect or economy is, as might naturally be supposed, an abundant increase of those vermin to whose production filthiness is found to be most favourable. The highest officers of state made no hesitation of calling their attendants in public to seek in their necks for those troublesome animals, which, when caught, they very composedly put between their teeth. They carry no pocket handkerchiefs, but generally blow their noses into small square pieces of paper which some of their attendants have ready prepared for the purpose. Many are not so cleanly, but spit about the rooms, or against the walls like the French, and they wipe their dirty hands in the sleeves of their gowns. They sleep at night in the same clothes they wear by day. Their bodies are as seldom washed as their articles of dress. They never make use of the bath, neither warm nor cold. Notwithstanding the vast number of rivers and canals, with which every part of the country is intersected, I do not remember to have seen a single groupe of boys bathing. The men, in the hottest day of summer, make use of warm water for washing the hands and face. They are unacquainted with the use of soap. We procured, in Pekin, a sort of Barilla with which and apricot oil we manufactured a sufficient quantity of this article to wash our linen, which, however, we were under the necessity of getting done by our own servants.

On approaching the town of Tien-sing we observed a prodigious number of large stacks of salt, piled up in sacks of matting. The quantity thus stored was found, on rough calculation, to be sufficient for the consumption of thirty millions of people, for a whole year. Such a surprising aggregate of one of the useful and almost necessary, articles of life, was a preparative, in some measure, for the vast multitudes of people which appeared on our passing this northern emporium of China. The gabelle, or duty on salt, which the government here, as well as elsewhere, had found convenient to impose on one of the indispensable articles of life, partly accounted for such an extraordinary accumulation. The collector of the salt duties of Tien-sing held one of the most lucrative appointments in the gift of the crown.

The crowds of large vessels lying close together along the sides of the river; the various kinds of craft passing and re-passing; the town and manufactories and warehouses extending on each bank as far as the eye could reach, indicated a spirit of commerce far beyond any thing we had hitherto met with. The large vessels, the small craft, the boats, the shores, the walls surrounding the houses, the roofs were all covered with spectators. Our barges, being retarded in the narrow passages among the shipping, were at least two hours in reaching the head of the town. During the whole time the populace stood in the water, the front rank up to the middle, to get a peep at the strangers. Hitherto among the spectators there had generally appeared full as many of the fair sex as of the other; and the elderly dames, in particular, had been so curious as to dip their little stumps into the water in order to have a peep into the barges as they glided slowly along; but here, among the whole crowd, not a single female was visible. Although the day was extremely sultry, the thermometer of Fahrenheit being 88° in the shade, as a mutual accommodation their heads were all uncovered, and their bald pates exposed to the scorching rays of the sun. It was an uncommon spectacle to see so many bronze-like heads stuck as close together, tier above tier, as Hogarth's groupe, intended to display the difference between character and caricature, but it lacked the variety of countenance which this artist has, in an inimitable manner, displayed in his picture.

The deep sounding gong, a sort of brazen kettle struck with a mallet, and used in the barges to direct the motions of the trackers on shore, the kettle-drums and the trumpets in the military band, the shrill music and squalling recitative in the theatre, which was entirely open in front, and facing the river in full view of the crowd; the number of temporary booths and buildings erected for the use of the viceroy, governor, judges, and other officers of government, and gaily decorated with ribbands and silken streamers; the buzz and merriment of the crowd had, altogether, so striking an affinity to the usual entertainments of Bartholomew fair, that no extraordinary stretch of the imagination was required to suppose ourselves for the moment to have been transported into Smithfield. We instantly acquitted the Chinese of any want of curiosity. The arrival of Elfi Bey in London drew not half the crowd; and yet the Chinese account us much greater barbarians than we pretend to consider the mamelukes. The old viceroy of the province, a Tartar of mild and winning manners, had prepared for us a most magnificent entertainment with wine, fruits, and great variety of pastry and sweetmeats, together with presents of tea, silk, and nankins, not only to the Embassador and his suite, but also to the servants, musicians, and soldiers.

The cheerful and good-natured countenances of the multitude were extremely prepossessing; not less so their accommodating behaviour to one another. There was an innocence and simplicity in their features, that seemed to indicate a happy and contented turn of mind. This, however, being a sort of gala day, we might, on account of the extraordinary occasion, perhaps have viewed them to the best advantage; yet the same cheerful and willing mind had constantly shewn itself on all occasions, by all those who were employed in the service of the embassy. On board the yachts constant mirth and good humour prevailed among the seamen. When the weather was calm, the vessels were generally pushed on by means of two large sculls or oars turning upon pivots that were placed in projecting pieces of wood near the bow of the vessel, and not the stern, as is the practice of most other nations. From six to ten men are required to work one of these oars, which, instead of being taken out of the water, as in the act of rowing, are moved backwards and forwards under the surface, in a similar manner to what in England is understood by sculling. To lighten their labour, and assist in keeping time with the strokes, the following rude air was generally sung by the master to which the whole crew used to join in chorus:

[Music: AIR.

Solo by the Master.

Hai-yo hai-yau hai-yo hai-yau hai-wha de hai-yau hai-yau

Chorus by the Crew.

Hai-yo hai-yau hai-yo hai-yau hai-yo hai-yau]

On many a calm still evening, when a dead silence reigned upon the water, have we listened with pleasure to this artless and unpolished air, which was sung, with little alteration through the whole fleet. Extraordinary exertions of bodily strength, depending, in a certain degree, on the willingness of the mind, are frequently accompanied with exhilarating exclamations among the most savage people; but the Chinese song could not be considered in this point of view; like the exclamations of our seamen in hauling the ropes, or the oar song of the Hebridians, which, as Doctor Johnson has observed, resembled the proceleusmatick verse by which the rowers of Grecian galleys were animated, the chief object of the Chinese chorus seemed to be that of combining chearfulness with regularity.

"Verse sweetens toil, however rude the sound."

Of their honesty, sobriety, and carefulness, we had already received convincing proofs. Of the number of packages, amounting to more than six hundred, of various sizes and descriptions, not a single article was missing nor injured, on their arrival at the capital, notwithstanding they had been moved about, and carried by land, and transhipped several times. Of the three state-officers, who had been deputed from court to attend the embassy, two of them were the most obliging and attentive creatures imaginable. The third, a Tartar, who first made his appearance at Tien-sing, was distant, proud, and imperious. The Chinese indeed were invariably more affable than the Tartars. In short, had we returned to Europe, without proceeding farther in the country than Tien-sing, a most lively impression would always have remained on my mind in favour of the Chinese. But a variety of incidents that afterwards occurred, and a more intimate acquaintance with their manners and habits, produced a woeful change of sentiment in this respect. Of such incidents, as may tend to illustrate the moral character of this extraordinary people, I shall relate a few that were the most striking, in taking a general view of their state of society, to which, and to the nature of the executive government, all their moral actions may be referred: and by the influence of which, the natural bent of their character evidently has undergone a complete change.

Leaving Tien-sing on the 11th of August, we found the river considerably contracted in its dimensions, and the stream more powerful. The surface of the country, in fact, began to assume a less uniform appearance, being now partly broken into hill and dale; but nothing approaching to a mountain was yet visible in any direction. It was still however scantily wooded, few trees appearing except large willows on the banks, and knots of elms, or firs, before the houses of men in office, and the temples, both of which were generally found at the head of each village. More grain was here cultivated than on the plains near the mouth of the river. Two species of millet, the panicum crus galli, and the italicum, and two of a larger grain, the holcus sorghum, and the saccharatus, were the most abundant. We observed also a few patches of buck-wheat, and different sorts of kidney-beans; but neither common wheat, barley, nor oats. A species of nettle, the urtica nivea was also sown in square patches, for the purpose of converting its fibres into thread, of which they manufacture a kind of cloth. We saw no gardens nor pleasure-grounds, but considerable tracts of pasture or meadow-land intervened between the villages, on which however were few cattle, and those few remarkably small. Those we procured for the use of the ships along the coast of the gulph of Pe-tche-lee, seldom exceeded the weight of two hundred pounds. The few sheep we saw were of the broad-tailed species. The cottages of the peasantry were very mean, without any appearance of comfort, and thinly scattered; seldom standing alone, but generally collected into small villages.

If, however, cities, towns, villages, and farm-houses, were less abundant so near the capital, than from the relations of travellers we had expected to find them, the multitudes of inhabitants whose constant dwelling was on the water, amply made up the apparent deficiency on shore. We passed, in one day, upon this river, more than six hundred large vessels, having each a range of ten or twelve distinct apartments built upon the deck, and each apartment contained a whole family. The number of persons in one of these vessels, we reckoned, on an average, to be about fifty, and we actually counted above one thousand vessels of this description, that were floating on that part of the river, between Tien-sing and Tong-tchoo. The different kinds of craft, besides these, that were perpetually passing and re-passing, or lying chained to the banks of the river, all of which were crowded with men, women, and children, contained full as many as the large vessels above mentioned; so that, in the distance of ninety miles, on this small branch of a river, there were floating on the water not fewer than one hundred thousand souls.

Among the different cargoes of cotton wool, copper-money, rice, silk, salt, tea, and other commodities for the supply of the capital, we observed an article of commerce, in several of the large open craft, that puzzled us not a little to find out for what it was intended. It consisted of dry brown cakes, not much larger but thicker than those we call crumpets. A close examination, however, soon discovered the nature of their composition, which, it seemed, was a mixture of every kind of filth and excrementitious substances, moulded into their present shape, and dried in the sun. In this form they are carried to the capital as articles of merchandize, where they meet with a ready market from the gardeners in the vicinity; who, after dissolving them in urine, use them for manure.

Little occurred that was worthy of note, between Tien-sing and Tong-tchoo, except an instance in the exercise of arbitrary power, not less cruel than that of the Governor of Chu-san, and ill agreeing with the feelings of Englishmen. Some of our provisions happened one morning to be a little tainted, which could not be wondered at, considering the heat of the weather, the mercury, by Fahrenheit's scale, being from 82° to 88°. The officers, however, who had been commissioned to furnish the supply of provisions, were instantly deprived of their rank, and all their servants severely bambooed. The Embassador interceded with Van and Chou in favour of the degraded delinquents, was heard with great attention, but perceived that little indulgence or relaxation from strict discipline was to be expected on such occasions.

The whole distance, from the entrance of the Pei-ho to the city of Tong-tchoo is about one hundred and seventy miles. Here we found two buildings, that had been erected in the space of two days, for the temporary purpose of receiving the presents and baggage; and they were constructed of such large dimensions, that they were capable of containing at least ten times the quantity. The materials were wooden poles and mats, and a fence of wooden paling surrounded the whole.

We took up our lodging in a spacious temple in the suburbs, from whence the priests were turned out without the least ceremony, to make room for us, consisting in the whole of one hundred persons nearly. And here it was settled we should remain until every article was landed, and coolies or porters procured sufficient to carry the whole at once to Pekin, which was computed to be about twelve miles to the westward from this place. And although near three thousand men were required for this purpose, they were supplied the instant the goods were all on shore; nor did it appear that any difficulty would have been found in raising double that number, as there seemed to be ten times the number of idle spectators as of persons employed. The plain between the landing-place and the temple was like a fair, and cakes, rice, tea, and fruit upon masses of ice, and many other refreshments were exposed for sale, under large square umbrellas, that served instead of booths. A slice of water-melon, cooled on ice, was sold for one tchen, a piece of base copper coin, of the value of about three-tenths of a farthing. Not a single woman appeared among the many thousand spectators that were assembled on the plain.

CHAP. III.

Journey through the Capital to a Country Villa of the Emperor. Return to Pekin. The Imperial Palace and Gardens of Yuen-min-yuen, and the Parks of Gehol.

Order of Procession from Tong-choo to the Capital.--Crowd assembled on the Occasion.--Appearance of Pekin without and within the Walls.--Some Account of this City.--Proceed to a Country Villa of the Emperor.--Inconveniences of.--Return to Pekin.--Embassador proceeds to Tartary.--Author sent to the Palace of Yuen-min-yuen.--Miserable Lodgings of.--Visit of the President and Members of the Mathematical Tribunal.--Of the Bishop of Pekin, and others.--Gill's Sword-blades. --Hatchett's Carriages.--Scorpion found in a Cask packed at Birmingham.--Portraits of English Nobility.--Effects of Accounts from Tartary on the Officers of State in Pekin.--Emperor's return to the Capital.--Inspects the Presents.--Application of the Embassador for Leave to depart.--Short Account of the Palace and Gardens of Yuen-min-yuen.--Lord Macartney's Description of the Eastern and Western Parks of Gehol.--And his general Remarks on Chinese Landscape Gardening.

The presents for the Emperor and our private baggage being all landed, the packages repaired, and every article minutely noted down by the officers of government, the porters were directed to fix their bamboo bearing poles to each package, that no impediment might prevent our setting out at an early hour in the morning. In doing this, as well as in landing the articles from the vessels, the Chinese porters shewed such expedition, strength, and activity, as could not, I believe, be parallel or procured in so short a time, in any other country. Every thing here, in fact, seems to be at the instant command of the state; and the most laborious tasks are undertaken and executed with a readiness, and even a chearfulness, which one could scarcely expect to meet with in so despotic a government.

According to the arrangement, on the 21st of August about three o'clock in the morning, we were prepared to set out, but could scarcely be said to be fairly in motion till five, and before we had cleared the city of Tong-tchoo, it was past six o'clock. From this city to the capital, I may venture to say, the road never before exhibited so motley a groupe. In front marched about three thousand porters, carrying six hundred packages; some of which were so large and heavy, as to require thirty-two bearers, with these were mixed a proportionate number of inferior officers, each having the charge and superintendence of a division. Next followed eighty-five waggons, and thirty-nine hand-carts, each with one wheel, loaded with wine, porter and other European provisions, ammunition, and such heavy articles as were not liable to be broken. Eight light field pieces, which were among the presents for the Emperor, closed this part of the procession. After these paraded the Tartar legate, and several officers from court, with their numerous attendants; some on horseback, some in chairs, and others on foot. Then followed the Embassador's guard in waggons, the servants, musicians, and mechanics, also in waggons; the gentlemen of the suite on horseback, the Embassador, the Minister Plenipotentiary, his son, and the interpreter, in four ornamented chairs; the rest of the suite in small covered carriages on two wheels, not unlike in appearance to our funeral hearses, but only about half the length; and last of all Van and Chou, with their attendants, closed this motley procession.

Though the distance was only twelve miles, it was thought advisable by our conductors to halt for breakfast about half-way; for, as heavy bodies move slowly, what with the delay and confusion in first getting into order, and the frequent stoppages on the road, we found it was eight o'clock before the whole of the cavalcade had reached the half-way house. Here we had a most sumptuous breakfast of roast pork and venison, rice and made dishes, eggs, tea, milk, and a variety of fruits served up on masses of ice.

The porters and the heavy baggage moved forwards without halting; and having ended our comfortable repast, we followed without loss of time. We had scarcely proceeded three miles, till we found the sides of the road lined with spectators on horseback, on foot, in small carriages similar to those we rode in, in carts, waggons, and chairs. In the last were Chinese ladies but, having gauze curtains at the sides and front, we could see little of them. Several well-looking women in long silken robes, with a great number of children, were in the small carriages. These we understood to be Tartars. A file of soldiers now moved along with the procession on each side of the road, armed with whips, which they continually exercised in order to keep off the crowd that increased as we approached the capital, and, at length, was so great as to obstruct the road. We observed, however, that though the soldiers were very active and noisy in brandishing their whips, they only struck them against the ground, and never let them fall upon the people. Indeed a Chinese crowd is not so tumultuous and unruly as it generally is elsewhere.

The excessive heat of the weather, the dustiness of the road, the closeness of the carriages, and the slow manner in which we moved along, would have made this short journey almost insupportable, but from the novelty of the scene, the smiles, the grins, the gestures of the multitude, and above all, the momentary expectation of entering the greatest city on the surface of the globe. Those also who had been so unlucky as to make choice of the little covered carriages, found themselves extremely uncomfortable, notwithstanding they are the best, the most easy and genteel sort of carriage that the country affords. Being fixed on the wheels without springs, and having no seats in the inside, they are to an European, who must sit on his haunches in the bottom, the most uneasy vehicles that can be imagined. Father Semedo, one of the earliest missionaries to China, asserts, that coaches were anciently in common use in this country, and that they were laid down on account of the great convenience and little expence of sedan chairs. The coaches alluded to by the reverend father were, in all probability, the little carts above mentioned, for not the vestige of any thing better is to be found among them; not the least appearance of any thing like a spring carriage. It is more probable that palanquins and chairs have been in common use here and in India, from the earliest period of their histories. The lectica of the Romans is supposed to have been brought to Rome in the time of the Republic from some of the eastern nations.

The great road to the capital lay across an open country, sandy and ill cultivated, and the few houses on each side were of mean appearance, generally built with mud, or half burnt bricks, to the very gates of Pekin. The middle part of the road, for the width of eighteen or twenty feet, was paved with stones of granite from six to sixteen feet in length and broad in proportion. Every one of these enormous flag stones must have been brought, at least sixty miles, the nearest mountains where quarries of granite are found being those that divide China from Mantchoo Tartary, near the great wall.

A temple on the right of the road and a bridge of white marble having the balustrade ornamented with figures, meant to represent lions and other animals cut out of the same material, were the only objects that attracted any notice, until the walls and the lofty gates of the capital appeared in view. None of the buildings within, on this side of the city, overtopped the walls, though these did not appear to exceed twenty-five or at most thirty feet in height; they were flanked with square towers, and surrounded by a moat or ditch. These towers projected about forty feet from the line of the wall, and were placed at regular intervals of about seventy yards, being considered as bow-shot distance from each other. Each had a small guard-house upon its summit. The thickness of the base of the wall was about twenty-five feet, and the width across this top within the parapets twelve feet; so that the sides of the wall have a very considerable slope, much more however within than without. The middle part was composed of the earth that had been dug out of the ditch; and was kept together by two retaining walls, part of which were of brick and part of stone. The famous barrier on the borders of Tartary, and the ramparts of all the cities in the country, are built in the same manner.

No cannon were mounted on the walls nor on the bastions; but in the high building which surmounted the gate, and which was several stories one above the other, the port-holes were closed with red doors, on the outside of which were painted the representations of cannon, not unlike at a distance the sham ports in a ship of war. The gates of a Chinese city are generally double, and placed in the flanks of a square or semicircular bastion. The first opens into a large space, surrounded with buildings, which are appropriated entirely for military uses, being the depôt of provisions and ammunition, place d'armes, and barracks. Out of this place, in one of the flanks, the second gate, having a similar high building erected over it as the first, opens into the city.

The first appearance of this celebrated capital is not much calculated to raise high expectations, nor does it in the least improve upon a more intimate acquaintance. In approaching an European city it generally happens that a great variety of objects catch the eye, as the towers and spires of churches, domes, obelisks, and other buildings for public purposes towering above the rest; and the mind is amused in conjecturing the form, and magnitude of their several constructions, and the uses to which they may be applied. In Pekin not even a chimney is seen rising above the roofs of the houses which, being all nearly of the same height, and the streets laid out in straight lines, have the appearance and the regularity of a large encampment. The roofs would only require to be painted white, instead of being red, green, or blue, to make the resemblance complete. Few houses exceed the height of one story, and none but the great shops have either windows or openings in the wall in front, but most of them have a sort of terrace, with a railed balcony or parapet wall in front, on which are placed pots of flowers, or shrubs, or stunted trees.

This city is an oblong square, the outward boundary of which is forty lees, each lee being six hundred yards, so that the inclosing wall is near fourteen English miles, and the area about twelve square miles, independent of the extensive suburbs at every gate. In the south wall are three gates, and in each of the other sides two, from whence it is sometimes called The city with nine gates; but its usual name is Pe-ching, or the Northern Court. The middle gate, on the south side, opens into the Imperial city, which is a space of ground within the general inclosure, in the shape of a parallelogram, about a mile in length from north to south, and three-fourths of a mile from east to west. A wall built of large red polished bricks, and twenty feet high, covered with a roof of tiles painted yellow and varnished, surrounds this space, in which are contained not only the imperial palace and gardens, but also all the tribunals, or public offices of government, lodgings for the ministers, the eunuchs, artificers, and tradesmen belonging to the court. A great variety of surface, as well as of different objects, appear within this inclosure. A rivulet winding through it not only affords a plentiful supply of water, but adds largely to the beauties of the grounds, by being formed into canals and basons, and lakes, which, with the artificial mounts, and rocks, and groves, exhibit the happiest imitation of nature.

Between the other two gates, in the south wall, and the corresponding and opposite ones on the north side of the city, run two streets perfectly straight, each being four English miles in length, and about one hundred and twenty feet in width. One street also of the same width runs from one of the eastern to the opposite western gate, but the other is interrupted by the north wall of the imperial city, round which it is carried. The cross streets can be considered only as lanes branching from these main streets at right angles; are very narrow; but the houses in them are generally of the same construction as those in the great streets. The large houses of the state officers are in these lanes.

Although the approach to Pekin afforded little that was interesting, we had no sooner passed the gate and opened out the broad street, than a very singular and novel appearance was exhibited. We saw before us a line of buildings on each side of a wide street, consisting entirely of shops and warehouses, the particular goods of which were brought out and displayed in groupes in front of the houses. Before these were generally erected large wooden pillars, whose tops were much higher than the eves of the houses, bearing inscriptions in gilt characters, setting forth the nature of the wares to be sold, and the honest reputation of the seller; and, to attract the more notice, they were generally hung with various coloured flags and streamers and ribbands from top to bottom, exhibiting the appearance of a line of shipping dressed, as we sometimes see them, in the colours of all the different nations in Europe. The sides of the houses were not less brilliant in the several colours with which they were painted, consisting generally of sky blue or green mixed with gold: and what appeared to us singular enough, the articles for sale that made the greatest show were coffins for the dead. The most splendid of our coffin furniture would make but a poor figure if placed beside that intended for a wealthy Chinese. These machines are seldom less than three inches thick, and twice the bulk of ours. Next to those our notice was attracted by the brilliant appearance of the funeral biers and the marriage cars, both covered with ornamental canopies.

At the four points where the great streets intersect one another were erected those singular buildings, sometimes of stone, but generally of wood, which have been called triumphal arches, but which, in fact, are monuments to the memory of those who had deserved well of the community, or who had attained an unusual longevity. They consist invariably of a large central gateway, with a smaller one on each side, all covered with narrow roofs; and, like the houses, they are painted, varnished, and gilt in the most splendid manner.

The multitude of moveable workshops of tinkers and barbers, coblers and blacksmiths; the tents and booths where tea and fruit, rice and other eatables were exposed for sale, with the wares and merchandize arrayed before the doors, had contracted this spacious street to a narrow road in the middle, just wide enough for two of our little vehicles to pass each other. The cavalcade of officers and soldiers that preceded the embassy, the processions of men in office attended by their numerous retinues, bearing umbrellas and flags, painted lanterns, and a variety of strange insignia of their rank and station, different trains that were accompanying, with lamentable cries, corpses to their graves, and, with squalling music, brides to their husbands, the troops of dromedaries laden with coals from Tartary, the wheelbarrows and hand-carts stuffed with vegetables, occupied nearly the whole of this middle space in one continued line, leaving very little room for the cavalcade of the embassy to pass. All was in motion. The sides of the street were filled with an immense concourse of people, buying and selling and bartering their different commodities. The buzz and confused noises of this mixed multitude, proceeding from the loud bawling of those who were crying their wares, the wrangling of others, with every now and then a strange twanging noise like the jarring of a cracked Jew's harp, the barber's signal made by his tweezers, the mirth and the laughter that prevailed in every groupe, could scarcely be exceeded by the brokers in the Bank rotunda, or by the Jews and old women in Rosemary-Lane. Pedlars with their packs, and jugglers, and conjurers, and fortune-tellers, mountebanks and quack-doctors, comedians and musicians, left no space unoccupied. The Tartar soldiers, with their whips, kept with difficulty a clear passage for the embassy to move slowly forwards; so slow, indeed, that although we entered the eastern gate at half-past nine, it was near twelve before we arrived at the western.

Although an extraordinary crowd might be expected to assemble on such a particular occasion, on the same principle of curiosity as could not fail to attract a crowd of spectators in London, yet there was a most remarkable and a striking difference observable between a London and a Pekin populace. In the former the whole attention and soul of the multitude would have been wrapt up in the novel spectacle; all would have been idlers. In Pekin, the shew was but an accessary; every one pursued his business, at the same time that he gratified his curiosity. In fact, it appeared that, on every day throughout the whole year, there was the same noise and bustle and crowd in the capital of China. I scarcely ever passed the western gate, which happened twice, or oftener, in the week, that I had not to wait a considerable time before the passage was free, particularly in the morning, notwithstanding the exertions of two or three soldiers with their whips to clear the way. The crowd, however, was entirely confined to the great streets, which are the only outlets of the city. In the cross lanes all was still and quiet.

Women in Pekin were commonly seen among the crowd, or walking in the narrow streets, or riding on horseback, which they crossed in the same manner as the men, but they were all Tartars. They wore long silken robes, reaching down to their feet; their shoes appeared to be as much above the common size, as those of the Chinese are under it; the upper part was generally of embroidered satin, the sole consisted of folds of cloth or paper, about an inch thick; they were square in front, and a little turned up. The hair smoothed up on all sides, not very different from that of the Chinese; and though their faces were painted with white lead and vermillion, it was evident their skins were much fairer than those of the former. The Chinese women are more scrupulously confined to the house in the capital than elsewhere. Young girls were sometimes seen smoking their pipes in the doors of their houses, but they always retired on the approach of men.

All the streets were covered with sand and dust: none had the least pavement. The cross lanes were generally watered, which did not appear to be the case in the main streets. A large sheet of water, several acres in extent, within the northern wall, affords to that part of the city, and to the palace an abundant supply of that element, as does also a small stream which runs along the western wall to that neighbourhood. There are besides abundance of wells; but the water of some of these is so dreadfully nauseous, that we, who were unaccustomed to it, were under the necessity of sending to a distance to obtain such as was free from mineral or earthy impregnations. When mixed with tea, the well water was particularly disgusting.

Although Pekin cannot boast, like ancient Rome, or modern London, of the conveniences of common sewers to carry off the dirt and dregs that must necessarily accumulate in large cities, yet it enjoys one important advantage, which is rarely found in capitals out of England: no kind of filth or nastiness, creating offensive smells is thrown out into the streets, a piece of cleanliness that perhaps may be attributed rather to the scarcity and value of manure, than to the exertions of the police officers. Each family has a large earthen jar, into which is carefully collected every thing that may be used as manure; when the jar is full, there is no difficulty of converting its contents into money, or of exchanging them for vegetables. The same small boxed carts with one wheel, which supply the city with vegetables, invariably return to the gardens with a load of this liquid manure. Between the palace of Yuen-min-yuen and Pekin, I have met many hundreds of these carts. They are generally dragged by one person, and pushed on by another; and they leave upon the road an odour that continues without intermission for many miles. Thus, though the city is cleared of its filth, it seldom loses its fragrance. In fact, a constant disgusting odour remains in and about all the houses the whole day long, from the fermentation of the heterogeneous mixtures kept above ground, which in our great cities are carried off in drains.

The medical gentlemen of China are not quite so ingenious, as we are told the faculty in Madrid were about the middle of the last century, when the inhabitants were directed, by royal proclamation, to build proper places of retirement to their houses, instead of emptying their nocturnal machines out of the windows into the streets. The inhabitants took it into their heads to consider this order as a great affront, and a direct violation of the rights of man; but the doctors were the most strenuous opposers of the measure, having no doubt very cogent reasons for wishing the continuance of the practice. They assured the inhabitants, that if human excrement was no longer to be accumulated in the streets, to attract the putrescent particles floating in the air, they would find their way into the human body, and a pestilential sickness would be the inevitable consequence.

The police of the capital, as we afterwards found, is so well regulated, that the safety and tranquillity of the inhabitants are seldom disturbed. At the end of every cross street, and at certain distances in it, are a kind of cross bars, with sentry boxes at each of which is placed a soldier, and few of these streets are without a guard-house. Besides, the proprietor or inhabitant of every tenth house, like the ancient tythingmen of England, takes it in turn to keep the peace, and be responsible for the good conduct of his nine neighbours. If any riotous company should assemble, or any disturbances happen within his district, he is to give immediate information thereof to the nearest guard-house. The soldiers also go their rounds and instead of crying the hour like our watchmen, strike upon a short tube of bamboo, which gives a dull hollow sound, that for several nights prevented us from sleeping until we were accustomed to it.

It took us full two hours, as I before observed, in passing from the eastern to the western gate of Pekin. The clouds of dust raised by the populace were here much denser than on the road, and the smothering heat of the day, the thermometer in our little carts standing at 96°, was almost insupportable. Except the great crowd on every side, we saw little to engage the attention after the first five minutes. Indeed, a single walk through one of the broad streets is quite sufficient to give a stranger a competent idea of the whole city. He will immediately perceive that every street is laid out in the same manner, and every house built upon the same plan; and that their architecture is void of taste, grandeur, beauty, solidity, or convenience; that the houses are merely tents, and that there is nothing magnificent, even in the palace of the Emperor;--but we shall have occasion to speak on this subject hereafter. Ask a Chinese, however, what is to be seen that is curious or great in the capital, and he will immediately enter upon a long history of the beauties of the palace belonging to Ta-whang-tee, the mighty Emperor. According to his notions, every thing within the palace walls is gold and silver. He will tell you of gold and silver pillars, gold and silver roofs, gold and silver vases, in which are swimming gold and silver fishes. All, however, is not gold that glitters in China, more than elsewhere. The Emperor, as I shall hereafter have occasion to notice, has very little surplus revenue at his disposal, and is frequently distressed for money to pay his army and other exigences of the state. And, though China has of late years drawn from Europe a considerable quantity of specie, yet when this is scattered over so vast an extent of country, and divided among so many millions of people, it becomes almost as a drop thrown into the sea. Most of the money, besides, that enters China is melted down, and converted into articles of luxury or convenience. Few nations are better acquainted with the value of these precious metals than the Chinese; and few, if any, can surpass their ingenuity in drawing out the one into thin leaves, and the other into the finest wire.

We were not a little overjoyed in finding ourselves once more upon the flagged causeway, and in an open country, after passing a small suburb beyond the western gate of the city. They brought us to a villa which was a kind of appendage to one of the Emperor's palaces, about eight miles beyond Pekin. The buildings, consisting of a number of small detached apartments, straggling over a surface of ground, about fifteen acres in extent, were neither sufficiently numerous to lodge the suite, nor to contain the presents and our baggage; and were moreover so miserably out of repair and in so ruinous a condition, that the greater part was wholly uninhabitable. The officers were accordingly told that these were not accommodations suitable to the dignity of a British Embassador, and that he would not on any consideration put up with them; that it was a matter of indifference whether he was lodged in the city or the country, but that the lodgings should be convenient and proper. The superintending officers, upon this, caused a large temporary building to be erected with poles and mats, which, as by magic, was finished in the course of the night, hoping, by this exertion, to have removed all objections to the place. His Lordship, however, being determined not to remain where there was neither a decent room, nor any kind of comfort or convenience, every building being entirely unfurnished, and, as I said before, the greater number untenantable, insisted upon being removed to Pekin, where accordingly it was very soon announced there was a suitable house ready for his reception.

On returning to the capital we passed through the great street of a town called Hai-tien in which most of the houses were of two stories, and before the upper of which was a kind of Véranda full of dwarf trees and flower-pots. A great proportion of the houses were either butchers' shops or coffin-makers. From the end of this street was a most extensive view of Pekin and the surrounding country. The eye from hence took in the whole length of the high straight wall with its two lofty gates and numerous square towers. At each angle of the wall is a large square building rising above the parapet to four heights or stories of port-holes, and covered with two roofs. In each row of the four fronts are fourteen windows or port-holes. These I understood to be the rice magazines or public granaries. Near the north-west angle is a tall pagoda, another high tower not unlike a glass-house, and towards the higher western gate appeared the upper part of a pyramidal building that terminated in a gilded flame, very like the summit of our Monument under which, instead of a gallery, was a most magnificent canopy or umbrella, painted and gilt with such brilliant colours, that from certain points of view, when the rays of the sun played upon it, the glittering appearance had a very good effect. It was said to be a temple, and seemed to be of the same kind of architecture as the Shoo-ma-doo described by Col. Symes in his embassy to Ava.

We found our new lodging sufficiently large, but the apartments were shamefully dirty, having been uninhabited for some time; very much out of repair, and totally unfurnished. This house, being considered be one of the best in the whole city, I shall have occasion to take notice of hereafter, in speaking of the state of their architecture. It was built by the late Ho-poo, or Collector of the customs at Canton, from which situation he was preferred to the collectorship of salt duties at Tien-sing, where, it seems, he was detected in embezzling the public revenues, thrown into jail, and his immense property confiscated to the crown. The officers appointed to attend the embassy told us, that when it was proposed to the Emperor for the English Embassador to occupy this house, he immediately replied, "Most certainly, you cannot refuse the temporary occupation of a house to the Embassador of that nation which contributed so very amply towards the expense of building it." The inference to be drawn from such a remark, is, that the court of Pekin is well aware of the extortions committed against foreigners at Canton.

The Emperor being at this time in Tartary, where he meant to celebrate the festival of the anniversary of his birth-day, had given orders that the public introduction of the British Embassador should be fixed for that day, and should take place at Gehol, a small town 136 miles from Pekin, where he had a large palace, park, gardens, and a magnificent Poo-ta-la or temple of Budha. Accordingly a selection was made of such presents as were the most portable, to be sent forwards into Tartary; and the Embassador, with part of his suite, several officers of the court, and their retinue, set out from Pekin on the second of September. Some of the gentlemen, with part of the guard and of the servants, remained in Pekin, and Dr. Dinwiddie and myself, with two mechanics, had apartments allotted to us in the palace of Yuen-min-yuen, where the largest and most valuable of the presents were to be fitted up for the inspection of the old Emperor on his return from Tartary.

Having already acquired some little knowledge of the language on the passage from England, by the assistance of two Chinese priests who had been sent by their superiors to Naples, for the purpose of being instructed in the Christian religion, I hoped to find this temporary banishment less irksome, particularly as I had previously stipulated with the officers belonging to that palace for an unconditional leave to visit the capital whenever I should find it necessary or proper, during the absence of the Embassador; and, it is but fair to say, they kept faith to their engagement in the strictest sense. A horse and one of the little covered carts were always at my disposal.

The gentlemen left in the city were less agreeably situated. At the outer gate of their lodgings a guard was stationed with orders to allow none of them to pass, and all their proceedings and movements were closely watched. Sometimes they were a little relieved by occasional visits from the European missionaries; but so suspicious were the officers of government of any communication with these gentlemen that they were invariably accompanied by some of them to act as spies, notwithstanding they could not comprehend one single word that was exchanged in the conversations they held together. A Chinese has no knowledge whatsoever of any of the European languages. But he watches the actions, and even the motions of the eye, and makes his report accordingly. The courts of the house were constantly filled with the inferior officers of government and their servants, all of whom had some post or other assigned to them connected with the British Embassy. One was the superintendant of the kitchen, another furnished tea, one was appointed to supply us with fruit, another with vegetables, and another with milk.

During the time I should be required to reside in Yuen-min-yuen, I particularly wished to have none other than Chinese servants, that I might be under the necessity of extending the little knowledge I had already acquired of the spoken language. This is by no means difficult to learn except in the nice intonations or inflexions of voice, but the written character is, perhaps of all others, the most abstruse and most perplexing both to the eye and to the memory. The length of time that is usually required by the Chinese, together with the intense study and stretch of the memory which they find necessary in order to obtain a very small proportion of the characters that form the language, are serious obstructions to the progress of the arts and sciences, but favourable to the stability of the government of which indeed the language may be considered as one of the great bulwarks. But the observations I have to make on this subject will more properly be reserved for a separate chapter.

On arriving at Yuen-min-yuen I found a number of Chinese workmen busily employed in breaking open the packages, some in one place and some in another, to the no little danger of the globes, clocks, glass lustres, and such like frangible articles, many of which must inevitably have suffered under less careful and dexterous hands than those of the Chinese. As it was intended they should be placed in one large room, the great hall in which the Emperor gives audience to his ministers, the first operation was to move them all thither, and carefully to unpack them; and we had the satisfaction to find that not a single article was either missing or injured.

We had not been long here, before a gentleman appeared who, notwithstanding his Chinese dress, I soon perceived to be an European. He introduced himself by saying, in the Latin language, that his name was Deodato a Neapolitan missionary, and that the court had appointed him to act as interpreter, hoped he might be useful to us, and offered his services in the most handsome manner; and, I have great pleasure in availing myself of this opportunity to acknowledge the friendly and unremitting attention I received from him during a residence of five weeks in this palace, and the very material assistance he afforded in explaining the nature, value, and use of the several pieces of machinery to those Chinese who were appointed to superintend them. Signor Deodato was an excellent mechanic; and in this capacity was employed in the palace to inspect and keep in order the numberless pieces of clock-work that had found their way thither, chiefly from London.

The officer appointed to attend us wore a light blue button in his cap, denoting the 4th degree of rank. When he shewed the apartments that were designed for us, I could not forbear observing to him, that they seemed fitter for hogs than for human creatures, and that rather than be obliged to occupy those, or any other like them, I should for my own part prefer coming down from the capital every morning, and return in the evening. They consisted of three or four hovels in a small court, surrounded with a wall as high as their roofs. Each room was about twelve feet square, the walls completely naked, the ceiling broken in, the rushes or stems of boleus, that held the plaister, hanging down and strewed on the floor; the lattice work of the windows partially covered with broken paper; the doors consisting of old bamboo skreens; the floor covered with dust, and there was not the least furniture in any of them, except an old table and two or three chairs in the one which was intended, I suppose, for the dining-room. The rest had nothing in them whatsoever but a little raised platform of brick-work, which they told us was to sleep on, and that they should cover it with mats, and order proper bedding to be brought upon it. Yet these miserable hovels were not only within the palace wall, but scarcely two hundred yards from the great hall of audience. The officer assured us that they were the apartments of one of their Ta-gin (great men) but that, as I did not seem to like them, we should be accommodated with others. We were then carried a little farther, where there was a number of buildings upon a more extensive scale enclosed also by high walls. The apartments were somewhat larger, but miserably dirty both within and without, and wholly unfurnished; but as our attendant took care to tell us they belonged to one of the ministers of state, and that he lodged in them when the Emperor was at Yuen-min-yuen, we were precluded from further complaint. Had we refused those that were considered sufficient for a minister of state, the man might have thought that nothing less than the Emperor's own would have satisfied us. If the menial servants of his Britannic Majesty's Ministers were no better lodged than the ministers themselves of his Chinese Majesty, they would be apt to think themselves very ill used. We accepted them, however, such as they were, and caused them to be swept out, an operation which had not been performed for many months before; a table and chairs were brought in, with mats, pillows, and silken mattresses; but for these we had no occasion, having fortunately brought with us from the ships our own cots.

To make amends for our uncomfortable lodging, we sat down to a most excellent dinner, wholly prepared in the Chinese style, consisting of a vast variety of made dishes very neatly dressed, and served in porcelain bowls. The best soup I ever tasted in any part of the world was made here from an extract of beef, seasoned with a preparation of soy and other ingredients. Their vermicelli is excellent, and all their pastry is unusually light and white as snow. We understood it to be made from the buck wheat. The luxury of ice, in the neighbourhood of the capital, is within the reach of the poorest peasant; and, although they drink their tea and other beverage warm, they prefer all kinds of fruit when cooled on ice.

The three first days, while the articles were unpacking and assorting, we remained tolerably quiet, being annoyed only with the interference and inquisitiveness of an old eunuch, who had in his train about a dozen of the same kind simile aut secundum. But no sooner were they taken out of their cases, and set up in the room, than visitors of all ranks, from princes of the blood to plain citizens, came daily to look at the presents, but more particularly at us, whom I believe they considered by much the greatest curiosities. All the men of letters and rank, who held employments in the state, and whose attendance had been dispensed with at Gehol, flocked to Yuen-min-yuen.

Among the numerous visitors came one day in great state the president of a board in Pekin, on which the Jesuits have conferred the pompous but unmerited title of the Tribunal of Mathematics. He was accompanied by a Portuguese missionary of the name of Govea, who is the titular Bishop of Pekin, Padre Antonio, and his secretary, both Portuguese, and all three members of the said tribunal. The particular object of their visit was to make themselves fully acquainted with the nature and use of the several presents that related to science, and especially of the large planetarium, which had already made a great noise in China, in order that they might be able to give a proper description and explanation to his Imperial Majesty, both of this instrument, and of all the others connected with their department, and to answer any question concerning them that might be asked.

It created no sort of surprize to any of us, on finding that the Chinese who accompanied these reverend gentlemen were completely ignorant of the nature of a complicated machine, whose motions, regulated by the most ingenious mechanism that had ever been constructed in Europe, represented all those even of the most irregular and eccentric of the heavenly bodies; nor in perceiving that they seemed to be rather disappointed in the appearance and operations of this instrument. It was obvious, from the few questions put by the president of this learned body, that he had conceived the planetarium to be something similar to one of those curious pieces of musical mechanism which, in the Canton jargon, are called Sing-songs, and that nothing more was necessary than to wind it up like a jack, when it would immediately spin round, and tell him every thing that he wanted to know.

But the difficulty of making the right reverend Bishop and his colleagues comprehend the principles upon which it was constructed, and the several phenomena of the heavenly bodies exhibited by it, conveyed almost as bad an opinion of their astronomical and mathematical knowledge as of that of their president. The prelate, however, appeared to be a man of mild and placid temper, pleasing manners, and of a modest and unassuming deportment. His secretary was a keen sharp fellow, extremely inquisitive, and resolved not to lose the little knowledge he might acquire, for he wrote down the answer to every question that was proposed.

The following day the Bishop came unattended by the Chinese part of their board, and gave us some account of the nature of their employ. The astronomical part of the national almanack, such as calculating eclipses, the times of new and full moon, the rising and setting of the sun, were, as he informed us, entrusted to him and his colleagues, but the astrological part was managed by a committee of the Chinese members. He candidly avowed that neither he nor any of his European brethren were well qualified for the task, and that they had been hitherto more indebted to the Connoissances de tems of Paris than to their own calculations. That having exactly ascertained the difference of meridians between Pekin and Paris, they had little difficulty in reducing the calculations made for the latter, so as to answer for the situation of the former, at least to a degree of accuracy that was sufficiently near the truth not to be detected by any of the Chinese members.

The French revolution having put an end to future communications with that country was to them a severe blow in this respect, though the secretary thought he could now manage the calculation of an eclipse sufficiently correct to pass current with the Chinese. Fortunately, however, Doctor Dinwiddie had provided himself on leaving London with a set of the nautical almanacks, calculated for the meridian of Greenwich, up to the year 1800, which they considered as an invaluable present.

The grandsons of the Emperor were almost daily visitors. It seems there is a kind of college in the palace for their education. Though young men from the ages of sixteen to five-and-twenty, the old eunuch used frequently to push them by the shoulders out of the hall of audience; and, on expressing my surprise to Deodato at such insolence, he informed me that he was their aya, their governor!

We had also a great number of Tartar generals and military officers who had heard of sword-blades that would cut iron bars without injuring the edge; and so great was their astonishment on proving the fact, that they could scarcely credit the evidence of their own eyes. We could not confer a more acceptable present on a military officer than one of Gill's sword-blades; and from the eager applications made for them, as we passed through the country, the introduction of them through Canton, in the regular course of trade, would, I should suppose, be no difficult task.

But the two elegant carriages made by Hatchett puzzled the Chinese more than any of the other presents. Nothing of the kind had ever been seen at the capital; and the disputes among themselves as to the part which was intended for the seat of the Emperor were whimsical enough. The hammer-cloth that covered the box of the winter carriage had a smart edging, and was ornamented with festoons of roses. Its splendid appearance and elevated situation determined it at once, in the opinion of the majority, to be the Emperor's seat; but a difficulty arose how to appropriate the inside of the carriage. They examined the windows, the blinds, and the screens, and at last concluded, that it could be for nobody but his ladies. The old eunuch came to me for information, and when he learned that the fine elevated box was to be the seat of the man who managed the horses, and that the Emperor's place was within, he asked me, with a sneer, if I supposed the Ta-whang-tee would suffer any man to sit higher than himself, and to turn his back towards him? and he wished to know if we could not contrive to have the coach-box removed and placed somewhere behind the body of the carriage.

A remarkable circumstance, not easily to be accounted for, occurred in opening a cask of Birmingham hardware. Every one knows the necessity of excluding the sea-air as much as possible from highly polished articles of iron and steel, and accordingly all such articles intended to be sent abroad are packed with the greatest care. The casks, or cases, are made as tight as possible and covered with pitched canvas. Such was the cask in question. Yet, when the head was taken off, and a few of the packages removed, an enormous large scorpion was found in the midst of the cask, nearly in a torpid state, but it quickly recovered on exposure to the warm air.

"The thing we know is neither rich nor rare, But wonder how the devil it got there?"

Among the presents carried into Tartary was a collection of prints, chiefly portraits of English nobility and distinguished persons; and to make the present more acceptable, they were bound up in three volumes in yellow Morocco. The Emperor was so pleased with this collection, that he sent it express to Yuen-min-yuen to have the name, rank, and office of each portrait translated into the Mantchoo and Chinese languages. The Tartar writer got on pretty well, but the Chinese secretary was not a little puzzled with the B, the D, and the R, that so frequently recurred in the English names. The Duke of Marlborough was Too-ke Ma-ul-po-loo, and Bedford was transformed to Pe-te-fo-ul-te. But here a more serious difficulty occurred than that of writing the name. The rank was also to be written down, and on coming to the portrait of this nobleman, (which was a proof impression of the print, engraved from a picture by Sir Joshua Reynolds, when the late Duke of Bedford was a youth,) I told the Chinese to write him down a Ta-gin, or great man of the second order. He instantly observed that I surely meant his father was a Ta-gin. I then explained to him that, according to our laws, the son succeeded to the rank of the father, and that with us it was by no means necessary, in order to obtain the first rank in the country, that a man should be of a certain age, be possessed of superior talents, or suitable qualifications. That these were sometimes conducive to high honours, yet that a great part of the legislative body of the nation were entitled to their rank and situation by birth. They laughed heartily at the idea of a man being born a legislator, when it required so many years of close application to enable one of their countrymen to pass his examination for the very lowest order of state-officers. As, however, the descendants of Confucius continue to enjoy a sort of nominal rank, and as their Emperor can also confer an hereditary dignity, without entitling to office, emolument, or exclusive privilege, they considered his Grace might be one of this description, and wrote down his rank accordingly; but they positively refused to give him the title of Ta-gin, or great man, asking me, if I thought their Emperor was so stupid as not to know the impossibility of a little boy having attained the rank of a great man.

About the 14th of September, or three days before the Emperor's birth-day, Padre Anselmo, the procurator for the mission de propaganda fide, delivered me letters from Macao for the Embassador, which the Chinese refused to send to Gehol, though daily expresses went to and from that place. Anselmo hinted to me that the late viceroy of Canton, who was no friend to the English, had arrived, and that he feared all was not right. That the Tartar legate had been degraded from his rank for deceiving the Emperor, and particularly for not paying his personal respects to the Embassador on board his ship when in Tien-sing roads. That the peacock's feather, which he wore in his cap as a mark of his master's favour, was exchanged for a crow's tail, the sign of great disgrace, and that the consideration of his age and his family had alone saved him from banishment. The Emperor, it seems, having heard that the Embassador had his picture in his cabin on board the Lion, asked the legate whether it was like him, upon which it came out that he had never been near the Lion, as his orders directed him.

On the 17th, being the Emperor's birth-day, all the princes and officers about the palace assembled in their robes of ceremony, to make their obeisance to the throne in the great hall of audience. On this occasion were placed on the floor before the throne, on three small tripods, a cup of tea, of oil, and of rice, perhaps as an acknowledgment of the Emperor being the proprietary of the soil, of which these are three material products. The old eunuch told me that I might remain in the hall during the ceremony, if I would consent to perform it with them, and offered to instruct me in it. He said that all the officers of government, in every part of the empire, made their prostrations to the name of the Emperor inscribed on yellow silk on that day.

Two days after this, on going as usual in the morning to the hall of audience, I found the doors shut and the old eunuch, who kept the keys, walking about in so sullen a mood that I could not get from him a single word. Different groupes of officers were assembled in the court-yard, all looking as if something very dreadful either had occurred, or was about to happen. Nobody would speak to me, nor could I get the least explanation of this extraordinary conduct, till at length our friend Deodato appeared with a countenance no less woeful than those of the officers of government, and the old eunuch. I asked him what was the matter? His answer was, We are all lost, ruined, and undone! He then informed me that intelligence had arrived from Gehol, stating, that Lord Macartney had refused to comply with the ceremony of prostrating himself, like the Embassadors of tributary princes, nine times before the Emperor, unless one of equal rank with himself should go through the same ceremony before the portrait of his Britannic Majesty: that rather than do this they had accepted his offer to perform the same ceremony of respect to the Emperor as to his own sovereign. That although little was thought of this affair at Gehol, the great officers of state in the tribunal or department of ceremonies in Pekin were mortified, and perplexed, and alarmed; and that, in short, it was impossible to say what might be the consequence of an event unprecedented in the annals of the empire. That the Emperor, when he began to think more seriously on the subject, might possibly impeach those before the criminal tribunal who had advised him to accede to such a proposal, on reflecting how much his dignity had suffered by the compliance; and that the records of the country might hand it down to posterity, as an event that had tarnished the lustre of his reign, being nothing short of breaking through an ancient custom, and adopting one of a barbarous nation in its place. Deodato thought even that its ill effects might extend to them, as Europeans, and might injure the cause which was the first object of their mission.

I found it in vain to put into good humour that day either the officers of government, or the eunuchs, or even the missionaries; and our table was very materially affected by it, both in the number and the quality of dishes;--a criterion from which, more than any other, a judgment may be formed of the state of mind in which a Chinese happens to be. Something of the same kind, it seems, occurred at Gehol. From the time the Embassador began to make conditions, his table was abridged, under an idea that he might be starved into an unconditional compliance. Finding this experiment fail, they had recourse to a different conduct, and became all kindness and complaisance.

The ill-humour occasioned by the news from Gehol gradually wore off, but I observed that the princes who had hitherto been daily visitors now kept entirely away; and the old eunuch, when put out of his way, used to apply to us the epithet of proud, headstrong Englishmen.

On the 26th the Embassador (during whose stay at Gehol in Tartary an account of all that passed there is given in Sir George Staunton's book) returned to Pekin, when the remainder of the presents were sent to Yuen-min-yuen. A number of Tartar princes and great officers of state came to look at those fitted up in the hall of audience, and seemed extremely solicitous that the whole should be got ready without delay. Notice was also given that, on the 30th the Emperor would inspect the presents. This was the day fixed for his return, and it was notified to the Embassador that it was an usual compliment for all public officers to meet him on the road, at the distance of ten or twelve miles from the capital. Accordingly, about four o'clock in the morning of the 30th, we were all mounted and arrived at our ground about six. The whole road had been newly made, rolled as level as a bowling-green, watered to keep down the dust and, on each side, at the distance of about fifty yards from each other, were small triangular poles erected, from which were suspended painted lanterns.

They brought us into a kind of guard-house, where tea and other refreshments were prepared, after which we took our station on a high bank on the left of the road. On each side, as far as the eye could reach, were several thousands of the great officers of state in their habits of ceremony; Tartar troops in their holiday dresses; standard-bearers without number, military music, and officers of the household, lining the two sides of the road. The approach of the Emperor was announced by a blast of the trumpet, followed by softer music, "and at that time when all the people heard the sound of the cornet, flutes, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and all kinds of music, then the princes, the governors, and captains, the judges, the treasurers, the counsellors, the sheriffs, and all the rulers of the provinces, that were gathered together, fell down and worshipped," except certain strangers, who, being obstinately resolved to do no greater homage to any sovereign than what is required by their own sovereign, bent one knee only to the ground.

The Emperor was carried by eight men in a kind of sedan chair, which was followed by a clumsy state chariot upon two wheels, and without springs. He bowed very graciously to the Embassador as he passed, and sent a message to him to say that, understanding he was not well, he advised him to return immediately to Pekin, and not to stop at Yuen-min-yuen, as was intended.

The morning being very cold, we were desirous to get home as fast as we could; and accordingly galloped along with some of the Tartar cavalry. When we arrived under the walls of Pekin, we turned our horses towards a different gate to that through which we were accustomed to pass, in order to see a little more of the city. But one of our conductors, who had thought it his duty not to lose sight of us, in perceiving us making a wrong turn, hallowed out with all his might. We pushed forward, however, and got through the gate, but we were pursued with such a hue and cry, that we were glad to escape through one of the cross streets leading to our hotel, where we arrived with at least a hundred soldiers at our heels.

On the 1st of October the Emperor, attended by a Tartar, inspected the presents in the hall of audience and examined them with minute attention. He desired the Tartar prince to tell us, through Deodato, that the accounts he had received of our good conduct at Yuen-min-yuen gave him great pleasure, and that he had ordered a present to be made to each of us, as a proof of his entire satisfaction. This present was brought, after his departure from the hall, by the old eunuch, who took care to tell us that before we received it we must make nine prostrations according to the Chinese custom. I made him no answer, but requested Deodato to explain to the Tartar prince, who was still present, that being under the orders of the Embassador we did not think ourselves authorized to do what he had found good to refuse, but that we had not the least objection to go through the same ceremony that he had done at Gehol. The Tartar prince immediately answered that nothing further was required. We accordingly placed one knee on the lowest step leading to the throne. The present consisted of rolls of silk and several pieces of silver cast in the form of a Tartar shoe, without any mark or inscription on them, and each about the weight of an ounce.

The presents being now all delivered, and the Embassador informed by the missionaries that preparations were making for our departure, the usual time being nearly expired, his Excellency was desirous of having the day fixed, and for this purpose dispatched a note to the first minister, who sent an answer by the Tartar legate to inform him that, to prevent any likelihood of being surprized by the approaching bad weather, the Emperor had named the 7th instant for the beginning of our journey; and had given orders that every honour and distinction should be paid to the Embassy on the road.

But before I quit these renowned gardens of Yuen-min-yuen, it will naturally be expected I should say something on their subject. From all that I had heard and read of the grandeur and beauty of the scenery and the magnificence of the palaces, I had certainly expected to meet with a style of gardening and laying out of grounds superior, or at least equal, to any thing in the same line in Europe; and, perhaps indeed, I might have been fully gratified in all my expectation provided no restraint had been thrown upon our walks, which was far from being the case. All the little excursions I made were by stealth. Even in the short distance between the hall of audience and our lodgings, which might be about three hundred paces, we were continually watched. The idea of being stopped by an eunuch or some of the inferior officers belonging to the court, was sufficient to put us on our guard against meeting with any such mortification; pride, in such circumstances, generally gets the better of the desire, however strong, of gratifying curiosity. I sometimes, however, ventured to stroll from our lodging in the evening in order to take a stolen glance at these celebrated gardens.

The grounds of Yuen-min-yuen are calculated to comprehend an extent of at least ten English miles in diameter, or about sixty thousand acres, a great part of which, however, is wastes and woodland. The general appearance of those parts near where we lodged, as to the natural surface of the country, broken into hill and dale, and diversified with wood and lawn, may be compared with Richmond park, to which, however, they add the very great advantage of abundance of canals, rivers, and large sheets of water, whose banks, although artificial, are neither trimmed, nor shorn, nor sloped, like the glacis of a fortification, but have been thrown up with immense labour in an irregular, and, as it were, fortuitous manner, so as to represent the free hand of nature. Bold rocky promontories are seen jutting into a lake, and vallies retiring, some choaked with wood, others in a state of high cultivation. In particular spots where pleasure-houses, or places of rest or retirement, were erected, the views appeared to have been studied. The trees were not only placed according to their magnitudes, but the tints of their foliage seemed also to have been considered in the composition of the picture, which some of the landscapes might be called with great propriety. But, if an opinion may be formed from those parts of them which I have seen, and I understood there is a great similarity throughout the whole, they fall very short of the fanciful and extravagant descriptions that Sir William Chambers has given of Chinese gardening. Much, however, has been done, and nothing that I saw could be considered as an offence to nature.

Thirty distinct places of residence for the Emperor, with all the necessary appendages of building to each, for lodging the several officers of state, who are required to be present on court days and particular occasions, for the eunuchs, servants, and artificers, each composing a village of no inconsiderable magnitude, are said to be contained within the inclosure of these gardens. These assemblages of buildings, which they dignify with the name of palaces, are, however, of such a nature as to be more remarkable for their number than for their splendour or magnificence. A great proportion of the buildings consists in mean cottages. The very dwelling of the Emperor and the grand hall in which he gives audience, when divested of the gilding and the gaudy colours with which they are daubed, are little superior, and much less solid, than the barns of a substantial English farmer. Their apartments are as deficient in proportion, as their construction is void of every rule and principle which we are apt to consider as essential to architecture. The principal hall of audience at Yuen-min-yuen stood upon a platform of granite, raised about four feet above the level of the court. A row of large wooden columns surrounding the building supported the projecting roof; and a second row within the first, and corresponding with it (the interstices between the columns being filled up with brick-work to the height of about four feet) served for the walls of the room. The upper part of these walls was a kind of lattice-work, covered over with large sheets of oiled paper, and was capable of being thrown entirely open on public occasions. The wooden columns had no capitals, and the only architrave was the horizontal beam that supported the rafters of the roof. This, in direct contradiction to the established mode in European architecture, was the uppermost member of what might be called the entablature or frize, which was a broad skreen of wood, fastened between the upper part of the columns, painted with the most vivid colours of blue, red, and green, and interlarded with gilding; and the whole had net-work of wire stretched over it, to prevent its being defiled by swallows, and other birds frequenting human dwellings. The length of this room within was one hundred and ten feet, breadth forty-two, and height twenty feet: the ceiling painted with circles, squares, and polygons, whimsically disposed, and loaded with a great variety of colours. The floor was paved with grey marble flag stones laid chequer-wise. The throne, placed in a recess, was supported by rows of pillars painted red like those without. It consisted entirely of wood, not unlike mahogany, the carving of which was exquisitely fine. The only furniture was a pair of brass kettle-drums, two large paintings, two pair of ancient blue porcelain vases, a few volumes of manuscripts, and a table at one end of the room on which was placed an old English chiming clock, made in the seventeenth century by one Clarke of Leadenhall-street, and which our old friend the eunuch had the impudence to tell us was the workmanship of a Chinese. A pair of circular fans made of the wing feathers of the Argus pheasant, and mounted on long polished ebony poles stood, one on each side of the throne, over which was written in four characters, "true, great, refulgent, splendor;" and under these, in a lozenge, the character of Happiness. In the different courts were several miserable attempts at sculpture, and some bronze figures, but all the objects were fanciful, distorted, and entirely out of nature. The only specimen of workmanship about the palace, that would bear a close examination, besides the carving of the throne, was a brick wall enclosing the flower garden, which, perhaps, in no respect is exceeded by any thing of the sort in England.

With regard to the architecture and gardening of the Chinese, it may be expected that I should give a more detailed description, or offer some opinion on those subjects. The little I have to say on the former will be reserved for another place; and, with respect to the latter, I regret that I had not an opportunity of seeing so much as I could have wished, and particularly the Emperor's great park at Gehol, which, from the description of the Embassador, seemed to be almost unrivalled for its features of beauty, sublimity, and amenity. But my own deficiency will be amply filled up with an extract or two from the Journal of his Lordship, whose taste and skill in landscape gardening are so well known. I have indeed much to regret that I could not enrich the present work with more extracts from it, but as it makes a complete picture of itself the partial selection of detached parts might have been injurious to it, by conveying wrong impressions, when unconnected with the rest. I am, therefore, the more obliged (and gladly embrace this opportunity of expressing the obligations I feel) to his Lordship, for what little he has allowed me to transcribe.

Speaking of the route from Pekin to Gehol in Tartary, Lord Macartney observes: "Our journey, upon the whole, has been very pleasant and, being divided into seven days, not at all fatiguing. At the end of every stage we have been lodged and entertained in the wings or houses adjoining to the Emperor's palaces. These palaces, which occur at short distances from each other on the road, have been built for his reception, on his annual visit to Tartary. They are constructed upon nearly the same plan and in the same taste. They front the south, and are usually situated on irregular ground near the basis of gentle hills which, together with their adjoining vallies, are enclosed by high walls and laid out in parks and pleasure grounds, with every possible attention to picturesque beauty. Whenever water can be brought into the view it is not neglected; the distant hills are planted, cultivated, or left naked, according to their accompaniments in the prospect. The wall is often concealed in a sunk fence, in order to give an idea of greater extent. A Chinese gardener is the painter of nature, and though totally ignorant of perspective, as a science, produces the happiest effects by the management, or rather pencilling, of distances, if I may use the expression, by relieving or keeping down the features of the scene, by contrasting trees of a bright with those of a dusky foliage, by bringing them forward, or throwing them back, according to their bulk and their figure, and by introducing buildings of different dimensions, either heightened by strong colouring, or softened by simplicity and omission of ornament.

"The Emperor having been informed that, in the course of our travels in China we had shewn a strong desire of seeing every thing curious and interesting, was pleased to give directions to the first minister to shew us his park or garden at Gehol. It is called in Chinese Van-shoo-yuen, or Paradise of ten thousand (or innumerable) trees. In order to have this gratification (which is considered as an instance of uncommon favour) we rose this morning at three o'clock and went to the palace where we waited, mixed with all the great officers of state, for three hours (such is the etiquette of the place) till the Emperor's appearance. At last he came forth, borne in the usual manner by sixteen persons on a high open palankeen, attended by guards, music, standards, and umbrellas without number; and observing us, as we stood in the front line, graciously beckoned us to approach, having ordered his people to stop; he entered into conversation with us; and, with great affability of manner, told us that he was on his way to the pagoda, where he usually paid his morning devotions; that as we professed a different religion from his he would not ask us to accompany him, but that he had ordered his first minister and chief Collaos to conduct us through his garden, and to shew us whatever we were desirous of seeing there.

[Illustration: Drawn by W^m. Alexander from a Sketch by Capt. Parish, Roy^l. Artil^y.

Engraved by T. Medland.

View in the Eastern Side of the Imperial Park at Gehol.

Published by Mess^rs. Cadell, & Davies, Strand, London.

May 2, 1804.]

"Having expressed my sense of this mark of his condescension in the proper manner, and my increasing admiration of every thing I had yet observed at Gehol, I retired and, whilst he proceeded to his adorations at the pagoda, I accompanied the ministers and other great Collaos of the court to a pavilion prepared for us, from whence, after a short collation, we set out on horseback to view this wonderful garden. We rode about three miles through a very beautiful park kept in the highest order and much resembling the approach to Luton in Bedfordshire; the grounds gently undulated and chequered with various groupes of well contrasted trees in the offskip. As we moved onward an extensive lake appeared before us, the extremities of which seemed to lose themselves in distance and obscurity. Here was a large and magnificent yacht ready to receive us, and a number of smaller ones for the attendants, elegantly fitted up and adorned with numberless vanes, pendants, and streamers. The shores of the lake have all the varieties of shape, which the fancy of a painter can delineate, and are so indented with bays, or broken with projections, that almost every stroke of the oar brought a new and unexpected object to our view. Nor are islands wanting, but they are situated only where they should be, each in its proper place and having its proper character: one marked by a pagoda, or other building; one quite destitute of ornament; some smooth and level; some steep and uneven; and others frowning with wood, or smiling with culture. Where any things particularly interesting were to be seen we disembarked, from time to time, to visit them, and I dare say that, in the course of our voyage, we stopped at forty or fifty different palaces or pavilions. These are all furnished in the richest manner with pictures of the Emperor's huntings and progresses, with stupendous vases of jasper and agate; with the finest porcelain and Japan, and with every kind of European toys and sing-songs; with spheres, orreries, clocks, and musical automatons of such exquisite workmanship, and in such profusion, that our presents must shrink from the comparison, and hide their diminished heads; and yet I am told, that the fine things we have seen are far exceeded by others of the same kind in the apartments of the ladies, and in the European repository at Yuen-min-yuen. In every one of the pavilions was a throne, or imperial state, and a Eu-jou, or symbol of peace and prosperity, placed at one side of it resembling that which the Emperor delivered to me yesterday for the king.

"It would be an endless task were I to attempt a detail of all the wonders of this charming place. There is no beauty of distribution, no feature of amenity, no reach of fancy which embellishes our pleasure grounds in England, that is not to be found here. Had China been accessible to Mr. Browne or Mr. Hamilton, I should have sworn they had drawn their happiest ideas from the rich sources, which I have tasted this day; for in the course of a few hours I have enjoyed such vicissitudes of rural delight, as I did not conceive could be felt out of England, being at different moments enchanted by scenes perfectly similar to those I had known there, to the magnificence of Stowe, the softer beauties of Wooburn, and the fairy-land of Paine's Hill.

"One thing I was particularly struck with, I mean the happy choice of situation for ornamental buildings. From attention to this circumstance they have not the air of being crowded or disproportioned; they never intrude upon the eye; but wherever they appear always shew themselves to advantage, and aid, improve, and enliven the prospect.

"In many places the lake is overspread with the Nenuphar or lotus (Nelumbium) resembling our broad leaved water lilly. This is an accompaniment which, though the Chinese are passionately fond of, cultivating it in all their pieces of water, I confess I don't much admire. Artificial rocks and ponds with gold and silver fish are perhaps too often introduced, and the monstrous porcelain figures of lions and tygers, usually placed before the pavilions, are displeasing to an European eye; but these are trifles of no great moment; and I am astonished that now, after a six hours critical survey of these gardens, I can scarcely recollect any thing besides to find fault with.

"At our taking leave of the minister, he told us that we had only seen the eastern side of the gardens, but that the western side, which was the larger part still remained for him to shew us, and that he should have that pleasure another day.

"Accordingly, on the day of the Emperor's anniversary festival, after the ceremony was ended, the first or great Collao Ho-chun-tong, the Foo-leou, the Foo-leou's brothers Foo-chan-tong, and Song-ta-gin, with the other great men who attended us two days since, in our visit to the eastern garden, now proposed to accompany us to the western, which forms a strong contrast with the other, and exhibits all the sublimer beauties of nature in as high a degree as the part which we saw before possesses the attractions of softness and amenity. It is one of the finest forest-scenes in the world; wild, woody, mountainous and rocky, abounding with stags and deer of different species, and most of the other beasts of the chase, not dangerous to man.

"In many places immense woods, chiefly oaks, pines, and chesnuts, grow upon almost perpendicular steeps, and force their sturdy roots through every resistance of surface and of soil, where vegetation would seem almost impossible. These woods often clamber over the loftiest pinnacles of the stony hills, or gathering on the skirts of them, descend with a rapid sweep, and bury themselves in the deepest vallies. There, at proper distances, you find palaces, banquetting houses, and monasteries, (but without bonzes) adapted to the situation and peculiar circumstances of the place, sometimes with a rivulet on one hand, gently stealing through the glade, at other with a cataract tumbling from above, raging with foam, and rebounding with a thousand echoes from below, or silently engulphed in a gloomy pool, or yawning chasm.

"The roads by which we approached these romantic scenes are often hewn out of the living rock, and conducted round the hills in a kind of rugged stair-case, and yet no accident occurred in our progress, not a false step disturbed the regularity of our cavalcade, though the horses are spirited and all of them unshod. From the great irregularity of the ground, and the various heights to which we ascended, we had opportunities of catching many magnificent points of view by detached glances, but after wandering for several hours (and yet never wearied with wandering) we at last reached a covered pavilion open on all sides, and situated on a summit so elevated as perfectly to command the whole surrounding country to a vast extent. The radius of the horizon I should suppose to be at least twenty miles from the central spot where we stood; and certainly so rich, so various, so beautiful, so sublime a prospect my eyes had never beheld. I saw every thing before me as on an illuminated map, palaces, pagodas, towns, villages, farm-houses, plains, and vallies, watered by innumerable streams, hills waving with woods, and meadows covered with cattle of the most beautiful marks and colours. All seemed to be nearly at my feet, and that a step would convey me within reach of them.

"I observed here a vast number of what we call in England sheet cows, also sheet horses, many pyeballs, dappled, mottled, and spotted, the latter chiefly strawberry.

"From hence was pointed out to us by the minister a vast enclosure below, which, he said, was not more accessible to him than to us, being never entered but by the Emperor, his women, or his Eunuchs. It includes within its bounds, though on a smaller scale, most of the beauties which distinguish the eastern and the western gardens which we have already seen; but from every thing I can learn it falls very short of the fanciful descriptions which Father Attiret and Sir William Chambers have intruded upon us as realities. That within these private retreats, various entertainments of the most novel and expensive nature are prepared and exhibited by the Eunuchs, who are very numerous (perhaps some thousands) to amuse the Emperor and his ladies, I have no doubt; but that they are carried to all the lengths of extravagance and improbability those gentlemen have mentioned, I very much question, as from every enquiry I have made (and I have not been sparing to make them) I have by no means sufficient reason to warrant me in acceding to, or confirming, the accounts which they have given us.

"If any place in England can be said in any respect to have similar features to the western park, which I have seen this day, it is Lowther Hall in Westmoreland, which (when I knew it many years ago) from the extent of prospect, the grand surrounding objects, the noble situation, the diversity of surface, the extensive woods, and command of water, I thought might be rendered by a man of sense, spirit, and taste, the finest scene in the British dominions."

After the descriptive and interesting detail of the beauties of the two sides of the imperial park or gardens of Gehol, his Lordship makes a few general observations on Chinese gardening, and the ornamental edifices that are usually employed to aid the effect, as well as contribute to use and convenience. He observes,

"Whether our style of gardening was really copied from the Chinese, or originated with ourselves, I leave for vanity to assert, and idleness to discuss. A discovery which is the result of good sense and reflexion may equally occur to the most distant nations, without either borrowing from the other. There is certainly a great analogy between our gardening and the Chinese, but our excellence seems to be rather in improving nature, theirs to conquer her, and yet produce the same effect. It is indifferent to a Chinese where he makes his garden, whether on a spot favoured, or abandoned, by the rural deities. If the latter, he invites them, or compels them to return. His point is to change every thing from what he found it, to explode the old fashion of the creation, and introduce novelty in every corner. If there be a waste, he adorns it with trees; if a dry desert, he waters it with a river, or floats it with a lake. If there be a smooth flat, he varies it with all possible conversions. He undulates the surface, he raises it in hills, scoops it into vallies, and roughens it with rocks. He softens asperities, brings amenity into the wilderness, or animates the tameness of an expanse, by accompanying it with the majesty of a forest. Deceptions and eye-traps the Chinese are not unacquainted with, but they use them very sparingly. I observed no artificial ruins, caves, or hermitages. Though the sublime predominates in its proper station, you are insensibly led to contemplate it, not startled by its sudden intrusion, for in the plan cheerfulness is the principal feature, and lights up the face of the scene. To enliven it still more, the aid of architecture is invited; all the buildings are perfect of their kind, either elegantly simple, or highly decorated, according to the effect that is intended to arise, erected at suitable distances, and judiciously contracted, never crowded together in confusion, nor affectedly confronted, and staring at each other without meaning. Proper edifices in proper places. The summer-house, the pavilion, the pagodas, have all their respective situations, which they distinguish and improve, but which any other structures would injure or deform. The only things disagreeable to my eye are the large porcelain figures of lions, tygers, &c. and the rough hewn steps, and huge masses of rock work, which they seem studious of introducing near many of their houses and palaces. Considering their general good taste in the other points, I was much surprised at this, and could only account for it, by the expence and the difficulty of bringing together such incongruities, for it is a common effect of enormous riches to push every thing they can procure to bombast and extravagance, which are the death of taste. In other countries, however, as well as in China, I have seen some of the most boasted feats, either outgrowing their beauty from a plethora of their owner's wealth, or becoming capricious and hypocondriacal by a quackish application of it. A few fine places, even in England, might be pointed out that are labouring under these disorders; not to mention some celebrated houses where twisted stair-cases, window-glass cupolas, and embroidered chimney-pieces, convey nothing to us but the whims and dreams of sickly fancy, without an atom of grandeur, taste, or propriety.

"The architecture of the Chinese is of a peculiar style, totally unlike any other, irreducible to our rules, but perfectly consistent with its own. It has certain principles, from which it never deviates, and although, when examined according to ours, it sins against the ideas we have imbibed of distribution, composition, and proportion; yet, upon the whole, it often produces a most pleasing effect, as we sometimes see a person without a single good feature in his face have, nevertheless, a very agreeable countenance."