appearance and the following day embarked on flat-bottomed barges,
remarkably long and narrow, on the river _Long shia-tong_; but two
complete days of heavy rain obliged us to remain quietly at anchor.

On the 24th of November we dropped down the river, which by the rains
was swelled to an enormous size and in some places had overflowed its
banks, though in general high and rocky composed of a deep
brown-coloured freestone. Several rice mills were so completely
inundated, that their thatched roofs were but just visible above the
surface of the water; others were entirely washed away; and the wrecks
of them scattered upon the banks of the river. A vessel of our squadron
was upset upon the roof of one of these mills.

During two days' sail the surface of the country was hilly and well
wooded with camphors, firs, and tallow-trees; but as we approached the
_Po-yang_ lake, a small inland sea, it began to assume the uniform
appearance of an extended marsh, without any visible signs of
cultivation: here and there a few small huts, standing on the brink of
pools of water, with twice the number of small boats floating or drawn
up on shore, sufficiently indicated the occupation of the inhabitants.
In this part of the country we had an opportunity of seeing the various
means practised by the Chinese to catch fish: rafts and other floating
vessels with the fishing corvorant: boats with moveable planks turning
on hinges, and painted so as to deceive fishes on moonlight nights and
entice them to leap out of the water upon the planks; nets set in every
form; and wicker baskets made exactly in the same manner as those used
in Europe. Large gourds and blocks of wood were floating on the water,
in order to familiarize the various kinds of water-fowl to such objects,
which gave the Chinese an opportunity, by sticking their heads into
gourds or earthen pots and keeping their bodies under water, to approach
the birds in a gentle manner sufficiently near to take them by the legs
and draw them quietly under the water; a method which is said to be
practised by the natives of South America.

The nearer we approached the great lake _Po-yang_, the more dreary was
the appearance of the country; and for the distance of ten miles around
it, or at least on the south and west sides, was a wild waste of reeds
and rank grasses, such as the _Scirpus_, _Cyperus_, and bulrushes,
interrupted only by stagnant pools of water. Not a human dwelling of any
description was to be seen. This place may justly be considered as the
sink of China, into which rivers fall from every point of the compass.
It is scarcely possible for the imagination to form to itself an idea of
a more desolate region than that which surrounds the Po-yang lake. The
temperature was so reduced, by the circumambient waters, that on the
27th November, with drizzling showers, the thermometer was down to 48°
in the forenoon. We sailed near four whole days over the same kind of
country and came, towards the evening of the last, to the city of
_Nan-tchang-foo_, the capital of _Kiang-see_, where we observed from
four to five hundred of the revenue vessels lying at anchor. We waited
at this place a few hours to take in the necessary provisions and to
receive a present of silk, tea, and some other trifles from the viceroy.
We were told of a famous temple in the neighbourhood of the city, but we
had no curiosity to go out of the way to see it, which was dedicated to
the man who, as we have already observed, made his _apotheosis_
comfortably in his own house; that there was a well belonging to this
temple full of large snakes, whom the priests venerate and to whom they
admonish the people to make sacrifices, as being children of the dragons
which, if not constantly appeased by oblations to these their offspring,
would destroy the whole world. Thus, in all countries where votaries of
superstition are to be found, will knaves be met with to take advantage
of their weakness. The priests of this temple are said to have made one
observation, which is perhaps no superstition, that when these water
snakes appear on the surface, rains and inundations are sure to follow.
I took advantage, however, of the short delay, to go on board one of the
revenue vessels and to measure the capacity of its hold. It was in
length 115 feet, breadth 15 feet, and depth 6 feet; the sides streight
and the width nearly the same fore and aft; so that the burden might
fairly be estimated at 250 tons. Independent, therefore, of the
innumerable small craft, there were lying before this city 100,000 tons
of shipping.

The city of _Nan-tchang-foo_ is situated upon the left bank of the river
_Kan-kiang-ho_ falling from the southward into the _Po-yang_ lake. It
was here about five hundred yards in width, against the stream of which
we made a rapid progress with a brisk breeze. For the first sixty miles
the country was flat and uncultivated, except in places where we
observed a few fields of rice. But there was no want of population.
Towns and villages were constantly in sight, as were also manufactories
of earthen ware, bricks and tiles. The farther we advanced up the river,
the more populous was the country, the more varied and agreeable the
surface, and the more extended the cultivation. The banks were skirted
with large trees, that cast a cool and comfortable shade on the walks
beneath. Of these, some were willows, others camphors, but by far the
greatest number were the _Yang-tchoo_, a large spreading tree that threw
its branches down to the ground where, like the _Ficus Indicus_, of
which indeed it was a variety, they took root and became stems.

At the city _Kei-shui-shien_, which like most cities in China offered
little worthy of remark, the river divided into two branches; and at
_Kin-gan-foo_, a city of the first order, which we passed the same
night, by the river contracting suddenly the current became stronger and
of course our progress slower. To track the barges it was necessary
again to press a number of men; here, however, it may be observed, they
undertook the service with more willingness than to the northward. The
river meandered through a mountainous and barren country, rich only in
picturesque beauty which, though pleasing to the eye of the artist and
the connoisseur, has less charms for the philosopher, who finds more
real beauties to exist in a soil, however tame and uniform, that can be
rendered subservient to the uses of man.

On the 3d of November we approached that part of the river which, on
account of the numerous ship-wrecks that have happened there, is held in
no small degree of dread by the Chinese. They call it the _Shee-pa-tan_,
or the eighteen cataracts: which are torrents formed by ledges of rock
running across the bed of the river. They have not, however, any thing
very terrific in them, not one being half so dangerous as the fall at
London bridge about half-tide. But the Chinese have no great dexterity
in the management of their vessels. They are so easily alarmed, that
they frequently miscarry through timidity, when a little recollection
and resolution would have secured them success. The mountains between
which the river was hemmed in were covered with forests of the larch
fir; the glens and vallies abounded with the bamboo, of which we here
observed two species, one the same that is common in other parts of the
East, and the second much smaller in its growth, seldom exceeding the
height of ten feet; and the fibres of its small stem are more hard and
solid than those of the other species. The Chinese use it in the finer
parts of such household furniture and other articles as are constructed
of bamboo. From the margins of the river to the feet of the forests the
lower parts of the mountains were covered with coppice, among which the
most common shrub bore a close resemblance to the tea plant, and
accordingly the Chinese called it the _Tcha-wha_, or flower of tea. It
was the _Camellia Sesanqua_ of Thunberg, to which they had given the
same name (not being very nice in specific distinctions), as to the
_Camellia Japonica_ of Linnæus. From the nut of the former not unlike
to, though somewhat smaller than, the chesnut, a very pleasant oil is
expressed and used for similar purposes to the Florence oil in Europe.

This intricate part of the river, where innumerable pointed rocks
occurred, some above, some even with, and others just below the surface
of the water, required two long days' sail with a fair breeze; and the
falls became more rapid and dangerous the farther we advanced. At the
fifteenth cataract we perceived two or three vessels lying against the
rocks with their flat-bottoms uppermost; a terrible sight for our
bargemen who, like the countryman in the fable, instead of applying the
shoulder to the wheel, began to implore the assistance of the river god
by sounding the gong, in order to rouse his attention and by regaling
his olfactory nerves with the smoke of sandal-wood matches; so that had
we been dropping down the stream, instead of going against it, there was
every reason to apprehend that our barge would have shared a similar
fate; for it received many a gentle rub against the rocks.

The appearance of the country in the neighbourhood of the cataracts was
extremely beautiful. The transparency of the stream, the bold rocks
finely fringed with wood, and the varied forms of the mountains called
to mind those delightful streams that are discharged from the lakes of
the northern counties of England. Like these too, the _Kan-kiang-ho_
abounded with fish, not however with the delicious trout but one of much
less flavour, a species of perch. Great numbers of rafts were floating
on the river with the fishing corvorant, and we observed that he seldom
dived without success. For the whole distance of three days' journey,
the hilly country bordering on the river produced very little but the
_Camellia Sesanqua_, which appeared to be every where of spontaneous
growth.

We halted on the 6th of December, late in the evening, before the city
of _Kan-tchoo-foo_, which is remarkable for nothing that I could learn
except for the great quantity of varnish trees the _Rhus vernix_ I
suppose, that are cultivated in the neighbourhood. In the course of the
journey we had picked up two varieties of the tea plant, taken out of
the ground and potted by our own gardener; and which, being in good
growing order, were intended to be sent to Bengal as soon as occasion
might serve after our arrival at Canton. Knowing we should be hurried
away, as usual, in the morning and wishing to procure a few young plants
of the varnish tree, I prevailed on our good friend _Van-ta-gin_ to
dispatch some person for that purpose, to add to those of the tea plant
and the _Camellia Sensanqua_. _Van_ made application to the men in
office at this place, with the best intention of serving us, but these
gentry, either conceiving that their compliance might be treason to the
state, or else, in the true spirit of the nation, determined to play a
trick upon the strangers, certainly procured the plants and sent them on
board in pots, just as we were departing the next morning. In a short
time they all began to droop, the leaves withered and, on examination,
it was found that not a single plant among them had the least portion of
a root, being nothing more than small branches of trees which, from the
nature of the wood, were not likely nor indeed ever intended to strike
root.

From _Kan-tchoo-foo_ the face of the country became more uniform and
suitable for the labours of agriculture; and, accordingly, we found a
very small portion of it unoccupied. Wheat about six inches above ground
and extensive plantations of the sugar cane fit for cutting, were the
chief articles under cultivation: and the farther we advanced to the
southward, the more abundant and extended were those of the latter. The
canes were remarkably juicy and their joints from six to nine inches in
length. To express the juice from them and convert it into a consistent
mass, temporary mills were erected in different places among the
plantations. The process was very simple. A pair of cylinders, sometimes
of stone but more generally of hard wood, placed vertically, were put in
motion by oxen or buffalos and from the foot of these the expressed
juice was conveyed, by a tube carried under the floor, into a boiler
that was sunk in the ground at the end of the apartment; where it was
boiled to a proper degree of consistence the expressed canes serving as
fuel. Though unacquainted with the process of refining sugar, the
natural tendency that the syrup possesses of forming itself into
crystals in cooling had suggested to them the means of obtaining very
fine and pure sugar-candy which, in the market of Canton, is sold in a
pulverized state as white as the best refined sugar. The coarse syrup,
usually called treacle or molasses, and the dregs, are not employed, as
in the West India islands, in the distillation of rum, but are sometimes
thrown into the still with fermented rice, in order to procure a better
kind of _Seau-tchoo_ or _burnt_ wine; the chief use, however, of the
molasses is to preserve fruits and other vegetable productions; and
particularly the roots of ginger, a conserve of which the Chinese are
remarkably fond.

The bed of the river having, in the lapse of ages, settled to the depth
of twenty, thirty, or even forty feet below the general level of the
country, it became necessary to employ some artificial means of
obtaining the water for the purpose, of irrigation. The contrivance made
use of to raise it to the height of the banks was simple and ingenious;
and from hence it was conveyed in small channels to every part of the
cane plantations. Of the useful machine employed for this purposes
consisting of a bamboo wheel which I understand has been adopted in
America, a view and section may be seen among the plates accompanying
Sir George Staunton's authentic account of the embassy. I shall
therefore content myself with observing in this place that, the axis
excepted, it is entirely constructed of bamboo, without the assistance
of a single nail or piece of iron; that the expence of making it is a
mere trifle; that in its operations it requires no attendance, and that
it will lift, to the height of forty feet, one hundred and fifty tons of
water in the course of twenty-four hours[58]. Every plantation near this
part of the river had its wheel and some of them two; and the water
raised by them was sometimes conveyed at once into the plots of canes
and some times into reservoirs, out of which it was afterwards pumped,
as occasion might require, by the chain-pump and carried to those places
where it might be wanted along small channels coated with clay.

  [58] The water-wheels still used in Syria differ only from
  those of China, by having loose buckets suspended at the circumference,
  instead of fixed tubes. "The wheels of Hama," says Volney, "are
  thirty-two feet in diameter. Troughs are fastened to the circumference,
  and so disposed as to fall in the river, and when they reach the vertex
  of the wheel, discharge the water into a reservoir."

The women of this province were more robust than ordinary and well
suited, by their strength and muscular powers, to endure the hard labour
and drudgery of the field, which seemed to be their chief employment.
This sort of labour, however, might be the cause, rather than the
consequence, of their extraordinary strength and masculine form. The
habitual use of hard labour, to which the women are here brought up,
fits them best to become the wives of the peasantry in the neighbouring
provinces; and accordingly, when a Chinese farmer is desirous of
purchasing a working wife he makes his offers in _Kiang-see_. It was
here that we saw a woman yoked literally by traces to a plough, whilst
the husband or master had the lighter task of holding it by one hand and
drilling in the seed with the other. The exertion of labour together
with the constant exposure to the weather, in a climate situated under
the twenty-fifth to the twenty-ninth parallel of latitude, have
contributed to render more coarse and forbidding the features of the
fair sex of _Kiang-see_, in the formation of which, indeed, Nature had
not been too bountiful. Like the women of the Malay nation, with whom
they most probably are derived from one common stock, they fixed their
strong black hair close to the head by two metal skewers. Their dress,
in other respects, was the same as that of the men, and like these they
wore straw sandals on their feet. Thus far, by avoiding the pain
attendant on fashionable feet, and enjoying the free use of their limbs,
they might be said to have the advantage of the city ladies. It was,
indeed, observed that even such as were not employed in the labours of
the field, but kept constantly at home for domestic purposes, were, in
this province, equally exempted from the barbarous fashion of cramping
the feet.

On the 9th we again entered a narrow defile and here with difficulty the
vessels were forced along against a strong current; and over the pebbly
bottom, against which they were constantly striking. At _Nan-gan-foo_,
where we arrived in the evening, the river ceases to be navigable.
Indeed the whole of the three last days' navigation might, with
propriety, in England be called only a trout stream; upon which no
nation on earth, except the Chinese, would have conceived the idea of
floating any kind of craft; they have however adapted, in an admirable
manner, the form and construction of their vessels to the nature and
depth of the navigation; towards the upper part of the present river
they drew only, when moderately laden, about six inches of water. They
were from fifty to seventy feet in length, narrow and flat-bottomed, a
little curved, so that they took the ground only in the middle point.
Yet, in several places, the water was so shallow that they could not be
dragged over until a channel had been made, by removing the stones and
gravel with iron rakes. The length of this river, from its source at
_Nan-gan-foo_ to the _Po-yang_ lake, is nearly three hundred English
miles. The banks in the low part of the province of _Kiang-see_
consisted of a deep soil of black earth, supported on clay of a dark
red or brown colour; denoting the presence of iron. The mountains were
chiefly of red sand-stone; and the soil of the hills, producing the
_Camellia_, was a brown loam mixed with particles of mica.

We had now before us another land-journey, over the steep and lofty
mountain of _Me-lin_, whose summit is the boundary between the two
provinces of _Kiang-see_ and _Quan-tung_; on the south side of which
commences the river _Pei-kiang-ho_ that flows by the port of Canton; and
whose mouth is familiarly known in Europe by the name of the _Bocca
Tigris_. The ascent of this mountain, which some undertook on horseback
and others in chairs, was made by a well-paved road, carried in a
zig-zag manner over the very highest point, where a pass was cut to a
considerable depth through a granite rock; a work that had evidently not
been accomplished with any moderate degree of labour or expence. In the
middle of the pass was a military post, much stronger than ordinary, and
it was defended or, more correctly speaking, it was supplied with two
old pieces of cannon, that had been cast, in all probability, near two
hundred years ago, perhaps by the Jesuits who first taught them an art
which they seem already to have forgotten or neglected.

The view from the summit towards the southward, over the province of
Canton, was as rich and enchanting as that on the opposite side was
dreary and barren. In descending the gradual slope of about twelve
miles, before the mountain had blended with the general surface of the
country, there was a constant succession of dwellings; so that this
whole distance might almost be considered as one continued street. Half
of the buildings consisted, however, of places of convenience to which
passengers might retire to obey the calls of nature, and the doors, or
rather the openings into such erections, were always invitingly fronting
the street. To each single dwelling, whether alone or joined with
others, was annexed a fabric of this description. Each was constructed
upon a large terrace cistern, lined with such materials that no
absorption could take place; and straw and other dry rubbish are thrown
in by the owners, from time to time, to prevent evaporation. In one of
the streets of Canton is a row of buildings of this kind which, in so
warm a climate, is a dreadful nuisance; but the consideration of
preserving that kind of manure, which by the Chinese is considered as
superior for forcing vegetation to all others, has got the better of
both decency and prudence.

All the passengers we met upon this road were laden with jars of oil
expressed from the Camellia. In the course of eighteen miles, which is
about the distance from the summit of _Me-lin_ to the city of
_Nan-sheun-foo_, we passed at least a thousand persons on their way to
_Nan-gan-foo_, each bearing ten or twelve gallons of oil and among these
were a number of women.

Having now traversed five of the provinces of China, that are considered
among the most populous and productive in the empire, a general sketch
may be drawn, by taking a retrospective view, of the state of
agriculture and the condition of the people; of their habitations,
dress, diet and means of subsistence; and some conclusion drawn as to
the population of the country.

[Illustration: _W. Alexander del^t T. Medland sculp^t_

_A Village and Cottages_]

[Illustration: _W. Alexander del^t T. Medland sculp^t_

_Dwelling of a Mandarin or Officer of State_

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

It was a remark too singular to escape notice that, except in the
neighbourhood of the _Po-yang_ lake, the peasantry of the province in
which the capital stands were more miserable, their houses more mean and
wretched, and their lands in a worse state of cultivation, than in any
other part of the route--a remark which also agrees with the accounts
given by the Dutch embassy of that part of _Pe-tche-lee_, on the
south-west side of the capital, through which they passed. Four mud
walls covered over with a thatch of reeds, or the straw of millet, or
the stems of holcus, compose their habitations; and they are most
commonly surrounded with clay walls, or with a fence made of the strong
stems of the _Holcus Sorghum_. A partition of matting divides the hovel
into two apartments; each of which has a small opening in the wall to
admit the air and light; but one door generally serves as an entrance,
the closure of which is frequently nothing more than a strong mat. A
blue cotton jacket and a pair of trowsers, a straw hat and shoes of the
same material, constitute the dress of the majority of the people.
Matting of reeds or bamboo, a cylindrical pillow of wood covered with
leather, a kind of rug or felt blanket made of the hairy wool of the
broad-tailed sheep, not spun and woven but beat together as in the
process for making hats, and sometimes a mattress stuffed with wool,
hair, or straw, constitute their bedding. Two or three jars, a few
basons of earthen-ware of the coarsest kind, a large iron pot, a
frying-pan and a portable stove, are the chief articles of furniture.
Chairs and tables are not necessary; both men and women sit on their
heels; and in this posture they surround the great iron pot, with each a
bason in his hands, when they take their meals. The poverty of their
food was sufficiently indicated by their meagre appearance. It consists
chiefly of boiled rice, millet, or other grain, with the addition of
onions or garlic, and mixed sometimes with a few other vegetables that,
by way of relish, are fried in rancid oil, extracted from a variety of
plants, such as the _Seffamum_, _Brassica orientalis_, _Cytisus Cadjan_,
a species of _Dolichos_, and, among others, from the same species of
_Ricinus_ or _Palma-Christi_, from which the Castor is drawn, and used
only in Europe as a powerful purgative. Its drastic qualities may
probably be diminished by applying less pressure in extracting the oil,
or by habit, or by using it fresh, as it does not appear that the
Chinese suffer any inconvenience in its application to culinary
purposes. As well as I could understand, the seeds were first bruised
and then boiled in water, and the oil that floated on the surface was
skimmed off. Our Florence oil they affected not to admire having, as
they said, no taste. The Chinese, like the inhabitants of the South of
Europe, seem to attach a higher value on oils, in proportion as age has
given to them a higher degree of rancidity.

Fish of any kind, in this part of the country, is a great rarity; few
are caught in the rivers of _Pe-tche-lee_. We met with none in the whole
province, except at _Tien-sing_ and in the capital, whose market, no
doubt, like that of London, draws to its center the choice products of a
very extensive circuit. Salt and dried fish, it is true, are brought
from the southward as articles of commerce, but the poor peasantry
cannot afford to purchase them for general use. They obtain them only
sometimes by bartering millet or vegetables in exchange. A morsel of
pork to relish their rice is almost the only kind of meat that the poor
can afford to taste. They have little milk and neither butter, nor
cheese, nor bread; articles of nourishment to which, with potatoes, the
peasantry of Europe owe their chief support. Boiled rice, indeed, and
not bread, is considered as an article of the first necessity, the staff
of life in China. Hence the monosyllable _fan_, which signifies boiled
rice, enters into every compound that implies eating; thus _tche-fan_,
the name of a meal in general, is to eat rice; breakfast is called the
_tsao-fan_ or morning rice, and supper the _ouan-fan_ or evening rice.
Their principal and indeed their best beverage is bad tea, boiled over
and over again as long as any bitter remains in the leaves, taken
without milk or sugar, or any other ingredient except, in cold weather,
a little ginger. In this weak state the only purpose it seems to answer
is that of carrying down the sediment of muddy water that abounds in all
the flat provinces of China, which the leaves of tea (as I fancy those
of any other plant would) are found to do. These poor creatures,
however, are instructed by popular opinion to ascribe to it many
extraordinary qualities[59].

  [59] The simple boiling of the water indeed contributes greatly
  to the quick deposition of earthy particles, which may have been one
  cause of the universal practice of drinking every thing warm in China.
  They were surprised to see our soldiers and servants drinking the water
  of the Pei-ho cold, and told them it was very bad for the stomach and
  bowels. This complaint, in fact, attacked almost all the inferior part
  of the embassy, which Doctor Gillan did not hesitate to ascribe to the
  great impurity of the water. But the Chinese argued the point with the
  Doctor with regard to taking it cold, asking him why all the fluids of
  the body were warm, if nature had intended us to drink water and other
  liquids in a cold state! They seemed to have forgotten that all the
  warm-blooded animals, except man, must necessarily drink cold water.

It would require a more familiar acquaintance with the people and a
longer residence among them, than was allowed to us, to explain the true
reason of such real poverty among the peasantry in the vicinity of the
capital. Perhaps, indeed, it may be owing, in a great degree, to the
proximity of the court, which in all countries has the effect of drawing
together a crowd of people to consume the products of the soil, without
contributing any portion of labour towards their production. The
encouragement that is here given to idleness and dissipation is but too
apt to entice the young peasantry in the neighbourhood from their
houses, and thus rob the country of its best hands. The soil, likewise,
near the capital is barren and sandy, producing few supplies beyond the
wants of the several tenants; and all other necessaries of life not
raised by them must be purchased extravagantly dear. It is, indeed,
surprizing how this immense city, said to contain three millions of
inhabitants, is contrived to be supplied at any rate, considering the
very sterile and unproductive state of the country for many miles around
it. It might not, however, be a matter of less astonishment to a
Chinese, nor less difficult for him to conceive, in what manner our own
capital receives its daily supplies, especially after he had observed
that there is not a single road, by which London can be approached,
that is not carried over vast tracts of uncultivated commons and waste
grounds.

The vallies of Tartary furnish beeves and broad-tailed sheep for Pekin,
and grain is brought by water from every part of the country, of which
the government takes the precaution to lay up in store a sufficient
quantity for a twelvemonth's consumption. Of animal food, pork is mostly
consumed. Few peasants are without their breed of hogs; these animals,
indeed, are likewise kept in large cities, where they become public
nuisances. Bad beef in Pekin sells for about six-pence the pound; mutton
and pork eight-pence; lean fowls and ducks from two to three shillings;
eggs are generally about one penny each; small loaves of bread that are
boiled in steam, without yeast or leaven, are about four-pence a pound;
rice sells usually at three-halfpence or two-pence the pound; wheat
flour at two-pence halfpenny or three-pence; fine tea from twelve to
thirty shillings a pound; that of the former price, at least such as was
procured clandestinely for us, not drinkable, and the latter not near so
good as that of about six shillings in London[60]. There are, indeed,
plenty of tea-houses in and near the capital, where the labouring people
may purchase their cup of tea for two small copper coin (not quite a
farthing) but it is miserably bad. A tolerable horse and a man-slave are
usually about the same price, being from fifteen to twenty ounces of
silver. The article of dress worn by the common people is not very
expensive. The peasantry are invariably clad in cotton; and this article
is the produce of most of the provinces. The complete dress of a peasant
is about fifteen shillings; of a common tradesman three pounds; an
officer of government's common dress ten pounds; of ceremony about
thirty pounds; and if enriched with embroidery and gold and silver
tissue, between two and three hundred pounds: a pair of black satin
boots twenty shillings; and a cap or bonnet about the same sum. The
price of labour, however, and particularly in Pekin, bears no sort of
proportion to the price of provisions. A mechanic in this city thinks
himself well paid if he gets a shilling a-day. A common weaver, joiner,
or other tradesman earns a bare subsistence for his family; and the best
servants may be hired for an ounce of silver a-month. Many are glad to
give their services in exchange for their subsistence, without any
consideration in hard money. Tobacco being an indispensable article for
all ranks of every age and sex bears of course a high price in the
capital. It is singular enough, that this plant should have found its
way into every part of the world, among savage as well as civilized
nations, even into the deserts of Africa, where it was found in constant
use among the Booshuanas, a people, till very lately, totally unknown;
and it is equally singular, that an herb of so disagreeable a taste
should, by habit, obtain an ascendency so far over the appetite, as not
easily to be relinquished.

  [60] As these teas however were purchased by Chinese, I have no doubt
  they reserved to themselves a very large profit on the commission, for
  it is scarcely possible that this article, the growth and produce of the
  middle provinces, should bear a price so far beyond what the very best
  sells for in London.

The climate of the northern provinces is unfavourable to the poor
peasantry. The summers are so warm that they go nearly naked and the
winters so severe that, what with their poor and scanty fare, their want
of fuel, clothing, and even shelter, thousands are said to perish from
cold and hunger. In such a condition the ties of nature sometimes yield
to self-preservation, and children are sold to save both the parent and
offspring from perishing for want; and infants become a prey to hopeless
indigence. We have seen in the notes taken by the gentleman in the Dutch
embassy, how low the temperature is at Pekin in the winter months; and
they have no coals nearer than the mountains of Tartary, which are all
brought on the backs of dromedaries; of course, they are extravagantly
dear. In fact, they are scarcely ever burned pure, but are crumbled to
dust and mixed up with earth, in which state they give out a very strong
heat, but no flame, and are suitable enough for their small close
stoves.

Although it is a principle of the Chinese government to admit of no
distinctions among its subjects, except those that learning and office
confer; and although the most rigid sumptuary laws have been imposed to
check that tendency to shew and splendor, which wealth is apt to assume;
and to bring as much as possible on a level, at least in outward
appearance, all conditions of men; yet, with regard to diet, there is a
wider difference perhaps between the rich and the poor of China, than in
any other country. That wealth which, if permitted, would be expended in
flattering the vanity of its possessors, is now applied in the purchase
of dainties to pamper the appetite. Their famous _Gin-sing_, a name
signifying _the life of man_ (the _Panax quinquefolium_ of Linnæus) on
account of its supposed invigorating and aphrodisiac qualities was, for
a length of time, weighed against gold. The sinewy parts of stags and
other animals, with the fins of sharks, as productive of the same
effects, are purchased by the wealthy at enormous prices: and the nests
that are constructed by small swallows on the coasts of Cochin-China,
Cambodia, and other parts of the East, are dearer even than some kinds
of _Gin-sing_. Most of the plants that grow on the sea-shore are
supposed to possess an invigorating quality, and are, therefore, in
constant use as pickles or preserves, or simply dried and cut into soups
in the place of other vegetables. The leaves of one of these, apparently
a species of that genus of sea-weed called by botanists _fucus_, after
being gathered, are steeped in fresh water and hung up to dry. A small
quantity of this weed boiled in water gives to it the consistence of a
jelly, and when mixed with a little sugar, the juice of an orange, or
other fruit, and set by to cool, I know of no jelly more agreeable or
refreshing. The leaf is about six inches long, narrow and pointed,
deeply serrated, and the margins ciliated; the middle part smooth,
semi-transparent, and of a leathery consistence. The Chinese call it
_Chin-chou_.

The great officers of state make use of these and various other
gelatinous viands for the purpose of acquiring, as they suppose, a
proper degree of corpulency[61], which is considered by them as
respectable and imposing upon the multitude; of a great portion of whom
it may be observed, as Falstaff said of his company, "No eye hath seen
such scare-crows." It would be rare to find, among the commonalty of
China, one to compare with a porter-drinking citizen or a jolly-looking
farmer of England. They are indeed naturally of a slender habit of body
and a sickly appearance, few having the blush of health upon their
cheeks. The tables of the great are covered with a vast variety of
dishes, consisting mostly of stews of fish, fowl and meat, separately
and jointly, with proper proportions of vegetables and sauces of
different kinds. Their beverage consists of tea and whiskey. In sipping
this ardent spirit, made almost boiling hot, eating pastry and fruits,
and smoking the pipe, they spend the greatest part of the day, beginning
from the moment they rise and continuing till they go to bed. In hot
weather they sleep in the middle of the day, attended by two servants,
one to fan away the flies and the other to keep them cool.

  [61] An old Frenchman (_Cossigny_) but a disciple of the new school, has
  found out that the Chinese are in possession of a new science, the
  existence of which was not even suspected by the enlightened nations of
  Europe. As he has the merit of making this wonderful discovery, it is
  but fair to announce it in his own words: "Je pense que nous devrions
  prendre chez eux (les Chinois) les premiers elements de la
  _spermatologie_, science toute nouvelle pour l'Europe, science qui
  intéresse l'humanité en général, en lui procurant des jouissances qui
  l'attachent à son existence, en entretenant la santé et la vigeur, en
  réparant l'abus des excès, en contribuant à l'augmentation de la
  population. Il feroit digne de la sollicitude des gouvernemens de
  s'occuper des recherches qui pourroient donner des connoissances sur une
  science à peine soupçonnée des peuples éclairés de l'Europe." He then
  announces his knowledge in preparing "des petites pastilles qui sont
  aphrodisiaques et qui conviennent sur-tout aux veillards, et à ceux qui
  ont fait des excès:" and he concludes with the mortifying intelligence
  that he is not permitted to reveal the important secret, "qui intéresse
  l'humanité en general."

The province of _Pe-tche-lee_ embraces an extent of climate from 38° to
40-1/2° of north latitude. The temperature is very various. In summer
Fahrenheit's thermometer is generally above 80° during the day,
sometimes exceeding 90°; and, in the middle of winter, it remains for
many days together below the freezing point, descending occasionally to
zero or 0. But it generally enjoys a clear pure atmosphere throughout
the whole year.

In the practical part of agriculture, in this province, we observed
little to attract attention or to commend. The farmer gets no more than
one crop off the ground in a season, and this is generally one of the
species of millets already mentioned, or holcus, or wheat; but they
sometimes plant a _Dolichos_ or bean between the rows of wheat, which
ripens after the latter is cut down. They have no winter crops, the hard
frosty weather usually setting in towards the end of November and
continuing till the end of March. The three different modes of sowing
grain, by drilling, dibbling, and broadcast, are all in use but chiefly
the first, as being the most expeditious and the crop most easy to be
kept free from weeds; the last is rarely practised on account of the
great waste of seed; and dibbling is used only in small patches of
ground near the houses when they aim at neatness. The soil, being in
general loose and sandy and free from stones, is worked without much
difficulty, but it seemed to require a good deal of manure; and this
necessary article from the paucity of domestic animals is extremely
scarce. Very few sheep or cattle were observed, yet there was an
abundance of land that did not seem for many years to have felt the
ploughshare.

The draught cattle most generally in use are oxen, mules, and asses.
Horses are scarce and of a small miserable breed, incapable of much
work; a remark, indeed, which will apply to every province of the
empire; though those of Tartary, which composed the Emperor's stud,
according to the Embassador's description, were not wanting in point of
size, beauty, or spirit. No pains, however, are bestowed to effect, nor
do they seem to be sensible of the advantages to be derived from, an
improvement in the breed of cattle. Nor indeed is any care taken of the
bad breed which they already possess. It would be supposed that, where a
regular establishment of cavalry is kept up to an amount that seems
almost incredible, some attention would be paid to the nature and
condition of their horses. This, however, is not the case. A Scotch
poney, wild from the mountains, which has never felt the teeth of a
currycomb and whose tail and mane are clotted together with dirt, is in
fit condition to join a regiment of Tartar cavalry. Those kept by men in
office are equally neglected. The Chinese have no idea that this noble
animal requires any attention beyond that of giving him his food; and of
this, in general, he receives a very scanty portion.

That part of the province of _Shan-tung_ through which we travelled
exhibited a greater variety of culture than _Pe-tche-lee_; but the
surface of the northern parts especially was equally uniform. The soil,
consisting generally of mud and slime brought apparently by the
inundations of rivers, contained not a single pebble. The season was too
late to form any estimate of the crops produced upon the immense plains
of _Shan-tung_; but the young crops of wheat, standing at this time
(the middle of October) a few inches above the ground, looked extremely
well. Little waste ground occurred, except the footpaths and the
channels which served as division marks of property. Some attempts
indeed were here made at the division of grounds by hedge-rows, but with
little success; the plant they had adopted, the _Palma-Christi_, was
ill-suited for such a purpose. As we advanced to the southward, in this
province, the proportion of wheat under cultivation diminished, and its
place was employed by plantations of cotton, whose pods were now ripe
and bursting. The plant was low and poor in growth, but the branches
were laden with pods. Like the wheat it was planted or dibbled in rows.
The cotton produced the second year was said to be considered as equally
good with that of the first, but being found to degenerate the third
year, it was then rooted out and the ground prepared for fresh seed[62].

  [62] In the tenth volume of a very extensive agricultural work, is
  detailed the whole process of cultivating the cotton from the seed to
  the web. The author observes, "The cotton in its raw state affords a
  light and pleasant lining for clothes; the seed yields an oil, which,
  being expressed from them, the remainder is serviceable as manure; the
  capsules or pods, being hard and woody, are used for firing, and the
  leaves afford nourishment to cattle, so that every part of the vegetable
  may be appropriated to some useful purpose.

  "The soil most favourable to this plant is a white sand, with a small
  proportion of clay or loam. The plant affects an elevated open
  situation, and cannot endure low marshy grounds.

  "After all the cotton pods are gathered, the remaining stems and
  branches should be cleared away without loss of time, and the ground
  carefully ploughed up, to expose a new surface to the air and renew the
  vigour of the soil.

  "When the plough has passed through the ground three times, the earth
  should be raked level, that the wind may not raise or dry up any part of
  it.

  "----When there is an abundance of manure, it may be laid on previous to
  the use of the plough, but if it be scarce, &c. it will be preferable to
  apply it to the soil at the time of sowing the seed.

  "The manure should be old and well prepared, and among the best
  ingredients for the purpose, is the refuse of vegetable substances, from
  which an oil has been expressed.

  "In the southern provinces the cotton plant will last for two or three
  years, but to the northward the seed must be sown annually."

  The author then enumerates nine distinct varieties and their comparative
  qualities; after which he proceeds to the choice of seed, under which
  head he observes, that if the seed be steeped in water, in which _eels_
  have been boiled, the plant will resist the attack of insects. He then
  describes the three methods of broadcast, drilling, and dibbling, and
  gives a decided preference of the last, though it be the most laborious.

  "The ground being well prepared, holes are to be made at the distance of
  a cubit from each other, and the lines a cubit apart. A little water is
  first to be poured in, and then four or five seeds, after which each
  hole is to be covered with a mixture of soil and manure, and firmly
  trodden down with the foot. In the other methods a roller is to be
  used."

  The next process is weeding, loosening, and breaking fine the earth.--He
  then observes, "After the plants have attained some degree of strength
  and size, the most advanced and perfect plant should be selected and all
  the rest rooted out, for if two or more be suffered to rise together,
  they will increase in height without giving lateral shoots; the leaves
  will be large and luxuriant, but the pods will be few." He next proceeds
  to the pruning of the plants to make them bear copiously--gathering the
  pods--preparing and spinning the wool--weaving the cloth.--This abridged
  account I have given to shew, that they are not deficient in writings of
  this kind.

The southern parts of _Shan-tung_ are composed of mountains and swamps.
Here, lakes of various magnitudes occur and large tracts of country
similar to those which are known to us by the name of peat-moss. In such
places the population could not be expected to be excessive; and,
accordingly, we met with few inhabitants, except those who subsisted
their families by fishing. So great were the numbers engaged in this
employment, who lived entirely in floating vessels, that we judged the
waters to be fully as populous as the land. No rent is exacted by the
government, nor toll, nor tythe, nor licence-money for permission to
catch fish; nor is there any sort of impediment against the free use of
any lake, river or canal whatsoever. The gifts that nature has bestowed
are cautiously usurped by any power, even in this despotic government,
for individual use or profit; but are suffered to remain the free
property of all who may chuse by their labour to derive advantage from
them. But even this free and unrestrained use is barely sufficient to
procure for them the necessaries, much less any of the comforts, of
life. The condition of the peasantry, in the northern parts of this
province, was much more desirable. Their clothing was decent; their
countenances cheerful, indicating plenty; and their dwellings were built
of bricks or wood, appearing more solid and comfortable than those of
the province in which the capital is situated. But the poor fishermen
carried about with them unequivocal marks of their poverty. Their pale
meagre looks are ascribed to the frequent, and almost exclusive, use of
fish; which is supposed to give them a scrophulous habit of body. Their
endeavours, however, are not wanting to correct any acid or unwholesome
humours that this sort of diet may produce, by the abundant use of
onions and garlic, which they cultivate even upon the waters. Having no
houses on shore, nor stationary abode, but moving about in their vessels
upon the extensive lakes and rivers, they have no inducement to
cultivate patches of ground, which the pursuits of their profession
might require them to leave for the profit of another; they prefer,
therefore, to plant their onions on rafts of bamboo, well interwoven
with reeds and strong grass and covered with earth; and these floating
gardens are towed after their boats.

The women assist in dragging the net and other operations of taking
fish; but the younger part of the family are sometimes employed in
breeding ducks. These stupid birds here acquire an astonishing degree of
docility. In a single vessel are sometimes many hundreds which, like the
cattle of the Kaffers in southern Africa, on the signal of a whistle
leap into the water, or upon the banks to feed, and another whistle
brings them back. Like the ancient Egyptians, they use artificial means
of hatching eggs, by burying them in sand at the bottom of wooden boxes,
and placing them on plates of iron kept moderately warm by small
furnaces underneath. Thus the old birds which, provided they hatched
their eggs themselves, would only produce one brood, or at most two, in
the course of the year, continue to lay eggs almost every month. Hogs
are also kept in many of the fishing craft. In fact, ducks and hogs
affording the most savory meat, most abounding in fat and, it may be
added, best able to subsist themselves, are esteemed above all other
animals. The ducks being split open, salted, and dried in the sun, are
exchanged for rice or other grain. In this state we found them an
excellent relish; and, at our request, they were plentifully supplied
during the whole progress through the country.

The province of _Shan-tung_ extends in latitude from thirty-four and a
half to thirty-eight degrees. The mean temperature, from the 19th of
October to the 29th of the same month, was about fifty-two degrees at
sun-rise, to seventy degrees at noon. A constant clear and cloudless
sky.

The numerous canals and rivers, that in every direction intersect the
province of _Kiang-nan_, and by which it is capable of being flooded to
any extent in the dryest seasons, render it one of the most valuable and
fertile districts in the whole empire. Every part of it, also, having a
free communication with the Yellow Sea by the two great rivers, the
_Whang-ho_ and the _Yang-tse-kiang_, it has always been considered as
the central point for the home trade; and, at one time, its chief city
Nankin was the capital of the empire. That beautiful and durable cotton
of the same name is here produced and sent to the port of Canton; from
whence it is shipped off to the different parts of the world. The
Chinese rarely wear it in its natural colour, except as an article of
mourning; but export it chiefly, taking in return vast quantifies of
unmanufactured white cotton from Bengal and Bombay, finding they can
purchase this foreign wool at a much cheaper rate than that at which the
nankin sells. For mourning dresses and a few other purposes white cotton
is made use of, but in general it is dyed black or blue: among some of
our presents were also pieces of a beautiful scarlet. Near most of the
plantations of cotton we observed patches of indigo; a plant which grows
freely in all the middle and southern provinces. The dye of this shrub
being no article of commerce in China is seldom, if ever, prepared in a
dry state, but is generally employed to communicate its colouring matter
from the leaves, to avoid the labour and the loss that would be required
to reduce it to a solid substance. We observed that, in the cotton
countries, almost every cottage had its garden of indigo. As in ancient
times, in our own country, when every cottager brewed his own beer; kept
his own cow for milk and butter; bred his own sheep, the wool of which
being spun into yarn by his own family was manufactured into cloth by
the parish weaver; and when every peasant raised the materials for his
own web of hempen cloth; so it still appears to be the case in China.
Here there are no great farmers nor monopolists of grain; nor can any
individual nor body of men, by any possibility, either glut the market,
or withhold the produce of the ground, as may best suit their purpose.
Each peasant is supposed, by his industry, to have the means of
subsistence within himself; though it often happens that these means,
from adverse circumstances which hereafter will be noticed, fail of
producing the desired effect.

In the province of _Kiang-nan_ each grows his own cotton; his wife and
children spin it into thread and it is woven into a web in his own
house, sometimes by his own family, but more frequently by others hired
for the purpose. A few bamboos constitute the whole machinery required
for this operation. Money he has none; but his produce he can easily
barter for any little article of necessity or luxury. The superfluities
of life, which those in office may have occasion to purchase, are paid
for in bars of silver without any impression, but bearing value for
weight, like the Roman _as_ or the Hebrew _shekel_. The only coin in
circulation is the _tchen_, a piece of some inferior metal mixed with a
small proportion of copper, of the value of the thousandth part of an
ounce of silver; with this small piece of money the little and
constantly demanded necessaries of life are purchased, such as could not
conveniently be obtained by way of barter. Silver is rarely lent out at
interest, except between mercantile men in large cities. The legal
interest is twelve per cent. but it is commonly extended to eighteen,
sometimes even to thirty-six. To avoid the punishment of usury, what is
given above twelve per cent. is in the shape of a _bonus_. "Usury, in
China," observes Lord Macartney, "like gaming elsewhere, is a
dishonourable mode of getting money; but by a sort of compact between
necessity and avarice, between affluence and distress, the prosecution
of a Jew or a sharper is considered by us as not very honourable even in
the sufferers."

The greater the distance from the capital, the better was the apparent
condition of the people. The Viceroy, when he received his Excellency on
the entry of the embassy into this province, happened to cast his eye
upon the half-starved and half-naked trackers of the boats; and being
either ashamed of their miserable appearance, or feeling compassion for
their situation, he ordered every man immediately a suit of new cloaths.
In the morning, when our force was mustered, we were not a little
surprized to see the great alteration that had taken place in the
appearance of our trackers: every man had a blue cotton jacket edged
with red, a pair of new white trowsers, and a smart hat with a high
crown and feather. The natural fertility of the country, its central
situation commanding a brisk trade, the abundance of its fisheries on
the large rivers and lakes were incentives to industry, for the vast
population that seemed to be equally distributed over every part of the
province.

Rice being the staple of China was abundantly cultivated, in all such
places as afforded the greatest command of water. The usual average
produce of corn-lands is reckoned to be from ten to fifteen for one; and
of rice, from twenty-five to thirty; commonly about thirty. Those
corn-lands that will admit of easy irrigation are usually turned over
with the plough immediately after the grain is cut; which, in the middle
provinces, is ready for the sickle early in June, about the same time
that the young rice fields stand at the height of eight or ten inches.
These being now thinned, the young plants are transplanted into the
prepared wheat lands, which are then immediately flooded. Upon such a
crop they reckon from fifteen to twenty for one. Instead of rice one of
the millets is sometimes sown as an after-crop, this requiring very
little water, or the _Cadjan_, a species of _Dolichos_ or small bean,
for oil, requiring still less. Or, it is a common practice, after taking
off a crop of cotton and indigo, in the month of October, to sow wheat,
in order to have the land again clear in the month of May or June. Such
a succession of crops, without ever suffering the land to lie fallow,
should seem to require a large quantity of manure. In fact, they spare
no pains in procuring composts and manures; but they also accomplish
much without these materials, by working the soil almost incessantly and
mixing it with extraneous matters as, for instance, marle with light and
sandy soils, or if this is not to be had, stiff clay; and on clayey
grounds they carry sand and gravel. They also drag the rivers and canals
and pools of water for slime and mud; and they preserve, with great
care, all kinds of urine, in which it is an universal practice to steep
the seeds previous to their being sown. If turnip-seeds be steeped in
lime and urine, the plant is said not to be attacked by the insect. Near
all the houses are large earthen jars sunk in the ground, for collecting
and preserving these and other materials that are convertible, by
putrefactive fermentation, into manure. Old men and children may be seen
near all the villages with small rakes and baskets, collecting every
kind of dirt, or offals, that come in their way. Their eagerness to pick
up whatever may be used as manure led to some ridiculous scenes.
Whenever our barges halted and the soldiers and servants found it
necessary to step on shore, they were always pursued to their place of
retirement by these collectors of food for vegetables. It may literally
be said in this country, that nothing is suffered to be lost. The
profession of shaving is followed by vast numbers in China. As the whole
head is shaved, except a small lock behind, few, if any, are able to
operate upon themselves. And as hair is considered an excellent manure,
every barber carries with him a small bag to collect the spoils of his
razor.

The common plough of the country is a simple machine and much inferior
to the very worst of ours. We saw one drill plough in _Shan-tung_
different from all the rest. It consisted of two parallel poles of wood,
shod at the lower extremities with iron to open the furrows; these poles
were placed on wheels: a small hopper was attached to each pole to drop
the seed into the furrows, which were covered with earth by a transverse
piece of wood fixed behind, that just swept the surface of the ground.

The machine usually employed for clearing rice from the husk, in the
large way, is exactly the same as that now used in Egypt for the same
purpose, only that the latter is put in motion by oxen and the former
commonly by water. This machine consists of a long horizontal axis of
wood, with cogs or projecting pieces of wood or iron fixed upon it, at
certain intervals, and it is turned by a water-wheel. At right angles to
this axis are fixed as many horizontal levers as there are circular rows
of cogs; these levers act on pivots, that are fastened into a low brick
wall built parallel to the axis, and at the distance of about two feet
from it. At the further extremity of each lever, and perpendicular to
it, is fixed a hollow pestle, directly over a large mortar of stone or
iron sunk into the ground; the other extremity extending beyond the
wall, being pressed upon by the cogs of the axis in its revolution,
elevates the pestle, which by its own gravity falls into the mortar. An
axis of this kind sometimes gives motion to fifteen or twenty levers.
This machine[63], as well as the plough, still in use in modern Egypt,
which is also the same as the Chinese plough, have been considered by a
member of the French Institute to be the same instruments as those
employed in that country two thousand years ago; and judging from the
maxims of the Chinese government, and the character of the people, an
antiquity equally great may be assigned to them in the latter country.
The bamboo wheel for raising water, or something approaching very near
to it, either with buckets appended to the circumference, or with
fellies hollowed out so as to scoop up water, was also in use among the
ancient Egyptians; and, as I have before observed, continue to be so
among the Syrians; from these they are supposed to have passed into
Persia, where they are also still employed, and from whence they have
derived, in Europe, the name of Persian wheels. The chain-pump of China,
common in the hands of every farmer, was likewise an instrument of
husbandry in Egypt.

  [63] See the plate facing page 37.

A very erroneous opinion seems to have been entertained in Europe, with
regard to the skill of the Chinese in agriculture. Industrious they
certainly are, in an eminent degree, but their labour does not always
appear to be bestowed with judgment. The instruments, in the first
place, they make use of are incapable of performing the operations of
husbandry to the greatest advantage. In the deepest and best soils,
their plough seldom cuts to the depth of four inches, so that they sow
from year to year upon the same soil, without being able to turn up new
earth, and to bury the worn-out mould to refresh itself. Supposing them,
however, to be supplied with ploughs of the best construction, we can
scarcely conceive that their mules and asses and old women, would be
equal to the task of drawing them.

The advantage that large farms in England possess over small ones
consists principally in the means they afford the tenant of keeping
better teams than can possibly be done on the latter, and consequently
of making a better _tilth_ for the reception of seed. The opulent
farmer, on the same quantity of ground, will invariably raise more
produce than the cottager can pretend to do. In China nine-tenths of
the peasantry may be considered as cottagers, and having few cattle
(millions I might add none at all) it can scarcely be expected that the
whole country should be in the best possible state of cultivation. As
horticulturists they may perhaps be allowed a considerable share of
merit; but, on the great scale of agriculture, they are certainly not to
be mentioned with many European nations. They have no knowledge of the
modes of improvement practised in the various breeds of cattle; no
instruments for breaking up and preparing waste lands; no system for
draining and reclaiming swamps and morasses; though that part of the
country over which the grand communication is effected between the two
extremities of the empire, abounds with lands of this nature, where
population is excessive and where the multitudes of shipping that pass
and repass create a never failing demand for grain and other vegetable
products. For want of this knowledge, a very considerable portion of the
richest land, perhaps, in the whole empire, is suffered to remain a
barren and unprofitable waste. If an idea may be formed from what we saw
in the course of our journey, and from the accounts that have been given
of the other provinces, I should conclude, that one-fourth part of the
whole country nearly consists of lakes and low, sour, swampy grounds,
which are totally uncultivated: and which, among other reasons hereafter
to be mentioned, may serve to explain the frequent famines that occur in
a more satisfactory way, than by supposing, with the Jesuits, that they
are owing to the circumstance of the nations bordering upon them to the
westward being savage and growing no corn. Their ignorance of draining,
or their dread of inundations, to which the low countries of China, in
their present state, are subject, may perhaps have driven them, in
certain situations, to the necessity of levelling the sides of mountains
into a succession of terraces; a mode of cultivation frequently taken
notice of by the missionaries as unexampled in Europe and peculiar to
the Chinese; whereas it is common in many parts of Europe. The mountains
of the _Pays de Vaud_, between _Lausanne_ and _Vevay_, are cultivated in
this manner to their summits with vines. "This would have been
impracticable," says Doctor Moore, "on account of the steepness, had not
the proprietors built strong stone walls at proper intervals, one above
the other, which support the soil, and form little terraces from the
bottom to the top of the mountains." But this method of terracing the
hills is not to be considered, by any means, as a common practice in
China. In our direct route it occurred only twice, and then on so small
a scale as hardly to deserve notice. The whole territorial right being
vested in the sovereign, the waste lands of course belong to the crown;
but any person, by giving notice to the proper magistrate, may obtain a
property therein, so long as he continues to pay such portion of the
estimated produce as is required to be collected into the public
magazines.

When I said that the Chinese might claim a considerable share of merit
as horticulturists, I meant to confine the observation to their skill
and industry of raising the greatest possible quantity of vegetables
from a given piece of ground. Of the modes practised in Europe of
improving the quality of fruit, they seem to have no just notion. Their
oranges are naturally good and require no artificial means of
improvement, but the European fruits, as apples, pears, plums, peaches
and apricots are of indifferent quality. They have a common method of
propagating several kinds of fruit-trees, which of late years has been
practised with success in Bengal. The method is simply this: they strip
a ring of bark, about an inch in width, from a bearing branch, surround
the place with a ball of fat earth or loam bound fast to the branch with
a piece of matting; over this they suspend a pot or horn with water
having a small hole in the bottom just sufficient to let the water drop,
in order to keep the earth constantly moist; the branch throws new roots
into the earth just above the place where the ring was stripped off; the
operation is performed in the spring, and the branch is sawn off and put
into the ground at the fall of the leaf; the following year it bears
fruit. They have no method of forcing vegetables by artificial heat, or
by excluding the cold air and admitting, at the same time, the rays of
the sun through glass. Their chief merit consists in preparing the soil,
working it incessantly, and keeping it free of weeds.

Upon the whole, if I might venture to offer an opinion with respect to
the merit of the Chinese as agriculturists, I should not hesitate to say
that, let as much ground be given to one of their peasants as he and his
family can work with the spade, and he will turn that piece of ground to
more advantage, and produce from it more sustenance for the use of man,
than any European whatsoever would be able to do; but, let fifty or one
hundred acres of the best land in China be given to a farmer, at a mean
rent, so far from making out of it the value of three rents, on which
our farmers usually calculate, he would scarcely be able to support his
family, after paying the expence of labour that would be required to
work the farm.

In fact there are no great farms in China. The inhabitants enjoy every
advantage which may be supposed to arise from the lands being pretty
equally divided among them, an advantage of which the effects might
probably answer the expectations of those who lean towards such a
system, were they not counteracted by circumstances that are not less
prejudicial, perhaps, to the benefit of the public, than monopolizing
farmers are by such persons supposed to be in our own country. One of
the circumstances I allude to is the common practice, in almost every
part of the country, of assembling together in towns and villages,
between which very frequently the intermediate space of ground has not a
single habitation upon it; and the reason assigned for this custom is
the dread of the bands of robbers that infest the weak and unprotected
parts of the country. The consequence of such a system is, that although
the lands adjoining the villages be kept in the highest state of
cultivation, yet those at a distance are suffered to remain almost
useless; for having no beasts of burden, it would be an endless task of
human labour to bear the manure that would be required, for several
miles, upon the ground, and its produce from thence back again to the
village. That such robbers do exist who, in formidable gangs, plunder
the peasantry, is very certain: _She-fo-pao_ was watching his grain to
prevent its being stolen, when he had the misfortune of shooting his
relation, who had also gone out for the same purpose. They are sometimes
indeed so numerous, as to threaten their most populous cities. The
frequency of such robberies and the alarm they occasion to the
inhabitants are neither favourable to the high notions that have been
entertained of the Chinese government, nor of the morals of the people.
Another, and perhaps the chief, disadvantage arising from landed
property being pretty equally divided, will be noticed in speaking of
the population and the frequent famines.

The province of _Kiang-nan_ extends from about 31° to 34-1/2° of
northern latitude; and the mean temperature, according to Fahrenheit's
thermometer, from the 30th of October to the 9th of November, was 54° at
sun-rise and 66° at noon; the sky uniformly clear.

The province of _Tche-kiang_ abounds in lakes and is intersected with
rivers and canals like _Kiang-nan_; but the produce, except that of a
little rice, is very different, consisting principally of silk. For
feeding the worms that afford this article, all the fertile and
beautiful vallies between the mountains, as well as the plains, are
covered with plantations of the mulberry-tree. The small houses, in
which the worms are reared, are placed generally in the centre of each
plantation; in order that they may be removed as far as possible from
any kind of noise; experience having taught them, that a sudden shout,
or the bark of a dog, is destructive of the young worms. A whole brood
has sometimes perished by a thunder storm. The greatest attention is,
therefore, necessary; and, accordingly, they are watched night and day.
In fine weather, the young worms are exposed to the sun, upon a kind of
thin open gauze stretched in wooden frames; and at night they are
replaced in the plantation houses. The trees are pruned from time to
time, in order to cause a greater quantity and a constant succession of
young leaves. The inhabitants of this province, especially in the
cities, are almost universally clothed in silks; this rule among the
Chinese of consuming, as much as possible, the products of their own
country, and receiving as little as they can avoid from foreign nations,
extends even to the provinces; a practice arising out of the little
respect that, in China, as in ancient Rome, is paid to those concerned
in trade and merchandize.

Besides silk _Tche-kiang_ produces camphor, tallow from the _Croton_, a
considerable quantity of tea, oranges, and almost all the fruits that
are peculiar to the country. Every part of the province appeared to be
in the highest state of cultivation and the population to be immense.
Both the raw and manufactured silks, nankins and other cotton cloths,
were sold at such low prices in the capital of this province, that it is
difficult to conceive how the growers or the manufacturers contrived to
gain a livelihood by their labour. But of all others, I am the most
astonished at the small returns that must necessarily be made to the
cultivators of the tea plant. The preparations of some of the finer
kinds of this article are said to require that every leaf should be
rolled singly by the hand; particularly such as are exported to the
European markets. Besides this, there are many processes, such as
steeping, drying, turning, and packing, after it has been plucked off
the shrub leaf by leaf. Yet the first cost in the tea provinces cannot
be more than from four-pence to two shillings a pound, when it is
considered that the ordinary teas stand the East India Company in no
more than eight-pence a pound; and the very best only two shillings and
eight-pence[64]. Nothing can more clearly point out the patient and
unremitting labour of the Chinese, than the preparation of this plant
for the market. It is a curious circumstance that a body of merchants in
England should furnish employment, as might easily be made appear, to
more than a million subjects of a nation that affects to despise
merchants, and throws every obstacle in the way of commercial
intercourse.

  [64] The East India Company pays from thirteen to sixty tales per pecul
  for their teas; some tea of a higher price is purchased by individuals,
  but seldom or ever by the Company. A tale is six shillings and
  eight-pence, and a pecul is one hundred and thirty-three pounds and one
  third.

The mean temperature of _Tche-kiang_, in the middle of November, was
from fifty-six degrees at sun-rise, to sixty-two degrees at noon. The
extent from North to South is between the parallels of twenty-eight and
thirty-four and a half degrees of northern latitude.

The northern part of _Kiang-see_ contains the great _Po-yang_ lake, and
those extensive swamps and morasses that surround it, and which, as I
have already observed, may be considered as the sink of China. The
middle and southern parts are mountainous. The chief produce is sugar
and oil from the _Camellia Sesanqua_. In this province are the principal
manufactories of porcelain, whose qualities, as I have in a former
chapter observed, depend more on the care bestowed in the preparation
and in the selection of the materials, than in any secret art possessed
by them. There are also, in this province, large manufactories of coarse
earthen ware, of tiles, and bricks.

The extent of _Kiang-see_ is from twenty-eight to thirty degrees, and
the temperature, in November, was the same as that of the neighbouring
province of _Tche-kiang_.

I have now to mention a subject on which much has already been written
by various authors, but without the success of having carried conviction
into the minds of their readers, that the things which they offered as
facts were either true or possible; I allude to the populousness of this
extensive empire. That none of the statements hitherto published are
strictly true, I am free to admit, but that the highest degree of
populousness that has yet been assigned may be possible, and even
probable, I am equally ready to contend. At the same time, I acknowledge
that, prepared as we were, from all that we had seen and heard and read
on the subject, for something very extraordinary; yet when the following
statement was delivered, at the request of the Embassador, by
_Chou-ta-gin_, as the abstract of a census that had been taken the
preceding year, the amount appeared so enormous as to surpass
credibility. But as we had always found this officer a plain,
unaffected, and honest man, who on no occasion had attempted to deceive
or impose on us, we could not consistently consider it in any other
light than as a document drawn up from authentic materials; its
inaccuracy, however, was obvious at a single glance, from the several
sums being given in round millions. I have added to the table the extent
of the provinces, the number of people on a square mile, and the value
of the surplus taxes remitted to Pekin in the year 1792, as mentioned in
the seventh chapter.

 +-----------------+--------------+----------+---------+------------+
 |                 |              |          |  No. on |  Surplus   |
 |                 |              |          |   each  |   taxes    |
 |                 |              |  Square  |  square |  remitted  |
 | Provinces.      |  Population. |  Miles.  |  Mile.  |  to Pekin. |
 ------------------+--------------+----------+---------|------------+
 |                 |              |          |         | oz. silver.|
 |Pe-tche-lee      |  38,000,000  |   58,949 |   644   |  3,036,000 |
 |Kiang-nan        |  32,000,000  |   92,961 |   344   |  8,210,000 |
 |Kiang-see        |  19,000,000  |   72,176 |   263   |  2,120,000 |
 |Tche-kiang       |  21,000,000  |   39,150 |   536   |  3,810,000 |
 |Fo-kien          |  15,000,000  |   53,480 |   280   |  1,277,000 |
 |        {Hou-pee |  14,000,000} |          |         | {1,310,000 |
 |Houquang{Hou-nan |  13,000,000} |  144,770 |   187   | {1,345,000 |
 |Honan            |  25,000,000  |   65,104 |   384   |  3,213,000 |
 |Shan-tung        |  24,000,000  |   65,104 |   368   |  3,600,000 |
 |Shan-see         |  27,000,000  |   55,268 |   488   |  3,722,000 |
 |Shen-see} one    |  18,000,000} |          |         | {1,700,000 |
 |Kan-soo }province|  12,000,000} |  154,008 |   195   | {  340,000 |
 |Se-tchuen        |  27,000,000  |  166,800 |   162   |    670,000 |
 |Quan-tung        |  21,000,000  |   79,456 |   264   |  1,340,000 |
 |Quang-see        |  10,000,000  |   78,250 |   128   |    500,000 |
 |Yu-nan           |   8,000,000  |  107,969 |    74   |    210,000 |
 |Koei-tchoo       |   9,000,000  |   64,554 |   140   |    145,000 |
 +-----------------+--------------+----------+---------+------------+
 |        Totals   | 313,000,000  |1,297,999[65] ---   | 36,548,000 |
 +-----------------+--------------+--------------------+------------+

  [65] The measurement annexed to each of the fifteen ancient provinces
  was taken from the maps that were constructed by a very laborious and,
  as far as we had an opportunity of comparing them with the country, a
  very accurate survey, which employed the Jesuits ten years. I do not
  pretend to say that the areas, as I have given them in the table, are
  mathematically correct, but the dimensions were taken with as much care
  as was deemed necessary for the purpose, from maps drawn on a large
  scale, of which a very beautiful manuscript copy is now in his Majesty's
  library at Buckingham-house, made by a Chinese, having all the names
  written in Chinese and Tartar characters.

Considering then the whole surface of the Chinese dominions within the
great wall to contain 1,297,999 square miles, or 830,719,360 English
acres, and the population to amount to 333,000,000, every square mile
will be found to contain two hundred and fifty-six persons, and every
individual might possess two acres and a half of land. Great Britain is
supposed to average about one hundred and twenty persons on one square
mile, and that to each inhabitant there might be assigned a portion of
five acres, or to each family five-and-twenty acres. The population of
China, therefore, is to that of Great Britain as 256 to 120, or in a
proportion somewhat greater than two to one; and the quantity of land
that each individual in Great Britain might possess is just twice as
much as could be allowed to each individual of China. We have only then
to enquire if Britain, under the same circumstances as China, be capable
of supporting twice its present population, or which is the same thing,
if twelve and an half acres of land be sufficient for the maintenance of
a family of five persons? Two acres of choice land sown with wheat,
under good tillage, may be reckoned to average, after deducting the
seed, 60 bushels or 3600 pounds, which every baker knows would yield
5400 pounds of bread, or three pounds a day to every member of the
family for the whole year. Half an acre is a great allowance for a
kitchen-garden and potatoe bed. There would still remain ten acres,
which must be very bad land if, besides paying the rent and taxes, it
did not keep three or four cows; and an industrious and managing family
would find no difficulty in rearing as many pigs and as much poultry as
would be necessary for home consumption, and for the purchase of
clothing and other indispensable necessaries. If then the country was
pretty equally partitioned out in this manner; if the land was applied
solely to produce food for man; if no horses nor superfluous animals
were kept for pleasure, and few only for labour; if the country was not
drained of its best hands in foreign trade and in large manufactories;
if the carriage of goods for exchanging with other goods was performed
by canals and rivers and lakes, all abounding with fish; if the catching
of these fish gave employment to a very considerable portion of the
inhabitants; if the bulk of the people were satisfied to abstain almost
wholly from animal food, except such as is most easily procured, that of
pigs and ducks and fish; if only a very small part of the grain raised
was employed in the distilleries, but was used as the staff of life for
man; and if this grain was of such a nature as to yield twice, and even
three times, the produce that wheat will give on the same space of
ground; if, moreover, the climate was so favourable as to allow two such
crops every year--if, under all these circumstances, twelve and a half
acres of land would not support a family of five persons; the fault
could only be ascribed to idleness or bad management.

Let us then, for a moment, consider that these or similar advantages
operate in China; that every product of the ground is appropriated
solely for the food and clothing of man; that a single acre of land,
sown with rice, will yield a sufficient quantity for the consumption of
five people for a whole year, allowing to each person two pounds a-day,
provided the returns of his crop are from twenty to twenty-five for one,
which are considered as extremely moderate, being frequently more than
twice this quantity; that in the southern provinces two crops of rice
are produced in the year, one acre of which I am well assured, with
proper culture, will afford a supply of that grain even for ten persons,
and that an acre of cotton will clothe two or three hundred persons, we
may justly infer that, instead of twelve acres to each family, half that
quantity would appear to be more than necessary; and safely conclude,
that there is no want of land to support the assumed population of three
hundred and thirty-three millions. This being the case, the population
is not yet arrived at a level with the means which the country affords
of subsistence.

There is, perhaps, no country where the condition of the peasantry may
more justly be compared with those of China than Ireland. This island,
according to the latest survey, contains about 17,000,000 English acres,
730,000 houses and 3,500,000 souls; so that, as in Great Britain, each
individual averages very nearly five acres and every family
five-and-twenty. An Irish cottager holds seldom more than an Irish acre
of land, or one and three-quarters English nearly, in cultivation, with
a cow's grass, for which he pays a rent from two to five pounds. Those
on Lord Macartney's estate at Lissanore have their acre, which they
cultivate in divisions with oats, potatoes, kale, and a little flax;
with this they have besides the full pasturage of a cow all the year
upon a large waste, not overstocked, and a comfortable cabin to inhabit,
for which each pays the rent of three pounds. The cottager works perhaps
three days in the week, at nine-pence a-day; if, instead of which, he
had a second acre to cultivate, he would derive more benefit from its
produce than from the product of his three days' labour _per_ week; that
is to say, provided he would expend the same labour in its tillage. Thus
then, supposing only half of Ireland in a state of cultivation and the
other half pasturage, it would support a population more than three
times that which it now contains; and as a century ago it had no more
than a million of people, so within the present century, under
favourable circumstances, it may increase to ten millions. And it is not
unworthy of remark, that this great increase of population in Ireland
has taken place since the introduction of the potatoe, which gives a
never-failing crop.

I am aware that such is not the common opinion which prevails in this
country, neither with regard to Ireland nor China; on the contrary, the
latter is generally supposed to be overstocked with people; that the
land is insufficient for their maintenance, and that the cities stand so
thick one after the other, especially along the grand navigation between
Pekin and Canton, that they almost occupy the whole surface. I should
not, however, have expected to meet with an observation to this effect
from the very learned commentator on the _voyage of Nearchus_, founded
on no better authority than the crude notes of one _Æneas Anderson_, a
livery servant of Lord Macartney, vamped up by a London bookseller as a
speculation that could not fail, so greatly excited was public curiosity
at the return of the Embassy. I would not be thought to disparage the
authority on account of its being that of a livery servant; on the
contrary, the notes of the meanest and dullest person, on a country so
little travelled over, would be deserving attention before they came
into the hands of a _book-dresser_; but what dependence can be placed
on the information of an author who states as a fact, that he saw tea
and rice growing on the banks of the _Pei-ho_, between the thirty-ninth
and fortieth parallels of latitude, two articles of the culture of
which, in the whole province of _Pe-tche-lee_, they know no more than we
do in England; and who ignorantly and impertinently talks of the
shocking ideas the Chinese entertained of English cruelty, on seeing one
of the guard receive a few lashes, when, not only the common soldiers,
but the officers of this nation are flogged most severely with the
bamboo on every slight occasion. If Doctor Vincent, from reading this
book, was really persuaded that the cities of China were so large and so
numerous, that they left not ground enough to subsist the inhabitants, I
could wish to recall his attention for a few moments to this subject, as
opinions sanctioned by such high authority, whether right or wrong, are
sure, in some degree, to bias the public mind. We have seen that if
China be allowed to contain three hundred and thirty-three millions of
people, the proportion of its population is only just double that of
Great Britain. Now if London and Liverpool and Birmingham and Glasgow,
and all the cities, towns, villages, gentlemen's villas, farm-houses and
cottages in this island were doubled, I see no great inconvenience
likely to arise from such duplication. The unproductive land, in the
shape of gentlemen's parks and pleasure grounds, would, I presume, be
much more than sufficient to counterbalance the quantity occupied by the
new erections; and the wastes and commons would perhaps be more than
enough to allow even a second duplication. But the population of an
English city is not to be compared with, or considered as similar to,
the populousness of a Chinese city, as will be obvious by considering
the two capitals of these two empires. Pekin, according to a measurement
supposed to be taken with great accuracy, occupies a space of about
fourteen square miles. London, with its suburbs, when reduced to a
square, is said to comprehend about nine square miles. The houses of
Pekin rarely exceed a single story; those of London are seldom less than
four; yet both the Chinese and the missionaries who are settled in this
capital agree that Pekin contains three millions of people; while London
is barely allowed to have one million. The reason of this difference is,
that most of the cross streets of a Chinese city are very narrow, and
the alleys branching from them so confined, that a person may place one
hand on one side and the other on the other side as he walks along[66];
that the houses in general are very small, and that each house contains
six, eight, or ten persons, sometimes twice the number. If, therefore,
fourteen square miles of buildings in China contain three millions of
inhabitants, and nine square miles of buildings in England one million,
the population of a city in China will be to that of a city in England
as twenty-seven to fourteen, or very nearly as two to one; and the
former, with a proportion of inhabitants double to that of the latter,
will only have the same proportion of buildings; so that there is no
necessity of their being so closely crowded together, or of their
occupying so great a portion of land, as to interfere with the quantity
necessary for the subsistence of the people.

  [66] One of the streets in the suburbs of Canton is emphatically called
  _Squeeze-gut-alley_, which is so narrow that every gentleman in the
  Company's service does not find it quite convenient to pass.

I have been thus particular, in order to set in its true light a subject
that has been much agitated and generally disbelieved. The sum total of
three hundred and thirty-three millions is so enormous, that in its
aggregate form it astonishes the mind and staggers credibility; yet we
find no difficulty in conceiving that a single square mile in China may
contain two hundred and fifty-six persons, especially when we call to
our recollection the United Provinces of Holland, which have been
calculated to contain two hundred and seventy inhabitants on a square
mile. And the United Provinces have enjoyed few of the advantages
favourable to population, of which China, for ages past, has been in the
uninterrupted possession.

The materials for the statement given by Father Amiot of the population
of China appear to have been collected with care. The number of souls in
1760, according to this statement

 was                                       196,837,977
 In 1761                                   198,214,553
                                           -----------
                        Annual increase      1,376,576

This statement must however be incorrect, from the circumstance of some
millions of people being excluded who have no fixed habitation, but are
constantly changing their position on the inland navigations of the
empire, as well as all the islanders of the Archipelago of _Chu-san_ and
of Formosa. Without, however, taking these into consideration, and by
supposing the number of souls in 1761, to amount to 198,214,553, there
ought to have been, in the year 1793, by allowing a progressive
increase, according to a moderate calculation in political arithmetic,
at least 280,000,000 souls.

Whether this great empire, the first in rank both in extent and
population, may or may not actually contain 333 millions of souls, is a
point that Europeans are not likely ever to ascertain. That it is
capable of subsisting this and a much greater population has, I think,
been sufficiently proved. I know it is a common argument with those who
are not willing to admit the fact, that although cities and towns and
shipping may be crowded together in an astonishing manner, on and near
the grand route between the capital and Canton, yet that the interior
parts of the country are almost deserted. By some of our party going to
_Chu-san_, we had occasion to see parts of the country remote from the
common road, and such parts happened to be by far the most populous in
the whole journey. But independent of the small portion of country seen
by us, the western provinces, which are most distant from the grand
navigation, are considered as the granaries of the empire; and the
cultivation of much grain, where few cattle and less machinery are used,
necessarily implies a corresponding population. Thus we see from the
above table, that the surplus produce of the land remitted to Pekin from
the provinces of

                                                Oz. silver.
  Honan       }      remote from the grand      { 3,213,000
  Shan-see    }        navigation, were         { 3,722,000
  Shen-see    }                                 { 2,040,000

  Whilst those of

  Pe-tche-lee }      on the grand navigation,   { 3,036,000
  Shan-tung   }                were             { 3,600,000
  Tche-kiang  }                                 { 3,810,000

chiefly in rice, wheat, and millet. There are no grounds therefore for
supposing that the interior parts of China are deserts.

There are others again who are persuaded of the population being so
enormous, that the country is wholly inadequate to supply the means of
subsistence; and that famines are absolutely necessary to keep down the
former to the level of the latter. The loose and general way in which
the accounts of the missionaries are drawn up certainly leave such an
impression; but as I have endeavoured to shew that such is far from
being the case, it may be expected I should also attempt to explain the
frequency of those disastrous famines which occasionally commit such
terrible havock in this country. I am of opinion then, that three
principal reasons may be assigned for them. First, the equal division of
the land: Secondly, the mode of cultivation: and Thirdly, the nature of
the products.

If, in the first place, every man has it in his option to rent as much
land as will support his family with food and clothing, he will have no
occasion to go to market for the first necessities; and such being
generally the case in China, those first necessities find no market,
except in the large cities. When the peasant has brought under tillage
of grain as much land as may be sufficient for the consumption of his
own family, and the necessary surplus for the landlord, he looks no
further; and all his neighbours having done the same, the first
necessities are, in fact, unsaleable articles, except in so far as
regards the demands of large cities, which are by no means so close
upon one another as has been imagined. A surplus of grain is likewise
less calculated to exchange for superfluities or luxuries than many
other articles of produce. This being the case, if, by any accident, a
failure of the crops should be general in a province, it has no relief
to expect from the neighbouring provinces, nor any supplies from foreign
countries. In China there are no great farmers who store their grain to
throw into the market in seasons of scarcity. In such seasons the only
resource is that of the government opening its magazines, and restoring
to the people that portion of their crop which it had demanded from them
as the price of its protection. And this being originally only a tenth
part, out of which the monthly subsistence of every officer and soldier
had already been deduced, the remainder is seldom adequate to the wants
of the people. Insurrection and rebellion ensue, and those who may
escape the devouring scourge of famine, in all probability, fall by the
sword. In such seasons a whole province is sometimes half depopulated;
wretched parents are reduced, by imperious want, to sell or destroy
their offspring, and children to put an end, by violence, to the
sufferings of their aged and infirm parents. Thus, the equal division of
land, so favourable to population in seasons of plenty, is just the
reverse when the calamity of a famine falls upon the people.

In the second place, a scarcity may be owing to the mode of cultivation.
When I mention that two-thirds of the small quantity of land under
tillage is cultivated with the spade or the hoe, or otherwise by manual
labour, without the aid of draught-cattle or skilful machinery, it will
readily be conceived how very small a portion each family will be likely
to employ every year; certainly not one-third part of his average
allowance.

The third cause of famines may be owing to the nature of the products,
particularly to that of rice. This grain, the staff of life in China,
though it yields abundant returns in favourable seasons, is more liable
to fail than most others. A drought in its early stages withers it on
the ground; and an inundation, when nearly ripe, is equally destructive.
The birds and the locusts, more numerous in this country than an
European can well conceive, infest it more than any other kind of grain.
In the northern provinces, where wheat, millet and pulse are cultivated,
famines more rarely happen; and I am persuaded that if potatoes and
Guinea corn (_Zea-Mays_) were once adopted as the common vegetable food
of the people, those direful famines that produce such general misery
would entirely cease, and the encrease of population be as rapid as that
of Ireland. This root in the northern provinces, and this grain in the
middle and southern ones, would never fail them. An acre of potatoes
would yield more food than an acre of rice, and twice the nourishment.
Rice is the poorest of all grain, if we may judge from the slender and
delicate forms of all the people who use it as the chief article of
their sustenance; and potatoes are just the contrary[67].

  [67] The great advantage of a potatoe crop, as I before observed, is the
  certainty of its success. Were a general failure of this root to take
  place, as sometimes happens to crops of rice, Ireland, in its present
  state, would experience all the horrors that attend a famine in some of
  the provinces of China.

As Dr. Adam Smith observes, "The chairmen, porters, and coal-heavers in
London, and those unfortunate women who live by prostitution, the
strongest men and the most beautiful women perhaps in the British
dominions, are said to be, the greater part of them, from the lowest
rank of the people in Ireland, who are generally fed with this root; no
food can afford a more decisive proof of its nourishing quality, or of
its being peculiarly suitable to the health of the human constitution."
The Guinea corn requires little or no attention after the seed is
dropped into the ground; and its leaves and juicy stems are not more
nourishing for cattle than its prolific heads are for the sustenance of
man.

Various causes have contributed to the populousness of China. Since the
Tartar conquest it may be said to have enjoyed a profound peace; for in
the different wars and skirmishes that have taken place with the
neighbouring nations on the side of India, and with the Russians on the
confines of Siberia, a few Tartar soldiers only have been employed. The
Chinese army is parcelled out as guards for the towns, cities, and
villages; and stationed at the numberless posts on the roads and canals.
Being seldom relieved from the several guards, they all marry and have
families. A certain portion of land is allotted for their use, which
they have sufficient time to cultivate. As the nation has little foreign
commerce there are few seamen; such as belong to the inland navigations
are mostly married. Although there be no direct penalty levied against
such as remain batchelors, as was the case among the Romans when they
wished to repair the desolation that their civil wars had occasioned,
yet public opinion considers celibacy as disgraceful, and a sort of
infamy is attached to a man who continues unmarried beyond a certain
time of life. And although in China the public law be not established of
the _Jus trium liberorum_, by which every Roman citizen having three
children was entitled to certain privileges and immunities, yet every
male child may be provided for, and receive a stipend from the moment of
his birth, by his name being enrolled on the military list. By the equal
division of the country into small farms, every peasant has the means of
bringing up his family, if drought and inundation do not frustrate his
labour; and the pursuits of agriculture are more favourable to health,
and consequently to population, than mechanical employments in crowded
cities, and large manufactories, where those who are doomed to toil are
more liable to become the victims of disease and debauchery, than such
as are exposed to the free and open air, and to active and wholesome
labour. In China there are few of such manufacturing cities. No great
capitals are here employed in any one branch of the arts. In general
each labours for himself in his own profession. From the general poverty
that prevails among the lower orders of people, the vice of drunkenness
is little practised among them. The multitude, from necessity, are
temperate in their diet to the last degree. The climate is moderate and,
except in the northern provinces where the cold is severe, remarkably
uniform, not liable to those sudden and great changes in temperature,
which the human constitution is less able to resist, than the extremes
of heat or cold when steady and invariable, and from which the
inconveniences are perhaps nowhere so severely felt as on our own
island. Except the small-pox and contagious diseases that occasionally
break out in their confined and crowded cities, they are liable to few
epidemical disorders. The still and inanimate kind of life which is led
by the women, at the same time that it is supposed to render them
prolific, preserves them from accidents that might cause untimely
births. Every woman suckles and nurses her own child.

The operation of these and other favourable causes that might be
assigned, in a country that has existed under the same form of
government, and preserved the same laws and customs for so many ages,
must necessarily have created an excess of population unknown in most
other parts of the world, where the ravages of war, several times
repeated in the course of a century, or internal commotions, or
pestilential disease, or the effects of overgrown wealth, sometimes
sweep away one half of a nation within the usual period allotted to the
life of man.

"What a grand and curious spectacle," as Sir George Staunton observes,
"is here exhibited to the mind of so large a proportion of the whole
human race, connected together in one great system of polity, submitting
quietly and through so considerable an extent of country to one great
sovereign; and uniform in their laws, their manners, and their
language; but differing essentially in each of these respects from every
other portion of mankind; and neither desirous of communicating with,
nor forming any designs against, the rest of the world." How strong an
instance does China afford of the truth of the observation, that men are
more easily governed by opinion than by power.

CHAP. X.

Journey through the Province of Canton.--Situation of Foreigners trading
to this Port.--Conclusion.

  _Visible change in the Character of the People.--Rugged
  Mountains.--Collieries.--Temple in a Cavern.--Stone Quarries--Various
  Plants for Use and Ornament.--Arrive at Canton--Expence of the Embassy
  to the Chinese Government.--To the British Nation--Nature and
  Inconveniences of the Trade to Canton--The Armenian and his
  Pearl.--Impression of the Officers of Government instanced.--Principal
  Cause of them is the Ignorance of the Language.--Case of Chinese trading
  to London.--A Chinese killed by a Seaman of His Majesty's Ship
  Madras.--Delinquent saved from an ignominious Death, by a proper Mode of
  Communication with the Government_--Conclusion.

We had no sooner passed the summit of the high mountain _Me-lin_, and
entered the province of _Quan-tung_, or Canton, than a very sensible
difference was perceived in the conduct of the inhabitants. Hitherto the
Embassy had met with the greatest respect and civility from all classes
of the natives, but now even the peasantry ran out of their houses, as
we passed, and bawled after us _Queitze-fan-quei_, which, in their
language, are opprobrious and contemptuous expressions, signifying
_foreign devils_, _imps_; epithets that are bestowed by the enlightened
Chinese on all foreigners. It was obvious, that the haughty and
insolent manner in which all Europeans residing at, or trading to, the
port of Canton are treated, had extended itself to the northern frontier
of the province, but it had not crossed the mountain _Me-lin_; the
natives of _Kiang-see_ being a quiet, civil, and inoffensive people. In
_Quan-tung_ the farther we advanced, the more rude and insolent they
became. A timely rebuke, however, given to the governor of
_Nau-sheun-foo_ by _Van-ta-gin_, for applying the above mentioned
opprobrious epithets to the British Embassy, had a good effect on the
Canton officers, who were now to be our conductors through their
province.

This contempt of foreigners is not confined to the upper ranks, or men
in office, but pervades the very lowest class who, whilst they make no
scruple of entering into the service of foreign merchants residing in
the country, and accepting the most menial employments under them,
performing the duties of their several offices with diligence,
punctuality, and fidelity, affect, at the same time, to despise their
employers, and to consider them as placed, in the scale of human beings,
many degrees below them. Having one day observed my Chinese servant
busily employed in drying a quantity of tea-leaves, that had already
been used for breakfast, and of which he had collected several pounds, I
inquired what he meant to do with them: he replied, to mix them with
other tea and sell them. "And is that the way," said I, "in which you
cheat your own countrymen?" "No," replied he, "my own countrymen are too
wise to be so easily cheated, but your's are stupid enough to let serve
you such like tricks; and indeed," continued he, with the greatest
_sang froid_ imaginable, "anything you get from us is quite good enough
for you." Affecting to be angry with him, he said, "he meant for the
_second sort_ of Englishmen," which is a distinction they give to the
Americans[68].

  [68] In the Canton jargon, _second chop Englishmen_; and even this
  distinction the Americans, I understand, have nearly forfeited in the
  minds of the Chinese.

The city of _Nan-sheun-foo_ was pleasantly situated on the high bank of
the river _Pei-kiang-ho_. The houses appeared to be very old, the
streets narrow, large tracts of ground within the walls unbuilt, others
covered with ruins. While the barges were preparing to receive on board
the baggage, we took up our lodgings in the public temple, that was
dedicated to the memory of Confucius, being, at the same time, the
college where the students are examined for their different degrees. It
consisted of a long dark room, divided by two rows of red pillars into a
middle and two side aisles, without furniture, paintings, statues, or
ornaments of any kind, except a few paper lanterns suspended between the
pillars; the floor was of earth, and entirely broken up: to us it had
more the appearance of a large passage or gang-way to some manufactory,
as a brewhouse or iron foundery, than of the hall of Confucius. On each
side, and at the farther extremity, were several small apartments, in
which we contrived to pass the night.

The barges in which we now embarked were very small, owning to the
shallowness of the river. The officers, assembled here from different
parts of the country, detained us a whole day in order to have an
opportunity of laying their several complaints before our physician, at
the recommendation of _Van-ta-gin_, who had felt the good effects of his
practice. Here, for once, we had an instance of Chinese pride giving way
to self-interest, and usurped superiority condescending to ask advice of
barbarians. We sailed for two days in our little barges, through one of
the most wild, mountainous, and barren tracts of country that I ever
beheld, abounding more in the sublime and horrible, than in the
picturesque or the beautiful. The lofty summits of the mountains seemed
to touch each other across the river and, at a distance, it appeared as
if we had to sail through an arched cavern. The massy fragments that had
fallen down from time to time, and impeded the navigation, were
indications that the passage was not altogether free from danger. Five
remarkable points of sand-stone rock, rising in succession above each
other with perpendicular faces, seemed as if they had been hewn out of
one solid mountain: they were called _ou-ma-too_, or the five horses'
heads. The mountains at a distance on each side of the river were
covered with pines, the nearer hills with coppice wood, in which the
Camellia prevailed; and in the little glens were clusters of fishermen's
huts, surrounded by small plantations of tobacco.

Within the defile of these wild mountains, we observed several extensive
collieries, which were advantageously worked by driving levels from the
river into their sides. The coals brought out of the horizontal _adits_
were immediately lowered from a pier into vessels that were ready to
receive and transport them to the potteries of this province, and of
_Kiang-see_. Coal is little used in its raw state, but is first charred
in large pits that are dug in the ground. Coal dust, mixed with earth,
and formed into square blocks, is frequently used to heat their little
stoves, on which they boil their rice.

At the city of _Tchao-tchoo-foo_, where we arrived on the 13th, we
exchanged our flat-bottomed boats for large and commodious yachts, the
river being here much increased by the confluence of another stream. The
boats before this city were mostly managed by young girls, whose dress
consisted of a neat white jacket and petticoat and a gipsey straw hat.
Having for so great a length of time scarcely ever set our eyes upon a
female, except the heads of some at a distance, peeping from behind the
mud walls that surround the houses, or labouring in the grounds of
_Kiang-see_, the ferry girls, though in reality very plain and
coarse-featured, were considered as the most beautiful objects that had
occurred in the whole journey. To the occupation of ferrying passengers
over the river it seemed they added another, not quite so honourable,
for which, however, they had not only the consent and approbation of
their parents, but also the sanction of the government, or perhaps, to
speak more correctly, of the governing magistrates, given in
consideration of their receiving a portion of the wages of prostitution.

In this mountainous district a few fishermen's huts and those of the
colliers were the only habitations that occurred; but the defect of
population was abundantly supplied by the number of wooden dwellings
that were floating on the river. Small huts, to the number of thirty or
forty, were sometimes erected upon a single floating raft of fir baulks,
lashed together by the ends and the sides. On these rafts the people
carry on their trade or occupation, particularly such as work in wood.

Our conductors directed the yachts to halt before a detached rock,
rising with a perpendicular front from the margin of the river to the
height of seven hundred feet. In this front we observed a cavern, before
which was a terrace that had been cut out of the rock, accessible by a
flight of steps from the river. Proceeding from the terrace into the
cavity of the rock, we ascended another flight of stairs, also cut out
of solid stone, which led into a very spacious apartment. In the centre
of this apartment sat the goddess _Poo-sa_ upon a kind of altar,
constituting a part of the rock, and hewn into the shape of the
_Lien-wha_ or Nelumbium. A small opening, next the river, admitted a
"dim religious light," suitable to the solemnity of the place, which we
were told was a temple consecrated to _Poo-sa_, and a monastery for the
residence of a few superannuated priests. On the smooth sides of the
apartment was inscribed a multitude of Chinese verses, some cut into the
rock, and others painted upon it. The lodgings of the priests were small
caves branching out of the large temple. A third flight of steps led
from this to a second story, which was also lighted by a small aperture
in front, that was nearly choaked up by an immense mass of stalectite
that had been formed, and was still increasing, by the constant oozing
of water holding in solution calcareous matter, and suspended from a
projection of the upper part of the rock. But the light was sufficient
to discover a gigantic image with a Saracen face, who "grinn'd horrible
a ghastly smile." On his head was a sort of crown; in one hand he held a
naked scymeter, and a firebrand in the other; but the history of this
colossal divinity seemed to be imperfectly known, even to the votaries
of _Poo-sa_ themselves. He had in all probability been a warrior in his
day, the Theseus or the Hercules of China. The cave of the Cumæan Sibyl
could not be better suited for dealing out the mysterious decrees of
fate to the superstitious multitude, than that of the _Quan-gin-shan_,
from whence the oracle of future destiny, in like manner,

    "Horrendas canit ambages, antroque remugit,
    Obscuris vera involvens."

    "The wond'rous truths, involv'd in riddles, gave,
    And furious bellow'd round the gloomy cave."

Lord Macartney observed that this singular temple brought to his
recollection a Franciscan monastery he had seen in Portugal, near Cape
Roxent, usually called the _Cork Convent_, "which is an excavation of
considerable extent under a hill, divided into a great number of cells,
and fitted up with a church, sacristy, refectory, and every requisite
apartment for the accommodation of the miserable Cordeliers who burrow
in it. The inside is entirely lined with cork: the walls, the roofs, the
floors, are covered with cork; the tables, seats, chairs, beds, couches,
the furniture of the chapel, the crucifixes, and every other implement,
are all made of cork. The place was certainly dismal and comfortless to
a great degree, but it wanted the gigantic form, the grim features, the
terrific aspect which distinguish the temple of _Poo-sa_, in the rock
of _Quan-gin-shan_." Dismal as this gloomy den appeared to be, where a
few miserable beings had voluntarily chained themselves to a rock, to be
gnawed by the vultures of superstition and fanaticism, it is still less
so than an apartment of the Franciscan convent in Madeira, the walls of
which are entirely covered with human skulls, and the bones of legs and
arms, placed alternately in horizontal rows. A dirty lamp suspended from
the ceiling, and constantly attended by an old bald-headed friar of the
order, to keep the feeble light just glimmering in the socket, serves to
shew indistinctly to strangers this disgusting _memento mori_. It would
be difficult to determine which of the three were the most useless
members of society, the monks of _Poo-sa_, the monks of the Cork
convent, or the monks of Golgotha.

In several places among the wild and romantic mountains through which we
were carried on this river, we noticed quarries of great extent, out of
which huge stones had been cut for sepulchral monuments, for the arches
of bridges, for architraves, for paving the streets, and for various
other uses. To obtain these large masses, the saw is applied at the
upper surface, and they work down vertically to the length required.
Each stone is shaped and fashioned to the size that may be wanted,
before it is removed from the parent rock, by which much difficulty is
avoided and less power required in conveying it to its destination. Rude
misshapen blocks, requiring additional labour for their removal, are
never detached from the rock in such a state. In this respect they are
more provident than the late Empress of Russia who, at an immense
expense and with the aid of complicated machinery, caused a block of
stone to be brought to her capital, to serve as a pedestal for the
statue of the Czar Peter, where it was found expedient to reduce it to
two-thirds of its original dimensions.

Between the city of Canton and the first pagoda on the bank of the
river, there is a continued series of similar quarries, which appear not
to have been worked for many years. The regular and formal manner in
which the stones have been cut away, exhibiting lengthened streets of
houses with quadrangular chambers, in the sides of which are square
holes at equal distances, as if intended for the reception of beams; the
smoothness and perfect perpendicularity of the sides, and the number of
detached pillars that are scattered over the plain, would justify a
similar mistake to that of Mr. Addison's Doctor of one of the German
universities, whom he found at Chateau d'Un in France, carefully
measuring the free-stone quarries at that place, which he had conceived
to be the venerable remains of vast subterranean palaces of great
antiquity.

Almost all the mountains that occurred in our passage through China were
of primæval granite, some few of sand-stone, and the inferior hills were
generally of lime-stone, or coarse grey marble. Except the Ladrone
islands on the south, and some of the _Chu-san_ islands on the east, we
observed no appearances in the whole country of volcanic productions.
The high mountains, indeed, that form great continental chains are
seldom, if ever, of volcanic formation. The presence of a vast volume
of water seems to be indispensably necessary to carry on this operation
of nature and, accordingly, we find that volcanic mountains are
generally close to the sea coast, or entirely insulated. Thus, although
a great part of the islands on the coast of China are volcanic, we met
with no trace of subterranean heat, either in volcanic products or
thermal springs, on the whole continent. Yet earthquakes are said to
have been frequently felt in all the provinces, but slight and of short
duration.

About seven miles to the southward of the temple in the rock, the
mountains abruptly ceased, and we entered on a wide extended plain
which, to the southward and on each side, was terminated only by the
horizon. This sudden transition from barrenness to fertility, from the
sublime to the beautiful, from irregularity to uniformity, could not
fail to please, as all strong contrasts usually do. The country was now
in a high state of tillage; the chief products were rice, sugar-canes,
and tobacco; and the river was so much augmented by the tributary
streams of the mountains, which we had just left behind, that it was
nearly half a mile in width. Canals branched from its two banks in every
direction. At the city of _San-shwee shien_, we observed the current of
the river receding, being driven back by the flux of the tide.

On the 10th, we halted before a village which was just within sight of
the suburbs of Canton. Here the Embassador was met by the Commissioners
of the East India Company, whom the Chinese had allowed to proceed thus
far from the factory, and to which place the servants of the Company
are occasionally permitted to make their parties of pleasure. In the
neighbourhood of this village are extensive gardens for the supply of
the city with vegetables. In some we observed nurseries for propagating
the rare, the beautiful, the curious, or the useful plants of the
country; which are sent to Canton for sale. On this account we were not
sorry to be obliged to spend the remainder of the day at this place.
Among the choice plants we noticed the large _Peonia_ before mentioned,
white, red, and variegated; the elegant _Limodorum Tankervilliæ_, and
that singular plant the _Epidendrum flos aeris_ so called from its
vegetating without the assistance of earth or water; the _Hybiscus
mutabilis_, the _Abelmoschus_, and other species of this genus; the
double variegated _Camellia Japonica_; the great holly-hock; the scarlet
_amaranthus_ and another species of the same genus, and a very elegant
_Celosia_ or cock's comb; the _Nerium Oleander_, sometimes called the
Ceylon rose, and the _Yu-lan_, a species of magnolia, the flowers of
which appear before the leaves burst from the buds. Of the scented
plants the _plumeria_ and a double flowering jasmine were the most
esteemed. We observed also in pots the _Ocymum_ or sweet Basil,
_Cloranthus inconspicuous_, called _Chu-lan_, whose leaves are sometimes
mixed with those of tea to give them a peculiar flavour; the _Olea
fragrans_, or sweet scented olive, said also to be used for the same
purpose; a species of myrtle; the much esteemed _Rosa Sinica_; the
_Tuberose_; the strong scented _Gardenia florida_, improperly called the
Cape Jasmine; the China pink and several others, to enumerate which
would exceed the limits of this work.

Of fruits we noticed a variety of figs, and three species of mulberries;
peaches and almonds; the _Annona_ or custard-apple; the _Eugenia
Jambos_, or rose-apple; the much-esteemed _Lee-tchee_ or
_Sapindus-edulis_; and the _Kœlreuteria_, another species of the same
genus; the _Averhoa Carambola_, an excellent fruit for tarts; and the
_Ou-long-shoo_, the _Sterculia platanifolia_. Besides these were
abundance of oranges and bananas.

As vegetables for the table, was a great variety of beans and
calavances, among which was the _Dolichos Soja_ or soy plant, and the
_polystachios_, with its large clusters of beautiful scarlet flowers;
the _Cytisus Cadjan_, whole seed yields the famous bean-milk, which it
is the custom of the Emperor to offer to Embassadors on their
presentation; large mild radishes, onions, garlic, _Capsicum_ or
Cayenne-pepper; _convolvulus batatas_, or sweet potatoes; two species of
tobacco; _Amomum_, or ginger, in great quantities, the root of which
they preserve in syrup; _Sinapis_, or mustard, and the _Brassica
orientalis_, from which an oil is expressed for the table.

Of plants that were useful in the arts, we observed the _Rhus vernix_,
or varnish-tree, and two other species of the same genus; _Curcuma_, or
turmeric; _Carthamus_ used as a dye, and the _polygonum Chinense_ for
the same purpose; the _Rhapis flabelliformis_, the dried leaves of which
are used for fans among the common people, and particularly by those who
live in vessels; _Corchorus_ whose bark, in India, is used as flax; but
not, I believe, to any extent in China, the white nettle being here
preferred. The only medicinal plants were the _Rheum palmatum_,
_Artemisia_, and the _Smilax_ or China root.

To make our _entré_ into Canton the more splendid, a number of superb
barges were sent to meet us, carrying flags and streamers and umbrellas
and other insignia of office; and in some were bands of music. About the
middle of the day we arrived before the factories, which constitute a
line of buildings in the European style, extending along the left bank
of the river, where the Embassador was received by the _Song-too_, or
Viceroy, the Governor, the _Ho-poo_, or collector of the customs, and
all the principal officers of the government. From hence we were
conducted to the opposite side of the river, where a temporary building
of poles and mats had been prepared for the occasion; within which was a
screen of yellow silk bearing the name of the Emperor in gilt
characters. Before this screen the Viceroy and other officers performed
the usual prostrations, in token of gratitude to his imperial Majesty,
for his having vouchsafed us a prosperous journey.

It is but doing justice to the Chinese government and to the individuals
in its employ who had any concern in the affairs of the embassy, to
observe, that as far as regarded ourselves, their conduct was uniformly
marked by liberality, attention, and an earnest desire to please. Nor is
there any vanity in saying that, after observing us closely in the
course of a long journey and daily intercourse, the officers of
government gradually dismissed the prejudices imbibed against us, as
foreigners, from their earliest youth. Gained by our frank and open
manners, and by little attentions, they seemed to fly with pleasure to
our society as a relief from the tedious formalities they were obliged
to assume in their official capacity. _Van_ and _Chou_ constantly passed
the evenings in some of our yachts. It is impossible to speak of those
two worthy men in terms equal to their desert. Kind, condescending,
unremitting in their attentions, they never betrayed one moment of
ill-humour from the time we entered China till they took their final
leave at Canton. These two men were capable of real attachments. They
insisted on accompanying the Embassador on board the Lion, where they
took their last farewell. At parting they burst into tears and shewed
the strongest marks of sensibility and concern. Their feelings quite
overcame them, and they left the Lion sorrowful and dejected. Early the
following morning they sent on board twenty baskets of fruit and
vegetables, as a farewell token of their remembrance. We had the
satisfaction to hear, that immediately on their arrival at Pekin they
both were promoted. _Chou_ is at present in a high situation at court,
but _Van_, the cheerful good-humoured _Van_, has paid the debt of
nature, having fallen honourably in the service of his country. On the
conduct of _Lee_, our Chinese interpreter, any praise that I could
bestow would be far inadequate to his merit. Fully sensible of his
perilous situation, he never at any one time shrank from his duty. At
Macao he took an affectionate leave of his English friends, with whom,
though placed in one of the remotest provinces of the empire, he still
contrives to correspond. The Embassador, Lord Macartney, has had several
letters from him; the last of which is of so late a date as March 1802;
so that his sensibility has not been diminished either by time or
distance.

It is the custom of China to consider all Embassadors as guests of the
Emperor, from the moment they enter any part of his dominions, until
they are again entirely out of them. The inconvenience of this custom
was severely felt by us, as it prevented us from purchasing, in an open
manner, many trifling articles that would have been acceptable. The very
considerable expence, incurred by the court on this account, may be one
reason for prescribing the limited time of forty days for all
embassadors to remain at the capital. To meet the expences of the
present Embassy, _Van-ta-gin_ assured me, that they were furnished with
an order to draw on the public treasuries of the different provinces
through which we had to pass, to the amount of five thousand ounces of
silver a-day, or about one thousand six hundred pounds sterling: and
that fifteen hundred ounces a-day had been issued out of the treasury at
Pekin for the support of the Embassy during its continuance there.
Supposing then these data to be correct, and I see no reason for calling
their authenticity in question, we may form an estimate of the whole
expence of this Embassy to the Chinese government.

  From the 6th of August (the day we entered
  the Pei-ho) to the 21st (when we arrived in            Oz.
  Pekin) inclusive                            16 days,  80,000

  From the 22d August to the 6th October (in
  Pekin and in Gehol)                         46 days,  69,000

  From the 7th October to the 19th December
  (when we arrived at Canton)                 74 days, 370,000
                                                      ---------
                               Total ounces of silver  519,000

Or one hundred and seventy-three thousand pounds sterling; three Chinese
ounces being equal to one pound sterling.

It is hardly possible that this enormous sum of money could have been
expended on account of the Embassy, though I have no doubt of its having
been issued out of the Imperial treasury for that purpose. One of the
missionaries informed me, in Pekin, that the Gazette of that capital
contained an article stating the liberality of the Emperor towards the
English Embassador, in his having directed no less a sum than fifteen
hundred ounces of silver to be applied for the daily expences of the
Embassy, while stationary in the capital and at Gehol. The same
gentleman made an observation, that the great officers of government, as
well as those who had the good luck to be appointed to manage the
concerns of a foreign embassy, considered it as one of the best
wind-falls in the Emperor's gift, the difference between the allowances
and the actual expenditure being equivalent to a little fortune.

_Van-ta-gin_, indeed, explained to us, that although the Imperial
warrant was signed for those sums, yet that having a number of offices
to pass through, in all of which it diminished a little, the whole of it
was not actually expended on the Embassy. He gave to the Embassador an
excellent illustration of the manner in which the Imperial bounty was
sometimes applied. An inundation had swept away, the preceding winter, a
whole village in the province of _Shan-tung_, so suddenly, that the
inhabitants could save nothing but their lives. The Emperor having once
lodged at the place immediately ordered 100,000 ounces of silver for
their relief, out of which the first officer of the treasury took
20,000, the second 10,000, the third 5,000, and so on, till at last
there remained only 20,000 for the poor sufferers. So that the boasted
morality of China is pretty much the same, when reduced to practice, as
that of other countries.

The real expence, however, of the British Embassy, could not have been a
trifle, when we consider what a vast multitude of men, horses, and
vessels were constantly employed on the occasion. _Van-ta-gin_ assured
me, that there were seldom fewer than one thousand men, and frequently