canal. It seems evident, therefore, that the course of the navigation has been latterly altered here, either from the overflowing of the Yellow River or some other cause. That a change has taken place seems indicated by the name 'New Salt River,' on the other side of the main stream of the Hoang-ho.

"Entered the southern division of the grand canal. A great deal of labour and contrivance has been employed here in constructing the embankments, and regulating the course of the waters. In the first place, two or three artificial bays or basins have been hollowed out in the bank of the river, where the boats proceeding to the southward assemble in security and wait their turn to pass. There are then two other narrow passes, or imperfect sluices, subsequent to the first opening that leads from the river to the canal, having also broad basins between them, and embankments constructed, as before, with the straw or reeds confined with cordage. The object of this repetition of sluices, with the basins between, seems in some degree similar to that of the locks on our own canals."

The important figure which the Great Wall makes in the maps of China entitles this vast artificial barrier to be considered in a geographical point of view. We have

already stated that it was built by the first universal monarch of China, about 200 years before the commencement of the Christian era, or rather more than 2000 years from this time. It bounds the whole north of China, along the frontiers of three provinces, extending from the shore of the gulf of Pechele, 340 east of Peking, to Syning, 15° west of that capital. The emperors of the Ming dynasty built an additional inner wall, near to Peking, on the west, which may be perceived on the map, enclosing a portion of the province between itself and the old wall. From the eastern extremity of the Great Wall there is an extensive stockade of wooden piles, enclosing the country of Mougden, and this has, in scme European maps, been erroneously represented as a continuation of the solid barrier.

The gentlemen of Lord Macartney's embassy had the good fortune to pass into Tartary by one of the most entire portions of the wall, and a very particular examination of

the structure was made by Captain Parish. On the first distant approach, it is described as resembling a prominent vein or ridge of quartz, standing out from mountains of gneiss or granite. The continuance of this line over the mountain-tops arrested the attention, and the form of a wall with battlements was soon distinctly discerned. It was carried over the ridges of the highest hills, descended into the deepest valleys, crossed upon arches over rivers, and was doubled in important passes, being, moreover, supplied with massy towers or bastions at distances of about one hundred yards. One of the most elevated ridges crossed by the wall was 5000 feet above the level of the sea. It far surpasses, in short, the sum total of all other works of the kind, and proved a useful barrier until the power of Zenghis Khan overthrew the empire of the Chinese.

The body of the wall consists of an earthen mound, retained on each side by walls of masonry and brick, and terraced by a platform of square bricks. The total height, including a parapet of five feet, is twenty feet, on a basis of stone projecting two feet under the brick-work, and varying in height from two feet to more, according to the level of the ground. The thickness of the wall at the base is twenty-five feet, diminishing to fifteen at the platform. The towers are forty feet square at the base,diminishing to thirty at the top, and about thirty-seven feet in total height. At particular spots, however, the tower was of two stories, and forty-eight feet high. The bricks are, as usual in China, of a bluish colour, about fifteen inches long, half that in width, and nearly four inches thick; probably the whole, half, and quarter of the Chinese Che, or covid. The blue colour of the bricks led to a doubt of their having been burned; but some ancient kilns were observed near the wall, and, since then, the actual experiment of Dr. Abel in 1816 has proved that the brick clay of the Chinese, being red at first, burns blue. The thinness of the parapet of the wall, about eighteen inches, justifies the conclusion that it was not intended to resist cannon: indeed the Chinese themselves

1 See plan, section, and elevation, from folio plates to Embassy.

deem it an object of sufficient curiosity to deserve particular notice; without the necessity of imagining that he entered China from the westward, to the south of the great barrier.

As a minute geographical description of each province of the empire would be out of place in this work, we will notice generally the points most deserving of attention in all, commencing with those which lay in the route of the British embassies. The flat, sandy, and steril province in which Peking is situated offers little worthy of notice. The vast plain which surrounds the capital is entirely devoid of trees, but wood is procured from that long hilly promontory of Tartary, which forms the eastern boundary of the gulf of Leaoutung, and was named by Sir Murray Maxwell, the "regent's sword." The most considerable town, next to Peking, is Tientsin, though it does not rank as a city: it forms the trivium, or point of junction between the canal, the capital, and the sea. Here are seen the immense piles or hills of salt described by Mr. Barrow, this being the depôt for the salt provided for the enormous consumption of Peking, and manufactured along the marshy borders of the sea. On entering the adjoining province of Shantung to the south, the attention is soon drawn to the commencement of the canal; and on the lakes, or rather extensive swamps through which it is carried, are seen the fishing corvorants, birds which will be more particularly described hereafter, exercising their profession for their masters in numerous boats. The surface in the north of this province and in Pechele is so flat and low, that the tide, which rises only nine or ten feet in the adjoining gulf, flows upwards of one hundred miles above the mouth of the Peiho. country, therefore, consisting entirely of an argillaceous sand abounding in mica, is frequently laid under water, the general level not being more than two feet above the surface of the river at high tide. In this circumstance, joined to the vicinity of that constant source of inundations, the Yellow River, we may perceive, perhaps, an explanation of the great inundation or deluge, which the celebrated Yu is said to have carried off in the course of eight years by constructing "nine channels."

The

is

On entering Keangnân, which is divided into the subordinate provinces of Keangsoo and Ganhoey, the country soon improves, and the inequality of the surface renders the locks, or floodgates, very frequent on the canal. This is certainly the richest province of China. It is famous for its silks and japanned goods, made principally at Soochow. Nanking, the ancient capital, became permanently abandoned for Peking by Yoonglo, in the fifteenth century. The area of the ancient walls, only a corner of which is occupied by the present city, measures seventeen miles in circumference, being rather more than the circuit of Peking. The reigning Tarter dynasty find it their interest to retain the modern capital, from its vicinity to Mougden, their birth-place; but the ancient one greatly more centrical, with a finer climate, and altogether better calculated to promote the prosperity of the empire. Shanghae, a seaport near the mouth of the Keang, was visited by Mr. Gutzlaff in 1831, and described by him as the most considerable trading place of any on the coast; it is, in fact, close to Soochow and Hangchow. On the Keang, not far from the mouth, is that remarkably beautiful little island, called the "Golden Isle," surmounted by numerous temples, inhabited by the votaries of Budh, or Fo, and very correctly described so many centuries since by Marco Polo. At no great distance from this are the gardens of Kienloong, erected for him when he visited his southern provinces, and viewed by us in the embassy of 1816: they were laid out in the usual style of Chinese gardening, with artificial rocks and ruins, and wooden bridges over a piece of water. The embassy saw the room in which the Emperor dined, and a stone tablet, having engraved some sentences composed by himself. The whole, however, was in a sad state of dilapidation and ruin, like almost everything else of the kind that we see in the country.

In the district of Hoey-chow-foo, the most southern city of the province, is grown the best green tea. The soil in which it is reared is a decomposition of granite, abounding in felspar, as is proved by its being used for porcelain. Thus the same soil produces the tea, and the cups in which it is drunk. In

this province, too, is Foong-yang-foo, the birth-place of the founder of the Ming dynasty, who served, at first, as a menial in a monastery of bonzes. He then joined a body of insurgents against the Mongol dynasty, and became their chief. From beating the Tartars in every battle, and at length chasing them from the country, he was styled Hoong-woo, "the great warrior."

The ajdoining province of Keang-sy is, perhaps, in point of natural scenery and climate, the most delightful part of China. The Poyang lake, in size approaching the character of an inland sea, is bordered on its west side by strikingly beautiful mountain scenery. It was only hereabouts that the two British embassies varied in their respective

routes.

That of Lord Amherst proceeded along the Yang-tse-keang after leaving the canal, until it reached the lake; while Lord Macartney crossed the Keang below Nanking, visited Soochow and Hângchow, and, proceeding south and west, approached the lake at its southern extremity. The following account of the west side of the Poyang is from a MS. Journal:-" Arrived early in the day at Nankang-foo. A long mole was built on the south-east side of the town, making a small harbour for boats to lie in, secure from the tempestuous waters of the lake in bad weather. While we were here, sufficient swell existed to make it resemble an arm of the sea, and the shore was covered with shingles in the manner of a sea-beach." A description of the mountains in the neighbourhood will appear in another place, as well as of King-te-ching, the most noted manufactory for porcelain, to the eastward of the Poyang.

From Keang-sy to the adjoining province of Kuângtung, or Canton, the passage is cut through the precipitous ridge of mountains which separates them. It was formed by an individual during the dynasty Tang, more than a thousand years since; and an arched gateway in the centre, of later construction, marks the boundary between the two provinces. The name of the pass, Meiling, is derived from the flower of a species of prunus which grows wild in profusion near the summit. After reaching the foot of the steep acclivity on the north side, the embassy were obliged to dismount from their horses, or quit

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their chairs in order to walk up. On reaching the summit, where the rock is cut to the depth of above twenty feet, the view on the Canton side breaks upon the eye in full grandeur, consisting of ranges of wild mountains, well wooded. The rocks at the pass have been erroneously stated to consist of gneiss and quartz; they are, in fact, limestone, in common with the whole north of Canton province, and supply the grey marble, which is so plentifully brought down the river. Immense square blocks of the stone which compose the mountain are piled up in pyramidal shapes on each side of the road down the southern declivity; the separate masses, however, preserving the remains of a horizontal stratification.

The only two provinces to the east, or left, of the route pursued by Lord Amherst's mission, are Chekeang, and Fokien, both of them bordering the sea. The first of these competes with Keang-nân in the production of silk, and the country is thickly planted with young mulberry-trees, which are constantly renewed, as the most certain way of improving the quality of the silk which is spun by the worms. The principal city of the province is the celebrated Hângchow, at the end of an estuary of the sea, where the tide, according to Barrow, rises six or seven feet. Close to this opulent town, on the west, is the famous lake Sy-hoo, about six miles in circumference, the water quite limpid, and overspread with the nelumbium. This extensive sheet of water is covered with barges, which appear to be the perpetual abodes of gaiety and dissipation. On the coast, in the 30th parallel of latitude, is the well-known port of Ningpo, the former seat of European trade. The entrance is said to be difficult, as there are scarcely twenty feet of water on the bar at the highest tides. Fifty or sixty miles from it, among the islands on the coast, is Chow sân or Chusan, with a good harbour, but inconvenient for trade in comparison with Ningpo itself. The capital of Chusan is Tinghae.1

The contiguous province of Fokien preserved

1 In a war with China, the possession of Chusan would be a means of severely annoying the neighbouring coasts.

its independence against the Manchow Tartars longer than any portion of the empire, being supported by the squadron of the famous pirate (as he is sometimes called, though he deserves a better name) whose son expelled the Dutch from the adjoining island Formosa, when the Tartars had dispossessed him of the main. The people of Fokien retain a hereditary aptitude for the sea, and chiefly supply the Emperor's war-junks with both sailors and commanders. A large proportion, too, of the trading junks that proceed to sea pertain to Fokien. Two circumstances probably tend to maintain the maritime propensities of the inhabitants :-first, this province is so far removed from the grand canal as to afford fewer inducements to inland navigation and trade, always preferable, if practicable to a Chinese; secondly, the proximity of the opposite coast of Formosa keeps up a constant intercourse by sea. The language or dialect of Fokien is so peculiar as hardly to be intelligible elsewhere, and this may chiefly be attributed to its long independence of the rest of the empire. Ch is always pronounced T, and hence the difference between cha and tea for the great staple production of China; the first name for tea being adopted by the Portuguese from Macao, and the second by the English from Amoy. This port, the name of which is a corruption of the native word Heamun, is well known to have been formerly the seat of the English trade, being placed on an island near the coast in latitude 24° 25'. Fokien is the great country of the black teas, and Bohea is a corruption of Vu-ee Shan, the hills where they are principally grown.

Of

We have now taken a cursory view of the finest and most opulent parts of the empire. All the remainder are inland provinces, less known to Europeans, and probably much less suited to the purposes of commerce. these, one of the largest is Hoo-kuâng, divided by the vast lake Tongting Hoo,1 with its tributaries, into two subordinate provinces, Hoo-pe, and Hoon-nân: that is, "north and south of the lake" the last is to be distinguished

1 The English translation of Du Halde, we observe, states that the lake is very venomous, being thus absurdly rendered from the original, poissoneux.

Im

from Ho-nan, a province to the north. mediately adjoining, to the south-west, is the province of Kuâng-sy, under the same viceroyalty with Canton, but greatly inferior in wealth. North of Kuâng-sy lies Kuei-chow, a small mountainous province, of which the south boundary has always been independent. It is peopled by a race of mountaineers called Meaou-tse, who thus defy the Chinese in the midst of their empire. They gave the government much trouble in 1832, and are said to have been "soothed" rather than "controlled," to use favourite Chinese expressions—that is, managed rather than subdued.

The fact that an independent race of people should exist in the heart of a country so jealous of its dominion as China, is certainly a singular one. The principal seats of these mountaineers are between the provinces of Kuei-chow, and Kuâng-sy, though some of them exist in other parts of the same ridge; and in the Chinese maps their borders or limits are marked off like those of a foreign country, and the space left vacant. L'Amiot

Ac

has given an account of Kien-loong's expeditions against them; but as his narrative is taken from the official papers sent to the Emperor, which are in general not more correct or veraceous than Napoleon's bulletins, it must be received with some allowances. cording to him, the Viceroy of a neighbouring province had sent an army against the Meaou-tse, who enticed them into their mountains, and entirely cut off the Chinese with their general. To revenge this, Kienloong despatched a leader named Akuei at the head of his best Tartar troops to subdue them. This person is said to have entered their country, and, in spite of all opposition, to have taken their king prisoner, and nearly exterminated the race. Still, however, they remain as independent as ever, and the Chinese are contented to keep them within their own limits by small fortresses erected on the borders.

The mountainous ridges occupied by this people extend full six degrees, or about 360 geographical miles from west to east, comprising the southern borders of Kuei-chow, with the northern of Kuâng-sy, and the northwest limits of the Canton province; but the