I was gotten about a thousand leagues farther off from home, and perfectly deftitute of all manner of profpect of return!

All we had for it was this; that in about four months time there was to be another fair at that place where we were, and then we might be able to purchase all forts of the manufactures of the country, and withal might poffibly find fome Chinese junks or veffels from Nanquin, that would be to be fold, and would carry us and our goods whither we pleased. This I liked very well, and refolved to wait; befides, as our particular perfons were not obnoxious, so if any English or Dutch fhips came thither, perhaps we might have an opportunity to load our goods, and get paffage to fome other place in India nearer home.

Upon these hopes we refolved to continue here; but, to divert ourselves, we took two or three journies into the country; first, we went ten days journey to fee the city of Nanquin, a city well worth feeing indeed they say it has a million of people in it; which, however, I do not believe: It is regularly built, the streets all exactly strait, and cross one another in direct lines, which gives the figure of it great advantage.

But when I came to compare the miferable people of these countries with our's; their fabrics, their manner of living, their government, their religion, their wealth, and their glory (as fome call it), I must confefs, I do not fo much as think it worth naming, or worth my while to write of, or any that fhall come after me to read.

It is very obfervable, that we wonder at the grandeur, the riches, the pomp, the ceremonies, the government, the manufactures, the commerce, and the conduct of these people; not that they are to be wondered at, or, indeed, in the least to be regarded; but because, having first a notion of the barbarity of thofe countries, the rudeness, and the ignorance that prevail there, we do not expect to find any fuch things fo far off.

Otherwife, what are their builings to the palaces. and royal buildings of Europe? What their trade to the univerfal commerce of England, Holland, France, and Spain? What their cities to our's, for wealth, ftrength, gaiety of apparel, rich furniture, and an infinite variety? What are their ports, fupplied with a few junks and barks, to our navigation, our merchants fleets, our large and powerful navies? Our city of London has more trade than all their mighty empire. One English, or Dutch, or French man of war of 80 guns, would fight with and deftroy all the fhipping of China. But the greatnefs of their wealth, their trade, the power of their government, and ftrength of their armies are furprizing to us, because, as I have faid, confidering them as a barbarous nation of pagans, little better than favages, we did not expect fuch things among them; and this, indeed, is the advantage with which all their greatnefs and power is reprefented to us: otherwife, it is in itself nothing at all; for, as I have faid of their fhips, fo it may be faid of their armies and troops; all the forces of their empire, though they were to bring two millions of men into the field together,

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gether, would be able to do nothing but ruin the country, and starve themselves. If they were to befiege a strong town in Flanders, or to fight a difciplined army, one line of German cuiraffiers, or of French cavalry, would overthrow all the horfe of China; a million of their foot could not stand before one embattled body of our infantry, pofted fo as not to be furrounded, though they were not to be one to twenty in number: nay, I do not boast if I fay, that 30,000 German or English foot, and 10,000 French horfe, would fairly beat all the forces of China. And fo of our fortified towns, and of the art of our engineers, in affaulting and defending towns; there is not a fortified town in China could hold out one month against the batteries and attacks of an European army; and at the fame time, all the armies of China could never take fuch a town as Dunkirk, provided it was not starved; no, not in ten years fiege. They have fire-arms, it is true, but they are awkward, clumfy, and uncertain in going off; they have powder, but it is of no ftrength; they have neither discipline in the field, exercise in their arms, skill to attack, or temper to retreat: and therefore I must confefs it feemed ftrange to me when I came home, and heard our people fay fuch fine things of the power, riches, glory, magnificence, and trade of the Chinese, becaufe I faw and knew that they were a contemptible herd or croud of ignorant, fordid flaves, fubjected to a government qualified only to rule fuch a people; and, in a word, for I am now launched quite befide my defign, I fay, in a word, were not its distance inconceivably great from Muscovy, and were not the Muscovite empire

almost

almost as rude, impotent, and ill-governed a croud of flaves as they, the czar of Muscovy might, with much eafe, drive them all out of their country, and conquer them in one campaign; and had the czar, who I fince hear is a growing prince, and begins to appear formidable in the world, fallen this way, instead of attacking the warlike Swedes, in which attempt none of the powers of Europe would have envied or interrupted him; he might, by this time, have been emperor of China, instead of being beaten by the king of Sweden at Narva, when the latter was not one to fix in number. As their strength and their grandeur, fo their navigation, commerce, and husbandry, is imperfect and impotent, compared to the fame things in Europe. Alfo, in their knowledge, their learning, their skill in the sciences; they have globes and fpheres, and a smatch of the knowledge of the mathematics; but when you come to enquire into their knowledge, how short-fighted are the wisest of their students! They know nothing of the motion of the heavenly bodies; and fo grossly, abfurdly ignorant, that when the fun is eclipfed, they think it is a great dragon has affaulted and run away with it; and they fall a clattering with all the drums and kettles in the country, to fright the monfter away, juft as we do to hive a fwarm of bees.

As this is the only excurfion of this kind which I have made in all the account I have given of my travels, fo I fhall make no more defcriptions of countries and people: it is none of my business, or any part of my design; but giving an account of my own adventures, through a life of infinite wanderings, and a long variety of changes, which, perhaps,

few have heard the like of, I fhall fay nothing of the mighty places, defart countries, and numerous people, I have yet to pafs through, more than relates to my own ftory, and which my concern among them will make neceffary. I was now, as near as I can compute, in the heart of China, about the latitude of thirty degrees north of the line, for we were returned from Nanquin; I had indeed a mind to fee the city of Pekin, which I had heard fo much of, and father Simon importuned me daily to do it: at length his time of going away being fet, and the other miffionary, who was to go with him, being arrived from Macao, it was neceffary that we should refolve either to go, or not to go; fo I referred him to my partner, and left it wholly to his choice; who, at length, refolved it in the affirmative; and we prepared for our journey. We fet out with very good advantage, as to finding the way; for we got leave to travel in the retinue of one of their mandarins, a kind of viceroy, or principal magiftrate, in the province where they refide, and who take great state upon them, travelling with great attendance, and with great homage from the people, who are fometimes greatly impoverished by them, becaufe all the countries they pass through are obliged to furnish provifions for them, and all their attendants. That which I particularly obferved, as to our travelling with his baggage, was this; that though we received fufficient provifions, both for ourselves and our horses, from the country, as belonging to the mandarin, yet we were obliged to pay for every thing we had after the market-price of the country, and the mandarin's fteward, or commiffary of the provifions, collected