to iron ; and independent of the backwardness of the Chinese
to shew their inventions to strangers, we may easily imagine
that the Chinese mariner was equally ignorant of the nature and
principles of magnetism with the Arab. Besides, it can scarcely
be supposed that the proud and haughty Arabian, pluming
himself in his superior skill in astronomical science and, by
the use of his charts and his astrolabe, able to find his way
through the pathless ocean, would regard with any other
feeling than that of disdain the little insignificant rusty
needle of the Chinese, swinging on its pivot, and surrounded
with circles, signs, and hieroglyphics; and that in all probability
he would consider it only as a part of the religious
lumber which a foolish superstition had rendered sacred, and
with which his little cabin is generally encumbered.
That the use of the magnetic needle among the Chinese is
of a very remote antiquity, I have had occasion to notice
elsewhere; and I again repeat, what I consider to be alone
sufficient to establish the fact, that -if any other argument
were wanting to prove the originality of the magnetic needle,
as used in China for the purposes of navigation, the circumstance
of their having engrafted on it their most ancient and
favourite system of mythology, their constellations and cycles
and, in short, the abstract of the elements of their judicial
astrology, goes a great way towards settling that point; that
a people so remarkably tenacious of ancient custom, and
thinking so very meanly of all other nations, would never
have submitted to incorporate their rooted superstitions, by
engraving on its margin the sacred and mystical characters of
Fo-shee, with an instrument of recent introduction and barbarian
invention.
I have been induced to say thus much on the subject of
the Chinese compass, from knowing that an objection has
been urged against some former remarks I had occasion to
offer with the view of proving, if not its originality, at least
its great antiquity. This,objection was taken on the ground,
that if the Chinese had been in the constant use of such
an instrument in or before the ninth century, when th»y
carried on an extensive trade with the gulph of Persia, it
must necessarily have been known to, and if known would
certainly have been adopted by, the Arabian navigators;
whereas these people were entirely ignorant, as before observed,
of the polarity of the magnetic needle, when Vasco
de Gama first led the way into the Oriental Ocean.
I have only farther to observe with regard to the importance
of the commerce with Cochinchina, that if the Chinese,
before being chased by Europeans from the ocean, and before
the calamitous state of this country occasioned by rebellion
and usurpation, could employ in it many hundreds of then-
largest junks, there is every reason to suppose that Great
Britain, by proper address and management, might succeed
in reviving and conducting this extensive commercial intercourse
which anciently subsisted between the two countries,
and which, under the present vigorous government of Cochin-
china, could not fail to rise to as high a pitch as it ever
reached at any former period.