exift as a, fcience, although feveral branches are in common
pra<ftice as chemical arts. Without poffeffing any theory concerning
the affinities o f bodies, or attra&ions o f cohefion or
aggregation, they clarify the muddy waters o f their rivers, for
immediate ufe, by ftirring them round with a piece o f alum in
a hollow bamboo; a fimple operation which, experience has
taught them, will caufe the clayey particles to fall to the bottom:
and having afcertained the fa cl, they have given them-
fblves no further trouble to explain the phenomenon.
In like manner, they are well acquainted with the effe£t o f
fleam upon certain bodies that are immerfed in it ; that its heat
is much greater than that o f boiling water. Yet, although for
ages they have been in the conftant practice o f confining it in
clofe veffels, fomething like Papin s digefter, for the puTpofe o f
foftening horn, from which their thin, tranfparent, and capacious
lanterns are made, they feem not to have difcovered its
extraordinary force when thus pent u p ; at leaft, they have
never thought o f applying that power to purpofes which animal
ftrength has not been adequate to effeft. T h e y extraft from
the three kingdoms o f nature the mod brilliant colours, which
they have alfo acquired the art o f preparing and mixing, fo
stS to produce every intermediate tin t; and, in their richeft and
riioffi lively hues, they communicate thefe colours to filks, cottons,
and paper; yet they have no theory on colours.
T h e procefs o f fmelting iron from the ore is well known to
them j and their caft ware o f this metal is remarkably thin and
light. T h e y have alfo an imperfect knowledge o f converting
I it
It into fteel, but their manufa&ures o f this article are not to be
motioned with thofe o f Europe, I will not fay o f England,
becaufe it fiands unrivalled in this and -indeed almoft every
other branch o f the arts. Though their caft-iron wares appear
light and neat, and are annealed in heated ovens, to take off
fomewhat o f their brktlenefs, yet their procefs o f rendering
caft iron malleable is imperfect, and all their manufactures o f
wrought iron are confequently o f a very inferior kind, not
only in workmanftiip but alfo in the quality o f the metal.
In moft o f the other metals their manufactures are above mediocrity.
Their trinkets o f filver fillagree are extremely neat,
and their articles o f tootanague are highly finiffied.
\ With the ufe o f cannon they pretend to have been long
acquainted. When Gengis-Khan entered China, in the thirteenth
century, artillery and bombs and mines are faid to have
been employed on both fides; yet when the city o f Macao, in
the year 1621, made a prefent to the Emperor o f three pieces
o f artillery, it was found neceffary to fend along with them
three men to inftruxft the Chinefe how to ufe them. The introduction
o f matchlocks, I am inclined to think, is o f no
very ancient date; they wear no marks o f originality about
them, like other articles o f Chinefe invention; on the contrary,
they are exacft models o f the old Portugueze matchlock;
and differ in nothing from thofe which ftiU continue to be
carried, as an article o f commerce, by this nation to Cochin-
china. There can be no doubt, however, o f the ufe o f gunpowder
being known to the Chinefe long before the Chriftian
era.. ... 33 , , . e safi |g .....
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