In making their falutes, o f which they are not fparing, they
invariably employ three fmall petards, or piftol-barrels rather,
which are ftuck eredt in the ground ; and in firing thefe fmall
pieces the foldiers are fo afraid, that they are difcharged by
a train laid from one to the other. When Captain Pariih
caufed a few rounds to be fired from two field-pieces, which
were among the prefents for the Emperor, in as quick fuc-
ceflion as poffible, the Chinefe officers very coolly obferved,
that their own foldiers could do it juft as well, and perhaps
better. And when Lord Macartney aiked the Ex-viceroy o f
Canton i f he would wiih to fee his guard go through the diffe-t
rent evolutions as pradtifed in Europe, he replied with equal in-*
difference, “ That they could not poffibly be new to him, who
“ had been fo much engaged in the wars on the frontiers o f
“ T a r t a r y t h o u g h the chances are, that he had never before
feen a firelock: with fuch ridiculous affedtation o f fuperiority,
and contempt for other nations, does the unconquerable pride
o f this people infpire them. It feems, indeed, to be laid down
as a general principle, never to be’ caught in the admiration o f
any thing brought among them by foreigners. Whenever a.
man o f rank came to look at the prefents, i f obferved by any
o f us, he would carelefsly glance his eye over them, and affedt
as much indifference as i f he was in the daily habit o f viewing
things o f the fame kind.
A French phyfician, who travelled in China, fays he never
faw an alembic or diftillatory apparatus in the whole country.
The art o f diftiilation, however, is very well known, and hi
common pradtice. Their Sau-tchw, (literally burnt wine), is
an