i The military drefs varies in almoft every province. Sometimes
they wore blue jackets edged with red, or brown with
y e llow ; fome had long pantaloons; fome breeches, with
ftockings o f cotton d o th ; others petticoats and boots. The
bowmen had long loofe gowns o f blue cotton, Huffed with a
kind o f felt or wadding, ftudded all over with brafs knobs,
and bound round the middle with a girdle, from which the
fabre was appended behind, hanging with the point forwards,
and on the right, not the left, fide as in Europe. On the head
they wore a helmet o f leather, or gilt pafteboard, with flaps on
each fide that covered the cheeks and fell upon the ihoulder.
The upper part was exactly like an inverted funnel, with a long
pipe terminating in a kind o f fpear, on which was bound a
tuft o f long hair dyed erf a fcarlet colour.
T he greateft number we faw at any one place might be front
two to three thoufand, which were drawn up in a fingle line
along the bank o f a river ; and as they flood with an interval
between each equal to the width o f a man, they formed a very
confiderable line in length. Every fifth man had a fmall triangular
flag, and every tenth a large one; the ftaffs that fupported
them were fixed to the jacket behind the fhoulders. Some o f
the flags were green, edged with red ; others blue, edged with
yellow. I never faw the Chinefe troops drawn out in any
other way than a fingle line in fro n t; not even two deep.
The Tartar cavalry appear to be remarkably fwift, and to
charge with great impetuofity ; but the horfes are fo fmall and
are broken into fo quick and fhort a ftroke that the eye is
deceived. Their real fpeed, in fa£t, is very moderate. Their
i faddles
laddies are remarkably foft, and raifed fo high both before and
behind, that the rider cannot eafily be thrown out o f his feat.
The ftirrups are fo ihort that the knee is almoft as high as the
chin. T h e y have very little artillery, and that little is as
wretched as it well can be. I fufpe£t it is borrowed from
the Portuguese, as the matchlock moft unqueftionably has
been.
When our fellow-travellerVan-ta-gin was afked the reafon o f
their pretending to give a preference to the chimfy matchlocks
over the firelocks now in pfe among European troops, he
replied, it had been found, after a fevere engagement in Thibet,
that the matchlocks had done much more execution
than the firelocks. It is difficult to combat prejudices; but it
was not very difficult to convince Van that the men might probably
have been quite as much in fault as the mufquets; and
that the fuperior fteadinefs o f the fire from the matchlocks
might poffibly be owing to their being fixed, by an iron fork,
into the ground. The miffionaries have affigned a very abfurd
reafon for firelocks not being ufed in Ch ina ; they fay the damp-
nefs o f the air is apt to make the flint mifs fire. With equal
propriety might thefe gentlemen have aiferted that flints would,
not emit fire in Italy. Their want o f good iron and fteel to
manufacture }ocks, or the bad quality o f their gunpowder, might
perhaps be offered as better reafons; and as the beft o f all their
want o f courage and coolnefs to make ufe o f them with that
fteadinefs which is required to produce the effeCts o f which
they are capable. Their favourite inftrument - is the bow,
which, like all other miffile weapons, requires lefs courage to
. .. : ,3 g 2 manage,