abfeonded, fo that, in addition to the noife o f the gongs and
the trumpets and crackers, our ears were frequently aifailed by
the cries and lamentations o f perfons under the puniihment o f
the bamboo or the whip, for claiming their exemption from
joining the yachts and a ¿ting as trackers. When the groupe
that had been colleded for this purpofe was brought together
in the morning, it was impoffible not to regard it with an
eye o f pity. Moft o f them confided o f infirm and decrepit old
men, and the reft were fuch lank, fickly-lqoking, ill-clothed
creatures, that the whole groupe appeared to be much fitter for
an hofpital than for performing any kind o f labour. Our companions
pretended to fay that every farmer, who rented lauds
upon the public rivers or canals, was obliged, by the tenure on
which he held his leafc, to furniih fuch a number o f men to
track the veflels in the fervice o f government whenever it might
be required; but that, on the prefent being an extraordinary
occafion, they had refolved to pay them, as they called it, in a
handfome manner, which was at the rate o f fomething lefs than
feven-pence a-day, without any allowance for returning to their
homes ; a price for labour which bore no fort o f proportion to
that o f the neceffaries o f life ; and it was even doubtful if this
pittance was ever paid to them.
Having cleared the fleet o f fhipping that was aflembled at
this place, a favourable breeze relieved our invalids and
rendered their flender exertions unneceflary for the greater part
o f the day, in the courfe o f which we entered the province o f
Sban-tung. In this province nothing w orthy o f notice occurred
until the 22d, when we quitted the Eu-ho and turning towards
the
the fouth entered the grand canal, out o f which we obferved
a gentle current flowing into the river. A t this point o f junction
the pagoda o f Lin-tjin, an odiagonal pyramid, was ere&ed,
perhaps as a monument o f this great and ufeful undertaking,
which, however, in its prefent ftate, apparently had not flood
many ages. In the hope o f finding within it fome infcription,
that might point out its defignation, we mounted with fome-
difficulty upon the firft o f its nine ftages or roofs (for the little
door on a level with the ground was walled up with bricks)
but it contained only the bare walls,. not even a ftair-cafe remained
nor any poffible means o f afcending to the top, and
the lower part was choaked up with rubbifh. Thefe pagodas
(or as the Chinefe name them 2a) that fo frequently occur in
the country, feem to be intended only as embellifhments to
particular grounds, or objedls to terminate viftas or profpeds,
Sometimes, it is true, they appear as appendages to temples, but
are never appropriated for the purpofes .of facred worfhip.
Whatever their intention might have been, it fhould feem the
rage o f building them no longer exifts, not one o f a late erection
having appeared in the whole country, and more than two-
thirds o f thofe we faw. being in ruins- ■
A t the junction o f the canal with the Eu-ho there was no
lock nor flood-gate; the gentle current o f the former was interrupted
only from place to place; by loofe planks let down
in grooves cut in ftone piers, Thefe dams feldom occafioned
the difference o f a foot in the level o f the water; and at each
was a guard-houfe with double the ufual number o f foldiers
ftationed, to alfift in drawing up or letting down the planks,
asf