The continuation of the Grand Canal, from the Yellow
River to the Tang- tfe-kiang, was conftrudted upon the fame
winter. The inconveniencies they fuffered on this occafion are fucli as can fcarcely
be conceived to have happened in a civilized country. The perufal o f the manu»
fcript journal I have elfewhere noticed conveyed to my mind the idea of a country
dreary and defolate, and o f a people indigent and diftrefted j without humanity, and
without hoipitality. They travelled in little bamboo chairs, carried by four men,
who were generally io weak and tottering that they could not go through the day's
journey, but were obliged, frequently, in the middle o f the night, to halt in an open
uninhabited part of the country, where not a hovel o f any defcription was to be met
with to ihelter them from the inclemency o f the weather. And it moil commonly
happened, that the lodgings appointed for their reception, at the different ftages, were
in fuch a miferable condition, admitting on every fide the wind» rain, or fpow, that
they generally preferred taking a little reft in their bamboo chairs. They were furprized
to find fo few cities, towns, or villages in their route, and not lefs furprized at the
ruinous condition in which thefe few appeared to be. Near the capital a whole city exhibited
only a mafs o f ruins. In many places they found the country under water»
and the ?nud hovels completely melted down. Sometimes they paffed extenfive
waftes, where not a trace was vifible o f any kind o f cultivation, nor a fingle dwelling
occurxed.in the diftance of eight or ten Engliih miles. And it was not before they
had crofted the Yellow River that they perceived the marks .of wheel-carriages imprinted
on the roads, which were fo little travelled upon that they could witK difficulty
be traced. Here they met old men and young wos&en travelling in wheelbarrows
j and litters carried by affes, one being fixed between the poles before, and
one behind. The rivers had no bridges over them ; and fuch as were too deep to
be forded, they were under the neceffity o f crofting on rafts of bamboo. In fiiort,
before they arrived a t ' the capital, the fatigue and hardihips they had undergone
confiderably impaired their health, and the condition o f their .clothing was fuch as
to excite the compaflion o f the mandarines, who made them a prefent o f twenty
iheep-lkin jackets, drefled with the wool upon them ; which, like the Hottentots,
they wore inwards. One o f thefe gentlemen afiured me, that having fatisfied his
curiofity, no earthly confideration fihould tempt him to undertake a fecond journey
by land to the capital; for that he believed the whole world cOuId not furniih a like
pifture of defolation and mifery. What a contrail is here exhibited to the eafe and
convenience with which our journey was made ! But the whole treatment o f the
Dutch embaffy feems to have been proportioned to the degree o f importance which
the Chinefe attached to the political condition o f this nation.
principles
principles as that part between the Yellow River and the Ett-ho.
The country being level and abounding with lakes and marlhy
grounds, it was carried upon a mound o f earth kept together by.
retaining walls o f ftone the whole diftance, which is about ninety
miles, being in parts not lefs than twenty feet above the general
level o f the country; and the fheet o f water it contained was
two hundred feet in width, running fometimes at the rate o f
three miles an hour. Canals o f communication fupplied it from
the weftward ; and the fuperfluous water was let off upon the
low marihes. The tops o f the walls o f Pao-yng-Jhien were
juft on a level with the furface o f the water in the canal, fo
that if the bank oppofite to it were to burft, the whole city muft
inevitably be inundated. V ery little cultivation appeared in this
low marihy country, but abundance o f towns and villages, the
inhabitants o f which fubfifted by fifhing. A prodigious extent
o f low country on each fide o f the Yellow river, perhaps not
much lefs than the furface o f all England, is liable to inundations.
The Chinefe fay, the overflowing o f this river has been
more fatal to the country than war, peftilence, or famine. The
Emperor Kaung-Jhee, in order to diftrefs a rebel in the province
o f Honan, ordered a bank to be broken down behind a city he
had got poffeffion o f ; but the inundation was fo great, that not
only the rebel forces were deftroyed, but almoft half a million
o f people were completely fwept away ; and among thefe were
feveral European miffionaries. Vaft fums o f money are expended
in confining this river within its banks. The fame Emperor
in his laft will declares, that the fums o f money iffued
annually from the Imperial treafury for the embankments to
prevent inundations, were never lefs, during his whole reign,
3 u 2 than