countrymen, in drefs, in features, and complexion, his timidity
might almoft be faid to affume the appearance o f terror. He foon,
however, gained confidence, and became communicative. H e
affured us that theifland on which w e w ere, and o f which he was a
native, was the beft in the whole groupe, and the moil populous,
except that o f Chu-fan ; the number o f its inhabitants heing ten
thoufand fouls. It was difcovered, however, before we had
been long in the country, that when a Chinefe made ufe o f the
monofyliable van, which in his language fignifies ten. thoufand,
he was not to be underftood as fpeaking o f a determinate or
precife number, but only as making ufe o f a term that implied
amplification, A ftate criminal, for example, is generally condemned
to undergo the puniihment o f being cut into ten thoufa
n d pieces ; the great wall o f China is called the van-lee-tchjn,
or wall o f ten thoufand lee, or three thoufand Engjiih miles, a
length juft double to that which the mod authentic accounts
have given o f it. But when he means to inform any one that ,
the emperor has ten thoufand large veffels, for the purpofe o f
collecting taxes paid in kind, on the grand canal, inftead o f the
monofyllable van he invariably makes ufe o f the exprefiion nine
thoufand nine hundred and ninety-nine, as conveying a fixed
and definite number, and, in this cafe, he will be underftood'
to fignify literally ten thoufand. In this manner, I fuppofe,
we were to underftand the population o f the ifland Lo-ang.
A t the fight o f our large ftiips, fo different in their appearance
from any o f thofe belonging to the Chinefe, a vaft
number of boats, iffuing from every creek and cove, prefently
crowded together, in fueh a manner, and with fo little management,