hazardous enterprize. Some o f thefe ihips are not lefs than a
tboufand tons burden, and contain half that number o f fouls,
befides, the paffengers that leave their country, in the hope o f
making^their fortunes in Batavia and Manilla. A ihip is fel-
dom the concern o f one man. Sometimes forty or fifty, or
even a hundred different merchants purchafe a veffel, and
divide her into as many compartments as there are partners,
fo that each knows his own particular place in the ihip, which
he is at liberty to fit up and to fecure as he pleafes. He ihips
his goods, and accompanies them in perfon, or fends his fon,
or a near relation, for it rarely happens that they will truft
each other with property, where no family connexion exifts.
Each fleeping-place is juft the length and breadth o f a man,
and contains only a fmall mat, fpread on the floor, and a pillow.
Behind the compafs is generally placed a fmall temple,
with an altar, on which is continually kept burning a fpiral
taper compofed o f wax, tallow and fandal-wood dull. This
holy flame anfwers a double purpofe; for while the burning
of it fulfils an aft o f piety, its twelve equal divifions ferve
to meafure the twelve portions o f time, which make up a
complete day. It ihould feem that the fuperftitious notions
inculcated in the people have led them to fuppofe, that fome
particular influence refides in the compafs; for, on every appearance
o f a change in the weather, they burn incenfe before
the magnetic needle.
The Ioffes occafioned among the ihips that were employed
to tranfport the taxes paid in kind from the ports o f the
fouthern and middle provinces to the northern capital, were fo
I great,
great, at the time o f the Tartar Conqueft, in the thirteenth
century,'that the fucceffors o f Gengis-Khan were induced to
open a direft communication between the two extremes o f the
empire, by means o f the rivers and canals ; an undertaking
that refleas the higheft credit on the Mongul Tartars, and
which cannot fail to be regarded with admiration, as long as it
fhall continue to exift. T he Cbinefe, however, fay, that the
Tartars only repaired the old works that were fallen into
decay.
Six centuries previous to this period, or about the feventh
century o f the Chriftian sera, the Chinefe merchants, according
to the opinion o f the learned and ingenious Mr. de Guignes,
carried on a trade to the weft coaft o f North America. That,
at this time, the promontory o f Kamikatka was known to
them under the name o f Ta-Shan, many o f their books of
travels fufficiently te ftify ; but their journies thither were generally
made by land. One o f the miffionaries affured me that,
in a collection o f travels to Kamikatka, b y various Chinefe,
the names o f the feveral Tartar tribes, their manners, cuftoms,
and characters, the geographical defcriptions o f lakes, rivers,
and mountains, were too clearly and diftinCtly noted to be mif-
taken.. It is, however, extremely probable that, as furs and
peltry were always in great demand, they might alfo have fome
communication with the laid promontory from the flies o f
jeffo, to which they were known to trade with their ihippmg;
and which are only a very ihort diftance from it. Mr. de
Guignes, in fuppott o f his opinion, quotes the journal o f a
Bonze, as the priefts o f Fo have ufually been called, who
G 2 failed