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“ magnificent yacht ready to receive us, and a number o f
“ fmaller ones for the attendants, elegantly fitted up and
“ adorned with numberlefs vanes, pendants, and ftreamers,
The ihores o f the lake have all the varieties o f ihape, which
“ the fancy o f a painter can delineate, and are fo indented with
“ bays, or broken with projections, that almoft every ftroke o f
V the oar brought a new and unexpected objedt to our view.
“ Nor are iflands wanting, but they are fituated only where
“ they fliould be, each in its proper place and having its
I proper charadter: one marked by a pagoda, or other
“ building; one quite deftitute o f ornament; fome fmooth
“ and le v e l; fome fteep and uneven ; and others frowning
“ with wood, or fmiling with culture. Where any things
“ particularly interefting were to be feen we difembarked, from
“ time to time, to vifit them, and I dare fay that, in the
“ courfe o f our voyage, we flopped at forty or fifty diffe-
“ rent palaces or pavilions. Thefe are all furniihed in the
" richeft manner with pidtures o f the Emperor’s huntings
“ and progrefies, with ftupendous vafes o f jafper and agate;
& with the fineft porcelain and Japan, and with every kind
“ o f European toys and ftng-foiigs; with fpheres, orreries,
“ clocks, and mufical automatons , o f fuch exquifite work-
“ manihip, and in fuch profufion, Lthat our prefents muft
“ lhrink from the coi)ip?rifon,;m i.-tid e tba r dimimjbedbeads-,
“ and yet I am told, that the fine things we have feen are far
“ exceeded by others o f the fame kind in the apartments o f the
“ 1 ladies, and in the European repofitory at Yuen-min-yuen. In
“ every one o f the pavilions was a throne, or imperial ftate,
“ and a Eu-jou, or fymbol o f peace and prolperity, placed at