JoERWOE.
T o n g - t c h o o
Fo O.
pire, and are filled with palaces and pagodas. Nieuboff Imagines
this city to have been the Quinfay o f Marco Polo * which he fays
“ was like Venice built on a morafs.” The emperor, he informs
us, had a magnificent palace here; and adds, that no lefs than fix
hundred thoufand families were to be found in this vait place.
What is lingular, the Nejlorians had a church in the c ity ; a
proof that Chriftianity was tolerated in this empire in the thirteenth
century.
N e a r Joerwoe Mr. Nieuhoffwent along another canal, made
in the river Cbaolcang; he paired by Facbeeny Sanfianfwey, and
F’ong-teboo-foo. At the diitance o f four miles from Peking the navigation
ends. The reafon a Signed for its not being brought to
the walls of the city is, that multitudes o f the poor entirely fuh-
lift by the carriage o f goods and the necefiaries o f life into the
capital. At this place the Dutch embafladors were met by a
magnificent cavalcade o f mandarines and people o f rank, fent by
the emperor to do them honor; and they entered the city in a
molt pompous proceflion. After being treated with the utmoft
external refpedt, they were difmifled without pbtaining the end
o f their embafly.
I s h a l l not attempt the defcription o f this magnificent city,,
but will content myfelf with fpeaking to the eyes by the plates
o f Mr. Nieuhoff, which 1 believe reprefent with great fidelity the
various cities, pagodas, and other buildings he paffed by.; in
thefe may be feen the different forms o f houfes, and public
edifices. The fplendor o f the emperor’s palace,, and a general
view of the city, are ihewn in the 158th page. The pagodas,
* Bergeron’ s Coll, p. j i 6.
the
C o a s t s o f
C h in a ;
the idols, in various other pages, and the culloms and dreffes o f
the inhabitants are molt frequently exhibited. In refpedt to the
gardens o f the Cbinefe, thofe of the private men are mentioned
in the fecond volume o f the Cbinefe Mifcellany, and thofe of the
emperor molt admirably defcribed by Le Frere Attiret, painter
to the reigning monarch in 1743.
I. n o w return to the latitude o f Canton, and purfue the topography
o f the coafts. By reafon o f the great rigor with which
the Cbinefe exercife their prohibition of trading in any o f their
ports except Canton, our knowlege o f the ihores or harbors is
very confined. We ihall have very little to fay o f an extent of
between two and three thoufand miles of coaft, following the
bending of the outline; the whole o f which appears ftrangely
rugged, with promontories, divided by bays, harbors, and
creeks.
T h e Padrone iiles, and thofe o f -Lema before the bay of Canton,
are lofty, rude, and broken; that of the Affes ears takes its
name from two hills that alfume the form. Piedra Biancas, farther
to the north, is a very high rock o f a white color; both the
laft are marks to navigators.
Foo-tchien, the province adjoining toUgang-tung on the north, F o o - t c h i e n .
is a mountanous country, but the mountains, by the induitry o f
the inhabitants, are formed into amphitheatres, with terraces,
which often extend feveral miles in length, and a feries o f
twenty or thirty, one above the other. The account given by
Du Halde * is fo curi«us as to merit the attention o f our readers.
Thefe are planted with rice, which is nouriihed by water forced
L a d e o n e I s l e i ,
* Vol. i. 273.
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