i6o
S i l k o f P l in y .
P r o v in c e o f
P e - c h e - l i .
T ia n - s in , P o r t
o f P e k in g .
Among the productions o f this province is the famous worm
producing the filk mentioned by Pliny*, which that naturalift,
with other antient writers, believed to have been a vegetable
combed from the leaves and branches o f trees. I vindicate his
opinion fo far as to fay that it was colledled from a plant, but he
was ignorant that it was the produce o f an infeCt. Du Halde t
gives an account of its hiftory, but leaves us in the dark as to
the fpecies of infedt which yielded this kind o f filk. Speaking of
a certain fort of filk manufactured at Tri-nan, a city of this province,
he fays, that the fluffs named Kyen-chew incline to a
greyifh color, which is produced only by the wild worms, re-
fembling caterpillars. Thefe worms fpin their webs on ihrubs
and bullies,' and furniih as great quantities, as the domeftic
worms. This filk is the more eftimable, as it cofts in a manner
nothing, and fo ftrong, that the goods made of it are very
Jailing, and have a tolerable vent every where.
T h e gulph, from Ten-cboo-foo, retires far towards the fouth,
then returns northward, and in Lat. 38” 1 3 ' begins the province
o f Pe-cbe-li, which in Lat. 390 takes a north-eaftern direction,
and on the gulph finifhes this great empire, in Lat. 40“. The
■capital, Peking, is about a hundred miles from the mouth of the
Pei-ho, on which is Tian-Jin, the port of the capital. The river
flows far to the fouth-weft, out of the lake Tay-boo. A canal
joins it about thirty miles from the fea, and receives the veffels
which are to difcharge their ladings near to the imperial refi-
dence. This province was conquered in about 1324 from the
Tartars, by Tay-tfu, the firft emperor o f the dynafty of Myng;
•L ib . vi. c. 17. 4-Vol. i. p. 104:
he
he took the capital, Peking, in one day, ereCted the country into
4 fovereignty, and veiled it in his fourth fon.
T h e empire ends about 150 miles farther, in Lat. 40" 45'. G r e a t W a l l .
Here begins the celebrated wall, completed two hundred and
twenty-one years before Chriji, by the emperor TJing-chi-whung,
to protedl the northern parts o f China from the incurfions of
the Tartars. . It appears firft: in the very fea, on a vaft bulwark,
founded on a number o f ihips, fu,nk by a wonderful weight
of huge ftones, to render immoveable the terminating fuper-
ftrudture. T he wall is all the way from twenty to twenty-five
feet high, generally cafed with brick, and terraffed at top of
a breadth fuilicient for five or fix horfemen to ride a-breaft. It
pafies along the frontiers o f the provinces o f Pe-che-li, Shan-Ji,
and Sben-Ji; is guarded by a feries o f iquare towers or forts, at
proper intervals, o f only twp bow-ihots afunder; and has its
gates often o f a vaft fize, with rooms adjacent, fitted up as places
d'armes, and peculiarly well garrifoned. At no great diftance, in
feveral cities, general officers are polled with confiderable bodies
of troops. The generaliffimo refides at Kan-choo. Many of thefe
cities ar.e the magazines for the articles of commerce brought
from different parts to be tranfported into the various provinces
o f the empire.
T his great protection of China is not uniformly built o f the
fame materials. In fome places the walls, and even the forts, are
of earth. In the diftriCt o f Ning-bya, a few leagues from the city
o f the fame name, the mountains are fo high and precipitous as
to fupply the ,neceffity o f a wall for the fpace o f ten leagues. In
other places it is -carried along vaft and rugged mountains, almoft
- yon . III. Y inaccejfible,