M a n il l a .
N a t io n s
AD JA C ENT TO
t h e C h in e s e
E m p ir e .
A va, T h ib e t .
from the magazines formed there, they proceed on the eaft fide
o f Formofa, and to Manilla, where they trade under the name of
Cbinefe, and by this means acquire fuch quantities of Spanijb
filver; they likewife get abundance of ducats in Japan, exchanging
their ingots for fpecie; with this filver they pay for
great part o f the manufadfures o f China.
T h e y do not purchafe any European goods in China, yet
Korea abounds with thofe o f our diftant world ; thefe are procured
in the Phillippines, or at Batavia ; fpices, and feveral other
infular commodities, are bought in the fame market; from that
of Manilla, they bring amethyfts and emeralds; the laft certainly
from the mines o f Atacames, Manta, and Santa-Fe *, in
Spanijh America. Their intercourfe with the Oriental iflands
muft have been long, for Mr. Campbell obferves, that the people
who werefo cruelly murdered by the. Dutch, in Amboina in the
year 1622, for the pretended confpiracy with the Engli/h, were
Koreans, and not (as they are called) Japanefe. But there is
no limiting the period o f trade among thefe diftant nations,
forward as we have Ihewn them to be in the arts o f navigation.
I s h a l l c o n c lu d e t h e a c c o u n t o f th i s f in g u l a r c o u n t r y , w i t h
a v i e w o f t h e a d ja c e n t n a t io n s , w h e t h e r d e p e n d e n t o r in d e p e n d
e n t o n t h i s m i g h t y em p i r e .
. T h e .k in g d o m s o n t h e f o u t h a r e Fonquin a n d Laos-, a fm a l l
p a r t o f Pegu a d v a n c e s a l i t t l e in to . t h e f o u t h -w e f t , a n d t h e
n o r t h e r n e n d o f Ava b o r d e r s o n t h e lo w e r p a r t o f t h e p r o v in c e
o f Tunan. . Fhibet is a d ja c e n t to t h e p r o v in c e s o f Sechwen, a .g r e a t
* UUoa,vol. i. 81. 506;!
part
part of Sbenfi, and the upper part o f the laft is bounded by Hoko-
nor Far tars; in their country is a large lake of the fame name, in
.Lat. 35. 36. Thefe Far tars have among them a coarfe woollen
manufaiture, which they difpofe of to the Cbinefe. Inacceffible
and rude mountains lie to the fouth o f that people, inhabited by
a moft favage race, fo as to cut them off from all intercourfe with
the ftill more iouthern countries.
L e t me here introduce fome account of the celebrated drug,
the Rhubarb, of which Fartary and China. is the feat. The
rhubarb o f all the medicinal kinds is found in great abundance
in feveral parts of the Cbinefe dominions, and even in China itfelf.
In the province o f Se-chwen, in the mountains of Snow, in
Shen-fi, where troops o f camels are loaden with nets full of rhubarb
in the months o f OBober and November: it abounds alfo in
Fanguth about the lake Koko-nor, Little Bucharia, and all the
chain o f hills from lake Baikal weftward. It grows fouth as far
as Quang-tung; but the fouthern rhubarb is little efteemed, yet
much of it comes to Europe by fea ; I may add, that out of the
Cbinefe empire it is found in Fhibet.
R h u b a r b was known to Diofcorides, who lived in the reign of
Nero, as a valuable purge ; and Paulus ALpinetus, a phyfician of
the feventh century, prefcribed it for the fame purpofe. It was
brought from the remoteft parts of the ancient Scythia, and the
ufe was continued through all fucceeding ages, without any certain
knowledge of the plant to which the roots belonged. Marco
Polo obferved it on the rocky mountain near Suchur, in the province
o f Fanguth, and fays it was fent to all parts of the earth;
for it found its way to Europe from thofe diftant regions even in
that early time.
Z a Gerard
Of R h u b a r b .