E x t e n t .
^Boundaries.
Original Population.
Progreffivc
Geography.
China proper extends from the great wall in ’the north to the Chi-
•nèfe fea in the loath, about 1140 geographical, or 1330 Britifh miles'.
The breadth from the fhores of the Pacific to the frontiers of Tibet may
■ be -computed at 884 geographical, or nearly 1030 Britifh miles.. In
fquare miles the contents have-beennftimated at 1,297,999, and in acres
at 830,7!9,360.* -On tire eaft-and t i l t h the'.boundaries are maritime,
and to the north they ape marked by the-great wall and the defart of
Shamo; the confines with Tibet on the weft féem to be chiefly indicated
by an ideal -line, though occafionally more ftrongly_marked by
/mountains mid rivers : particularly according to D’Anville the river
Talon, which Tails into the Kian-iu, thé country of Sifan lying between
Tibet and China, on the fouth of the Eluts of Kokonor. ■
The population Of China feems wholly aboriginal/ but the form of
the features appears to inaiply intimate affinity with the Tatars, Mon»
guls, and 'Mandfhurs; yet the Chinefe probably cpnftltute' a -fq.urth
grand divifion, not ftri£tly derived from either ,pf thefe barbaric
races.
The progreflive geography of China, as known to the weftern nations,
|s not of ancient date, whether with D’Anville we fappofe the Sinse to
have been in Cochin China, or with Goflellin place them in the-weftem
part of Biaim. The moft ancient external relation which we poflefs ié
that of the two Mahometan travellers in the ninth cêntury, who fur-
prife us with-accounts of barbarifm and canmhalifm little to be expected:
but the Arabs are fo fond of "fables, that implicit credit may be fafely
witheld from feveral paflagee. Tet thefe travellers impart high ideas
concerning the Chinefe empire, and mention Catrfu, fuppofed f©
Canton, as a city of great.trade, while the emperors' refided at Camdan,'
which feems to be the city alfo called Nankin, or the Southern Court, in
contradiftinction from Pekin or the Northern Court. This wide empire.
continued, however, Abfcure to the inhabitants of Europe till the
travels of Marco Polo appeared, in the end of the thirteenth century.
Yet the work of this traveller remained fo unknown that Pópe Pius II,
in his defcription of Afia,3 is contented with the more imperfect account
* Macartney’ s Emb. iii. Appen»
* P. 18-28. Edit. Paris 1534. 'Pius Wrote about 1450.
5 by
by Nicola Conti, a Venetian traveller of his own time who vifited Pr.o,gres-
Cathay.* Haitho the Armenian, who wrote his book on the Tatars o^*iHvT
kfeGut ffid year 1306,'begins with tan account of Cathay f and Öderie óf
Portena-u de-M-ibêd'his, voyage to’ China 1318.4 Our Sir John Mande-
vilie Yifited'China about 1340; and Pègoletti gave ‘ directions for the
route* in- 1335.s But in i?hev following century there feems to havé bed»
n ftra'nge' and unaccountable intermiflkm of irttèrcöhrfe- and refèarch, if
We except the traveil öf Nicola Conti anqvn-taeritihhed | ’and fo periih-
abie Was" the knowledge acquired as to have efoaped even ’4 learned
pontiff. After this relapfeof dairknefs, the rays' of more genuine
and authentic: knowledge gradually eihergéa by - - mb' ’ ’'difée vtery of
Cape' óf Good Hope, and the fubfeqtieht enterprizes (Jf «Ö^ë ’ PöFtu1-
,gliae."y
. The -Ghinefe hiftory is faid to cofn'fnénce,' in sf Béér' arid cèfiftant Hflorfcai
narration, about 2500 years before the birth of Chrift. Thèfouhdefdf ,
the monarchy is F0-H1; but the regular hiftory begins-with Yao.s
The dyfiaffties or families who have fucceffively held the throne amount
to 22, froöi the firft named Hia, ttf the prefent houfe of Tnhg.7' .Yu,
thé firft emperor of the houfe ©f Hia, is faid to have written a book. otï
agriculture, and to have encouraged canals for irrigation ; aiid it is alfo
ufferted that he divided .the empire into nine jproviaces. The ancient .
revolutions of China would little-ifttereft the general reader. Theldys-
U allies, as ufual, generally terminate in fomiè weak or wickeds prince, '
who is dethroned by an able fdbjeót. Sometimes the monarchy is divided
into tbift df the fouth, which is efbeeiried the ruling and fupêri©r
inheritance; and that of the north* The émperoï Tai Tforig/whb
-reigned in the feventh century after Chrift, is regarded as one of the "
. 1 * Cathay had* been'before faintly known to Europeans, from the travels of John.de Plano Car* 1 .
pini 1245 j and of Rubruquis, 1251. The account of the latter in particular is interefting, as he
■ vifited Cathay by tile route of Karakum, the capital of the Mongttl empire, .placed, by jD’Anvilïè
. on the Óngui Muren, but by Fifcher in his hiftory o f Siberia on the ealt fide ,of the river Orchon,
about 150 B...miles to the N. W.
* border’s Difc. in the North, p. 147.
s lb . 150. The original is to be foundün a work entitled Qilla Decima,.e dell« altre gravezsct.
l.ifbona e Lucca, 17 66, 4to.
6 Dn Haldc, iii> 7. Haye, 1756. 410, , 7 Ib, i. 266, & a
I I] glfeateft