950 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1804. 



distinguished himself as the author of 

 travels into the interior of Southern 

 Africa, and will lose none of the 

 reputation he has there acquired by 

 the present publication. His situa- 

 tion as private secretary to the em- 

 bassador, gave him an opportunity 

 of acquiring much and accurate in- 

 formation, and it is but justice to 

 ?iim to add, that he seems to have 

 been eminently endowed with all 

 the varied talents which would en- 

 able him not only to increase his 

 own fund of intellectual acquirement 

 by this advantage, but to communi- 

 cate his discoveries to the world, 

 with that perspicuous and scientific 

 arrangement, which must secure to 

 him the applause of the scholar, 

 the citizen of the world, and the 

 philosopher. 



Mr. Barrow professes in his first 

 chapter, not to give the history of 

 the embassy, which has already been 

 amply detailed by sir George Staun- 

 ton, but to lay before his readers 

 such an account of the morals and 

 manners of the inhabitants, and 

 such facis with relation to the state 

 of the sciences, arts, and agricul- 

 ture of the country, as may enable 

 the reader justly to appreciate M'hat 

 rank belongs to China in the scale 

 of the civilized nations of the world ; 

 a point of considerable difficulty, 

 and on which the opinions of man. 

 kind have continued to fluctuate 

 for more than two centuries. " By 

 some, the Chinese have been extolled 

 as the oldest and wisest, as the most 

 learned and ingenious of nations; 

 whilst others have derided their an- 

 tiquity, condemned their govern- 

 ment as abominable, and arraigned 

 their manners as inhuman ; without 

 allowing them an clement of science, 



or a single art for which they hare 

 not been indebted to some more an- 

 cient and civilized race of men."* 



Our traveller does not, however, 

 lose sight of the incidents which be- 

 long to the progress of the embassy. 

 In his preliminary chapter, he de- 

 tails the mistaken notions which 

 prevailed with respeft to its origin, 

 condiift, and success : contrasts it 

 with the fate of the subsequent 

 Dutch mission to that country : re- 

 futes the mis-statements of a French 

 missionary, with respedl to the for- 

 mer : accounts for the different 

 treatment of the t^o embassies : 

 and gives a chronological catalogue 

 of the different European embassies 

 that have been sent to China within 

 the last two centuries. 



In the course of the following 

 chapters, Mr. Barrow takes occasion 

 to intermingle narrative, dissertation, 

 and anecdote, as they occur, or are 

 suggested by the nature of the differ- 

 ent stages of the embassy, in a singu- 

 larly entertaining and happy manner. 

 Thus, in the second chapter, which 

 professes to give the observations 

 and transactions in the navigation 

 of the yellow sea, and the passage 

 uptlie Pei-ho, or yellow river, the 

 system of Chinese navigation, their 

 compass, their foreign voyages, and 

 present state of commerce, naturally 

 suggest themselves to the research 

 of our author, and are investigated 

 in a luminous and masterly manner. 

 Some conjectures are then hazarded ■ 

 as to the connection of the Malays 

 and Hottentots with the Chinese, 

 and the remarkable coincidencies 

 between the latter and the natives 

 of Sumatra. The events which take 

 place on entering the Pei-ho ; the 

 appearance of the country, and of 



* Sir William Jones. 



the 



