MISCELLANIES. 



589 



fiions attained by Asiatics, desti- 

 tute of the assistance geometry 

 lends to geography. The large 

 maps of China translated by Mar- 

 tini are two centuries anterior to 

 the labours of the Jesuit mathe- 

 maticians ; it is, however, re- 

 markable that the survey by the 

 latter has not occasioned any 

 material reform in the relative 

 position of the cities of this great 

 empire. It would certainly be 

 very useful to possess the parti- 

 cular surveys of the coast pre- 

 served in the archives of every 

 maritime province in China. It 

 will be long before Europeans 

 obtain permission to undertake a 

 work that may be substituted for 

 them, and if some parts of it 

 were executed privately, the 

 local knowledge which the na- 

 tives alone are qualified for col- 

 lecting could not be dispensed 

 with. 



The Japanese, a people who, 

 though faithful disciples of the 

 Chinese, show less prejudice 

 against opinions not produced in 

 their own minds, by adopting 

 the methods of graduation iind 

 projection from the European 

 charts, appear to have acquired 

 peculiar claims to our attention 

 when they appiy these valuable 

 instruments to the representation 

 of their own or of neighbouring 

 countries. The large map of 

 Japan, forty nine inches and a 

 half by thirty one, compiled in 

 this manner, and reprinted with 

 corrections, in ITW, is a magni- 

 ficent geographical monument. 

 Mr. Titsingh, formerly ambas- 

 sador to China, brought several 

 copies of this chart from Nan- 

 gasaki, and it is probably from 

 this excellent model Mr. Arrow- 



smith has traced the coasts of 

 Japan in his map of Asia. It is 

 to be regretted that by inability 

 to read the Japanese or Chinese 

 names in the original, this estim- 

 able geographer has been obliged 

 to limit himself to repeating the 

 divisions, and the few details 

 marked by Kaimpfer. I have a 

 copy on which Mr. Titsingh has 

 written references to a table of 

 Japanese names he had without 

 doubt compiled, and that should 

 be found attached to some other 

 copy of the same map. It would 

 be vexatious for this important 

 work, as well as the other histo- 

 rical and geographical works 

 death obliged Mr. Titsingh to 

 leave imperfect, to remain in 

 oblivion, without benefiting the 

 public, or increasing the author's 

 glory. 



Another work also brought to 

 Europe by Mr. Titsingh, and 

 come into my possession since 

 his death, is a description of the 

 countries near Japan, published 

 at Yedo in 1785. This descrip- 

 tion is in Japanese,* accompa- 

 nied by five charts, less beautiful 

 indeed than the large map I have 

 mentioned, but yet designed with 

 much care, and submitted to gra- 

 duation. It contains the follow- 

 ing subjects. 



1st. The general chart of the 

 countries near Japan, representing 

 Kamtschatka, the land of Yeso, 

 the island Tchoka, the coast of 

 Tartary, the peninsula of Corea, 

 the coast of China to Formosa, 



* A translation of this work in 

 Dutch, should, I think, be found 

 among the manuscripts left by Mr. 

 Titsingh, and deserves to be pub- 

 lished whole. 



the 



