CHINA. 



rrojrr**. OU t Mircfllinui, and particularly by Pliny, who men- 

 * "*** tion* their grntle diipotitums their dislike of foreigner*, 

 and thrir tilk manufacture*, J But not to insist, lhat 

 Pliny's di script ion applici rather more to the 

 tree than the ulk worm, it it to be kept in view, that he 

 proceeds to describe several other nations who dwelt be- 

 yond the Sere* ; a circumitince which could not be cor- 

 tectly affirmed of the Chinee, whose empire it bounded by 

 the ocean on the can. About the year 126 before Christ, 

 the Chinc*e are Mid to have extended their conquest* o 

 far to the wett, at to hare acquired tome knowledge of 

 Perm, f TV Parthian* are said to have been known 

 to the Chinese under the name of Gan-sie ; and to have 

 em an embassy to the Emperor Han-tchang-tte, A. D. 

 $8. Marcus Aurehus sent ambassadors to the Emperor 

 Huon-tcv, A. D. 166. who were called by the Chinese 

 Ta-tsin, the Prople of the West ; and from that period 

 the Romans are said to have had a direct commercial in- 

 tercourse with China, though much interrupted by the 

 hostile measures of the Parthian* and Persians. In 284, 

 the Romans sent ambassadors to the Emperor Tsin-voo- 

 tee ; and, under the reign of Justinian, about the year 

 .530, they first received silk worms from India, by means 

 of two monks. In 567, Kosroe, king of Persia, sent an 

 embassy to the Chinese, to engage them to take part 

 with him against the Turks. In 64-3, the Romans sent 

 another embassy, with presents, to the emperor of China. 

 The Arab*, having subjugated the kingdom of Persia, 

 made their way tu China, besieged and pillaged the city 

 of Canton in 758. In 798, the Caliph Haroun tent am- 

 bassadors to the Chinese emperor, with a view to esta- 

 bhsh a commercial treaty ; while the Romans, at the 

 same time, carried on trade with them by sea. through 

 the Persian Gulph ; and this intercourse between China 

 and the empire of Constantinople, continued to subsist 

 till the invasion of Gengiz Khan, in 1211. Nicolas and 

 Matthew Paul, or Polo, two Catholic missionaries, went 

 to Tartary in 1260, proceeded to the court of Kublai- 

 khan, and returned to Europe in 1272. They set out a 

 second time, in company with Marco Polo, in 1274, and 

 returned to Venice in 1295. In 1387, Tamerlane sent 

 ambassadors t>. Tay-tsoo, the founder of the dynasty of 

 Ming. In 1493, Bartholomew Diaz doubled the Cape 

 of Good Hope ; and in 1497. Vasco de Gama arrived in 

 India. From that period, the European voyagers ap- 

 peared in China, frequenting the ports of Canton and 

 Ning-po. In 1517, Lopez de Souza sent from Goa a 

 fleet of eight ships, conveying as an ambassador the Je- 

 suit Thomas Pertira, who afterwards died at Pekin in 

 prison. In 1563, the Portuguese obtained possession of 

 Macao ; and in 1573, the Jesuits formed an establishment 

 on that settlement. In 1577, 1579, 1580, 1583, Fa- 

 ther* Herada, Marino, Alfara, Mendoza, and Ignatius, 

 btained admission into the Chinese dominions. In 

 1581, Father Roger, a French Jesuit, made his way into 

 China, and Father Rici in 1582. In 1656, the first 

 Dutch embassy arrived at Pekin, and resided there tor 

 the space of 91 day*. In this embassy was Nieuhoff, 

 the author of one of the earliest accounts of China. In 

 1667, another Dutch embassy appeared at Pikm, and 

 remained 46 days. In 169S, the first Russian ambas- 

 ladors entered China, under Isbrants Ides, a Dutchman, 

 remaining 106 days. In 1720, the second Russian em- 

 Vitty, under Captain Ismailoff, arrived at Pekin. and 

 remained 114 days. In the train of this embassy was 

 Mr Bell of Antermony, an ingenious Scotch gentleman, 





whose travel* from Pcterj>burph to Pekin h.Ti.ided, at 

 that period, so much new information respecting t 

 Chinese empire. At the end of the same yi-;sr arrived C 1 ,' 

 the Pope's nuncio Mezzabarba, and departed after a re- -_ '.'"!l- 

 sidencc of 99 days. In 17.33, the Portuguese embassy 

 reached tlie Chinese metropolis, and remained only 39 

 days. In 17S8, a Russian envoy resided at Pekin for 

 the space of a year. In 17!W, the British ambassador 

 .Lord Macartney was admitted to an audience of the 

 Emperor Kien-long, and resided in Pekin 47 days. In 

 the suite of his lordship were Sir George Staunton and 

 Mr Barrow, two of the most intelligent writers on the 

 state and character of the Chinese. In 179J, the third 

 Dutch embassy, under M. Tilling, arrived at Pekir, 

 making a residence of 36 days. In the suite f this em- 

 bassy was the learned orientalist M. De Guignes the 

 younger, whose travels to Pekin afford the most recent, 

 and, in consequence of his long residence in China, the 

 most accurate intelligence respecting that country. 



All these different applications to the Chinese govern- 

 ment, appear to have chiefly proceeded from commercial 

 views ; but not one of them succeeded in accomplishing 

 any thing approaching to a treaty of alliance, or the es- 

 tablishment uf a tree trade, with that haughty and sus- 

 picious court. The Chinese, on their part, veem to have 

 regarded, or at least to have invariably represented, all 

 these embassies as tributary acknowledgments to the 

 power and grandeur uf their emperor ; and to have con- 

 sidered these respective nations as highly honoured in 

 having received permission to offer their preset, is to their 

 mighty monarch All these nations are upon an equally 

 precarious footing, and exposed to an equally degrading 

 treatment, in their commercial visits to Canton ; and the 

 extent of the mercantile transactions, which have been 

 accomplished, in such inauspicious circumstances, may 

 be regarded as a peculiarly striking specimen of the per- 

 severing ingenuity and accommodating spirit of Euro- 

 pean traders. 



The Portuguese were the first Europeans, who fre- I'orra- 

 quented the ports of China ; and the viceroy of Goa, Lo- 

 pez de Souza, aided by the talents and address of the 

 Jesuit Pareira, procured a kind of commercial treaty in 

 favour of his countrymen in the year 1517. But wh'ile 

 the ambassador was on his way to Pekin, the Portuguese 

 officers provoked their new allies by their insolent exces- 

 ses, to drive them from their coasts, and left Pareira in the 

 hands of the enraged Chinese, by whom he was thrown 

 into prison, where he died in a very miserable condition, 

 after a confinement of three years. Within a few years, 

 however, the Portuguese again found means to procure 

 permission to trade with the Chinese on the island of 

 Tanctan, and to erect tents on shore, while the ships 

 were taking in their cargoes; when an unexpected op- 

 portunity of essentially serving the Chinese government, 

 introduced them to a more permanent settlement in that 

 country, than any other European nation has ever en- 

 joyed. During the protracted war between the people 

 of China and Japan, a pirate of the former nation named 

 'Tchang-see-lao, took possession of Macao, blockaded the 

 mouth of the river at Canton, and even laid siege to that 

 city in the year 1563. The mandarins, unable to with- 

 stand his fury, implored the assistance of the Portuguese, 

 who made a successful attack upon his fleet, pursued 

 him to Macao, and put him to death. In return for this 

 signal service, they received trom the Chinese emperor a 

 perpetual grant of the island of Macao, where they form- 



: II. .r. lib. L od. It; Virg. litorg. 14. v. Itt; fomp. Mel. lib. li. c. .; Ammian. Marcellin. lib. xxiii. e. 28.; Plin. HisU Nat. lib. 

 c. 17. lib. xaxlv. c. 1*. r, Histoire de. Huns, par M. DC Guignes. 



