N I E U H O F F ' S E M B A S S Y. 143 



unfortunate women form a vaft article of commerce, and 

 the merchant panders difpofe of them to every part of the 

 empire. 



The next city of note is Kajutjiu; then follows Hoi?2-gan-foOy Kajutsiu. 

 feated on the river Hoai, near which are vaft embankments to 

 keep off the fury of the fea; all this neighborhood is marfliy, 

 yet extremely produdtive of rice. The whole country may have 

 been gained from the watery element, yet it muft have been 

 many ages paft, for a field near Hoin-gan is diftinguifhed by the 

 numbers of ancient tumuli. Many of the towns appear like 

 Venice,, built in the water, and fome even below. 



Wbay-ngan-foo, in Lat. 33° 32', is one ; it is built below the Whay-ngan. 

 level of the great canal, which is near that city, fupported by 

 ftrong dykes. Here, very properly, one of thofe mandarines re- 

 fides who has the charge of the canal, and is called grand mafter 

 of the waters. Not far from the weft of it is the vaft lake 

 Hongtfe-hoo, which juft below the city is difcharged into the 

 great river Whang-bo or the Tellow River^ which rifes in Lat. 35° River 

 north, amidft the mountains of the 'Tartars of Kokonor, near the ^^"•**^°-**'*» 

 edge of the great defert Sbamo or Gobi. Its courfe is about fix 

 hundred leagues, and the current fo violent, that it is impoffible 

 for a Ihip to fail up the ftream ; it is liable to great inundations ; 

 infomuch that the inhabitants of the low province of Honan 

 are obliged to furround their cities, at a fmall diftance from their 

 walls, with a ftrong mound. Mr. Nieuboff exemplified this in 

 his plate *. The waters are of a yellow color, tinged with the 

 ftrata they pafs through, which is the origin of the name. This 



♦ At p. 117. 



river. 



