j-^ CHINA. 



been gained from the fea, as Holland was by the Dutch. The 

 period is not juftly known. The tradition of the Chinefe is, that 

 there had been a mighty dehige : in all probability that of Noah, 

 Du Halde* attributes to the emperor Tau the vaft works which 

 recovered thefe provinces from the fea. I will not difpute the 

 learned Jefnit's fkill in chronology ; but the emperor began his 

 reign in 2237 before Cbrijl, and reigned a hundred years ; the 

 period in which he was born could not therefore have been long 

 after the univerfal deluge. 



Le Poivre alfo informs us, that thefe provinces were, fome 

 thonfand years ago, covered with water, and regained from the 

 fea by the induftry of the inhabitants. The immenfe mounds 

 which guard it from the fury of the waves, are ftupendous marks 

 of the power of labor exerted by a moft populous nation. They 

 exceed all the fimilar dikes of Holland \ befides, they have a 

 much more powerful fea to relift than that which beats on the 

 coaft of the European low countries. Montefquieu attributes to 

 the induftry of the natives of thefe two provinces, their fuperior 

 fertility to any in the Chinefe empire. 



Isle of In Lat. 30°, at a fmall diflance from the coaft, is the ifland of 



HEw-sHAN. Chew-JJjan^ or as we call it Chufan, mentioned in this volume at p. 

 115 as the firft fettlement the Englijb had in China. It is fur- 

 rounded with many little ides, the remoteft of which conftitutes 

 the moft eaftern part of the great curved fhore of the empire. 



NiNG-po, OR At the bottom of a long eftuary ftands the city of Ning-po^ 



known to the Europeans by the Portuguefe name of Liampo or 

 Limpo. It is feated in the midft of a fine plain, cultivated like a 



* Du Halde, vol. i. p. 144. 



garden. 



