126 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



Our Captain bought the rattans, and hired a Chinese 

 to work them, who was very expert at making such 

 wooden cables. These cables I found serviceable 

 enough after in mooring the vessel with either of 

 them ; for when I carried out the anchor, the cable 

 being thrown out after me, swam like cork in the 

 sea, so that I could see when it was tight, which we 

 cannot so well discern in our hemp cables, whose 

 weight sinks them down ; nor can we carry them 

 out but by placing two or three boats at some dis- 

 tance asunder, to buoy up the cable, while the long- 

 boat rows out the anchor*." In Japan the ingenious 

 natives not only make all sorts of baskets of split 

 cane, but work it up into cabinets with drawers, &c., 

 which are woven in the neatest and most elegant 

 manner. 



That gigantic reed, the Bamboo, is applied to a 

 still greater variety of purposes. Indeed, among 

 the Chinese, it may be said to be used for almost 

 every thing. Marco Polo informs us that in his 

 time they had canes fifteen passi (thirty English 

 feet) long, which they split in their whole length into 

 very thin pieces, and then twisted them together 

 into strong ropes 300 passi long, that were used 

 to track their vessels on their numerous rivers and 

 canals. M. De Guignes says, that in the course of 

 his journey through part of the Celestial Empire, he 

 often saw Chinese making this description of rope : 

 the artisans were mounted on scaffolds twelve or fif- 

 teen feet high, and let the cord fall to the ground as 

 it was platted: and M. Van Braam, another modern 

 traveller, speaks of this bamboo cordage as being 

 admirably light and strong. The sails of the Chi- 

 nese junks, as well as their cables and rigging, are 

 made of bamboo. The old Venetian also describes 

 a pavilion of the Grand Khan, the roof of which was 

 * Voyages, vol. ii 



