A, D. 1794. 307 



confidered as in all refpeds fuperior to all other merchants in Canton, 

 or any other part of the empire. 



Though exprefles oji the emperor's bufinefs are forwarded at the rate 

 of 150 miles a day, it is very rarely that an individual is permitted to 

 lend a letter by them : and as there is no eftablifliment of a general 

 poft to convey letters for the public, their trade, which is all inland, 

 muft be prodigiouily cramped for want of correfpondence, and the 

 people muft be totally ignorant of all public, or diftant, traniadions. 



The roads, though very narrow, are fufficient for the few carriages 

 employed in traveling or tranfporting goods. But, as the whole coun- 

 try is interfered by navigable rivers and canals in every diredtion, jour- 

 nies are moftly performed upon the water, which alfo furnifhes an eafy 

 conveyance for all the goods and produce carried from one part of the 

 empire to another. The prodigious crowds of veflels, which cover the 

 grand canal, extending by the help of rivers, with little interruption of 

 portage, from Pekin to Canton, and all the other inland waters, prove 

 that the home carrying trade muft be prodigioufly great. But we muft 

 at the fame time remember, that nearly the whole of their trade is con- 

 veyed upon the inland waters, their foreign a6tive trade being next to 

 nothing, and their timorous difpofition inducing them to prefer creep- 

 ing along the windings of rivers and canals to a direcft route in the open 

 fea along the coaft. In the management of their frefli-water craft the 

 Chinefe are very expert. But in the navigation of the open fea they ap-^ 

 pear to have fallen off" very much from the maritime fkill and enterprife 

 of their anceftors, who are faid to have failed as fir as the coaft of Africa i 

 and, though they have the ufe of the compafs, they have fo little confid- 

 ence in it, or in their own feamanfliip, that they are never willing to 

 lofe fight of land *, and think it too arduous an attempt even to coaft 

 along their own fliores without intermediate ftops. 



Vaft numbers of boatmen and fifliermen have no refidence upon the 

 land : their boats are their only habitations, in which they and their 

 families carry on their bufinefs, and their children are born and bred 

 up. 



The Chinefe feem in many refpeds to have more refources and more 

 economy than any other people, to which they are in a great meafure 

 impelled by their fuperabundant population. All are induftrious ; and 

 the gentlemen of the embafly remarked, that, though vaft numbers ap- 

 peared to be very indigent, not a beggar was ever to be feen in the 

 country. They carry foil to the rugged rocks ; they make terraces on 

 the fteep declivities of the mountains, and ponds above the terraces to 

 furnifh water to them. The inhabitants of the lakes (thofe who live on 

 the furface, as well as thofe living on the banks, of them,) make a fliift 



* One might adc, what is the ufe (•{ the compafs to them i" The name they give it is tin^-mm- 

 thing, or needle pointing to the fouth. 



qq2 



