— 5 — 



iufluence not many years ago , and they only continue to exist in Annam , Corea , Birma 

 and a few smaller countries of the interior , a last remnant of what was general once. 



On tlie otlier hand we need not wonder that the Chinese attached so much 

 importance to these embassies and were prepared to go to all the expenses, which they 

 necessarily entailed. The supremacy of China over all other countries is, and has al- 

 ways been , a national dogma , more deeply rooted in the Chinese mind than any other 

 conviction. Their emperor is appointed by Heaven to be the ruler of the whole earth, 

 but only Heaveu's chosen people , the Chinese , are directly governed by him, and he 

 controls the outside barbarians not more than is necessary for the interests of this fa- 

 voured nation, which must be the chief object of his care. All however owe him al- 

 legiance and if they come forward showing their sense of this duty by presenting tribute, 

 be ït ever so little , they must be graciously received and assisted according to their 

 wants. The civilised rule of China is not fit for these benighted barbarians, therefore 

 they are suffered to arrange their government as they like best, and even if they fail 

 to recognise the superiority of China and abstain from doing homage to the emperor, 

 it is not necessary to compel them : China has nothing to gain from intercourse with 

 them , whilst for them it is au occasion , not only of profiting by the munificence of 

 the imperial presents, but also of coming within the enlightening and renovating in- 

 fluence of Chinese civilisation. Many Chinese emperors however were not so wholly 

 indifferent to these tokens of respect from distant countries , which seem to have grat- 

 ified their pride; they went to considerable expense in order to encourage them and 

 gradually it became the custom , on the accession of a new dynasty, .to send envoys to 

 the different countries which were in the habit of presenting tribute, informing them 

 of the change that had taken place and inviting them to continue their allegiance. 



If we recollect that the Chinese mind has always been deeply imbued with 

 these ideas , it is not necessary to tax them with wilful misrepresentation , even when 

 they have construed the most ordinary attempts at commercial intercourse into an 

 acknowleclgement of their superiority ; at the same time the more enlightened among 

 their historians , though never doubting that it was the duty of other countries to 

 bring tribute to China , do not deny that the sense of this obligation was often very 

 little developed and that , with many , the motive was rather to gain the material 

 benefits attached to it, 



We may now proceed to give the notices on the countries mentioned in our 

 title , whiclr have been compiled from Chinese sources and will be arranged as follows : 



Java, 



Sumatba, 



BOBNEO, 



The islands to the east of these and 



The Malay peninsula, 

 whilst under each head of this division those smaller islands will find a place, which 

 may be looked upon as natural dependencies of the others. 



