1838.] 



Royal Asiatic Society, 



383 



As to the third division of Asia, the following are the circumstances 

 which have principally called the attention of the public to it. The first, 

 that of the frontiers of the British possessions in India having been 

 recently extended, partly by conquest, partly by acquisitions obtained 

 by treaties, to the neighbourhood of the province of Yunnan, the Eas- 

 tern province of China. The second, that of the discovery which has 

 recently been made, that the tea-plant is growing in a tract of country 

 extending 300 miles within the British territories. The third, that of 

 British traders having been enabled, in consequence of the opening of 

 the trade with China to all British subjects, to visit parts of that Em- 

 pire which were never visited before by British subjects, and to become 

 better acquainted than they formerly were v/ith the produce of the 

 ■different islands in the Eastern Archipelago, and with the various wants 

 of their inhabitants. With a view to these circumstances, the Com- 

 mittee have taken measures for procuring all the valuable information 

 which is preserved in the archives of the Jesuits at Naples, Rome, 

 Genoa, Venice, Paris, Madrid, and Lisbon, respecting Upper and Lower 

 Assam, Munipore, Borg, the North-East parts of the Burmese Empire, 

 Laos, Cambodia, Cochin-China, and all the Eastern provinces of China ; 

 for calling the attention of the British public to the moral, political, and 

 commercial importance of the Anglo-Chinese College, 1 2 established at 

 Malacca by the late Dr. Morrison, and so liberally supported by Sir 

 George Staunton; for encouraging the Rev. Mr. GutzlafF^^ to proceed 

 in his very interesting inquiries relative to the history, literature and 

 Science of China, to the practice of medicine in that country, and to 



, 1 Sangermano, in his " Description of the Burmese Empire," translated by Dr. 

 Tandy, and published by the Oriental Translation Fund, shows the vahie and the ex- 

 tent of the information which the Jesuit Missionaries acquired of each of the countries 

 in Asia in which they resided. The Annales des Propaganda also show that the Catholic 

 Missionaries who are at present in different parts of Asia, are not less active than their 

 predecessors were in obtaining useful information relative to that part of the v. orld. 



1 2 In No. 1050 of the Literary Gazette, there is a very interesting account of a young 

 Chinese gentleman who was educated at that College, and who is believed to have had 

 considerable influence, by the knowledge he obtained at that College, in altrtiug the 

 opinions of the Chinese Government with respect to the trude of their country with 

 foreign nations. 



^ 3 This enlightened and zealous Protestant missionary is imicilili^able in his endea- 

 vours to acquire a thorough knOAvledge of China and its inhabitants, as appears from 

 his analysis of the Yih-She, published in the third, and his paper on the Practice of 

 Medicine by the Chinese, published in the fourth Volume of the Society's J ournal ; and 

 ^0 circulate amongst them a knowledge of the history, literature, arts and sciences of 

 Great Britain, as appears by his translation into Chinese of an abridgment of the His - 

 toiy of England; and his Geographical aud Astronymical tracts piiuted in that lau. 



