322 CO CHIN CHINA. 
bassador happening to observe the Emperor casting his eye 
upon this model, and conceiving the occasion might be 
turned to the advantage of his employers, ventured to make 
a proposal for sending to Japan a number of proper artificers 
from Holland, for the purpose of instructing his subjects in 
the art of ship-building, according to the practice of Europe, 
llie Emperor desired he might be asked how long his coun- 
trymen had been acquainted with the art of constructing 
ships on the model he had brought. The Ambassador re- 
plied, about three hundred years. " Tell him," says the 
Emperor, " that my people have built such ships as he sees 
" floating in my harbours for as many thousand years, and 
" that I have not yet heard of any complaints against their 
" utility. I shall not, therefore, pay so ill a compliment to 
" myself or to my people, as to lay aside the test of ages for 
" an invention of yesterday. The Dutch ships may suit the 
" Dutch, but not the Japanese. Tell him, therefore, I 
would advise him to take back this part of his present." 
The Cochinchinese having effectually preserved the written 
characters of the Chinese language, we found no difficulty in 
communicating with them on all subjects, through this me- 
dium, by our Chinese priests. The spoken language, how- 
ever, has undergone a very considerable change, which is the 
less surprizing, as the inhabitants of the northern and southern 
provinces of China are unintelligible to each other ; but 
though it has been altered, it does not appear to have re- 
ceived any improvement, neither from additions of their 
own, nor from the introduction of foreign words. By a com- 
parison of the short catalogue of Chinese words, which I 
