COCHINCHINA. 359 
Fo-shee, with an instrument of recent introduction and bar- 
barian invention. - 
I have been induced to say thus much on the subject of 
the Chinese compass, from knowing that an objection has 
been urged against some former remarks I had occasion to 
offer with the view of proving, if not its originahtj, at least 
its great antiquity. This objection was taken on the ground, 
that if the Chinese had been in the constant use of such 
an instrument in or before the ninth century, when they 
carried on an extensive trade with the gulph of Persia, it 
must necessarily have been known to, and if known would 
certainly have been adopted b}^ the Arabian navigators ; 
whereas these people were entirely ignorant, as before ob- 
served, of the polarity of the magnetic needle, when Vasco 
de Gama first led the way into the Oriental Ocean. 
I have only farther to observe with regard to the import- 
ance of the commerce with Cochinchina, that if the Chinese, 
before being chased by Europeans from the ocean, and before 
the calamitous state of this country occasioned by rebellion 
and usurpation, could employ in it many hundreds of their 
largest junks, there is every reason to suppose that Great 
Britain, by proper address and management, might succeed 
in reviving and conducting this extensive commercial inter- 
course which anciently subsisted between the two countries, 
and which, under the present vigorous government of Cochin- 
china, could not fail to rise to as high a pitch as it ever 
reached at any former period. 
