234 
CHARACTER OF THE CHINESE. 
on the subject of infanticide as on that of population, respecting 
the causes and extent of the exposure of children in China. But 
granting that any of these statements are well founded, it will 
scarcely be believed, that, in passing over its populous rivers through 
upwards of sixteen hundred miles of country, we should meet with 
no proofs of its mere existence ; yet such has been the fact, for not 
even that very equivocal and variously explained circumstance of 
infants supported above water by gourds fastened to their necks*, 
fell under our notice, nor indeed any other that could lead to a 
belief of its practice. The experience of De Guignes, whom I 
have so often quoted, and of whose accuracy we all had frequent 
proofs, was of a similar nature. He has had occasion to declare 
that in his route through the whole extent of China, in travelling 
by water he never saw an infant drowned ; and in travelling by land, 
although he had been early in the morning in cities and villages, 
and at all hours on the highways, he never saw an infant exposed 
or dead. 
* As the different modes of accounting for the fact that children are sometimes found in 
China floating in the water, with gourds round their necks to prevent their sinking, afford 
an illustration of the difficulty of arriving at precise information respecting infanticide in 
China, I subjoin the following quotations : “ 11 faut pourtant que nous disions un mot 
de ces enfans qu’on jette dans la riviere apres leur avoir lie au dos un courge ouide, de 
sorte qu’ils flottent long temps avant d’expirer Ces infortunes enfans sont des 
victimes offertes a l’esprit de la riviere, d’apres des oracles, en vertu d’un sort, ou en execu- 
tive d’un devouement.” Memoires concernant les Chinois, tom. ii. p. 400. 
“ Those whose constant residence is upon the water, and whose poverty, or superstition, 
or total want of sensibility, or whatever the cause may be, that leads them to the perpe- 
tration of an act against which nature revolts, sometimes, it is said, expose their infants 
by throwing them into the canal or river, with a gourd tied round their necks, to keep 
the head above water, and preserve them alive until some humane person may be induced 
to pull them up.” Travels in China, by John Barow, p. 170. 
“ Quant a ce que fon dit qu’elles attachent une calabasse sur le dos des enfans pour les 
faire flotter plus long-tems, afin de donner le terns a quelque personne charitable de leur 
sauver la vie, elles ne le font que pour avoir elles-memes le moyen de les secourir dans le 
cas on les tomberoit a la riviere. J’ai ete temoin d’un pareil accident ; la mere loin d’aban- 
donner son fils a son malheureux sort, ne fut tranquille que lorsque elle le revit dans ses 
bras.” Voyage a Peking, tom. ii. p. 289. 
