[ 3>8 1 
Characters, fomc well, fome ill written, which 
the late Profeffor Bayer had attempted to decypher. 
In my Anfwer to Monf . de L’ijle , I informed him 
that it was by no meins a Chinefe Work *; that it 
could be of no Service to a lc.trned European , fuch 
as he or you were; and that Mr. Bayer’s Explana- 
tions were full of Faults. I fuppoie that M. de 
L’ijle has already writ you my Thoughts concerning 
it from Betersbourg. You have poftibly feen in fc* 
vcral Books, what the Chinefe know, and have fet 
down, concerning foreign Countries: And there is 
no Monument extant to prove, that before the ar- 
rival of the Jefuits in this Country, they had Charts 
or Maps of the World, any way refembling that, 
which you found among Kampfers Writings. 
It is now above fixteen’hundred Years fince they to- 
lerably well knew the Northern and E after n Coun- 
tries of India , and thofe which lie between China 
and the Cafpian Sea. On thefe different Countries 
their Hiftory affords feveral Informations, which are 
not to be fonnd in the Greek, Latin , or other 
Hiftorians. They had fome, but very confufed, 
Notions of the Regions beyond the Cafpian Sea; 
fuch as Syria , Greece , Egypt, and fome Parts of 
Europe . I do not fpeak of the Times of Gentchif- 
kan and his Succeffors; for then the Chinefe were 
made acquainted with Rujfia , Boland, Germany , 
* Doubtlefs it is the Work of an Europra who was giving fome 
Notion of Geography to a Chinefe or jr.panefe ; or perhaps that 
of a Chinefe or Japa?icfe from Memory ot what he had heard from 
Europeans, or of the Map which he might have feen with them. 
Hungary, 
