[ * lv ] 
French author (a), and, from the 
fituation of the Jefo, Kurili, and 
other iflands, is rendered more and 
more probable. Were we to trufl 
to fome late accounts, it is not im- 
poflible but fome of their defcend- 
ants 
((7) Mr. De Gtjignes, in a Memoir inferted in 
the twenty-eighth volume of the Academy of 
Inscriptions and Belles Lettres for the year 1757, 
and entitled Recherches fur les Navigations des Chi- 
nois, du cote de V Ante ri que, & fur quelques Peuplcs 
fituis a Pextremite Oriental: de fJfe. From the 
concurrent teflimony of feveral ancient Chineic 
writers, he proves that their early navigators, 
after having followed the Afratic coaft. towards 
the north as far as Kamtfckatka y which they called 
Tahan, crofTcd the ocean in an eafterly direction, 
and at the diftance of 20,000 lis, or about 2000 
miles, arrived nearly under the lame parallel at 
a country which they named Foufang ; being, ac- 
cording to them, the land where the fun riles. This 
muft have been the coaft difcovered by the Ruffians 
in 1741; and, from the new difcoverics, it may 
be inferred, that the Chinefe were directed in 
that Craft, by following the courfe of the iilands*. 
