HISTORY OF MAURITIUS. 
401 
fifty leagues from their habitation, and this distance does not prevent them from 
returning thither every evening: though they will sometimes pass the night on the 
upper yards of ships which they chance to meet.’* 
On the Voyage to China. 
Pondicherry, October i, 1768.. 
<{ With respect to the supposed passage to China by the north-east, I shall 
consider two points:—The reality of the passage,—and the advantage which the 
commerce of Europe might derive from it. 
“ In the first place, I am firmly persuaded that no such passage exists; and I an* 
of opinion that theDutch have proved its non-existence, in their third voyage, pari 
ticularly in the vicinity of the North Pole. 
“ With respect to the advantages that Europeans might derive from these voyages, 
I cannot discover any; and I think that voyages from France to Canton by the 
north-east, would be almost as long as they now are by the Cape of Good Hope. 
<f I will suppose, for a moment, that this passage exists during a month, or five 
weeks at most, in the year; that is to say, during a part of the months of J uly and 
August; with this restriction, nevertheless, that there would be certain years in 
which this passage would open and shut a little sooner or later. 
This being agreed, I do not hesitate to declare, that a ship which should make 
her voyage to Canton in China by this passage, and should return by the same, 
would employ seventeen or eighteen months. 
66 Now the voyages to China by the Cape of Good Hope, including the time 
which ships employ in different ports, are only from seventeen to eighteen months; 
nothing therefore would be gained by the supposed passage. We will endeavour to 
illustrate this idea. 
<c It is impossible to enter into the Chinese Seas from any quarter but by the assist¬ 
ance of the monsoons. 
“ These winds are regulated there, as they are in the Indian Seas; that is, they 
blow from west to south-west and by south from the middle of May to the middle 
of October, and during the rest of the year they blow from the north to the north¬ 
east by east. The times are ascertained when ships are to arrive in their respective 
regions. 
3F 
