I

SIR,

T was with the greatest Pleasure that I received

your Two laft Letters; one of the 13th of October, and the other of the 2d of November, 1742. I communicated the very interefting Account of the Affairs of Europe, which you gave me in them, to the reft of our Miffionaries; who join with me in our fincere Thanks. I thank you too, in particular, for the Box full of Works in Straw, and Flowers, which came very fafe to me: but I beg of you not to put yourself to any such Expence for the future; for the Chinese very much exceed the Europeans, in

VOL. I.

F

thofe

thofe kinds of Works; and particularly in their [a] artificial Flowers [b]. We came hither by the Command, or rather by the Permiffion of the Emperor. An Officer was affigned to conduct us; and they made us believe, that he would defray our Expences: But the latter was only in Words; for, in Effect, the Expence was almoft wholly out of our own Pockets. Half of the Way we came by Water; and both eat and lodged in our Boats: And what feemed odd enough to us was, that by the Rules of Good-breeding received among them, we were not allowed ever to go afhore, or even to look out of the Windows of our covered boats to obferve the Face of the Country, as we paffed along.

We made the latter Part of our Journey in a Sort of Cage, which they were pleased to call a Litter. In this too we were shut up all Day long; and at Night carried into our Inns; (and very wretched Inns they are!) and thus we got to Pekin, with our Curiofity quite unfatisfied, and with seeing but very little more of the Country, than if we had been shut up all the while in our own Chambers.

[a] Thefe are chiefly made of Feathers; coloured and formed fo exactly like real Flowers, that one is often apt to forget one's felf, and smell to them. The famous Signora Vannimano, at Rome, (fo many of whofe Works in this kind are continually brought Home by our Gentlemen who travel to that City,) at first learned her Art from fome which were sent from China, by the Jefuits, as a present to the then Pope.

[6] Here is a Page or two omitted, as relating only to their private Affairs.

Indeed

1

Indeed they fay, that the Country we paffed is but a bad Country; and that, though the Journey is near 2000 Miles, there is but little to be met with on the Way that might deferve much Attention: Not even any Monuments, or Buildings, except fome Temples for their Idols; and those built of Wood, and but one Story high: The chief Value and Beauty of which feemed to confift in fome bad Paintings, and very indifferent Varnish-works. Indeed any one that is juft come from seeing the Buildings of France and Italy, is apt to have but little Tafte, or Attention, for whatever he may meet with in the other Parts of the World.

However, I muft except, out of this Rule, the Palace of the Emperor of Pekin, and his PleasureHouses; for in them every thing is truly great and beautiful, both as to the Design and the Execution; and they ftruck me the more, because I had never feen any thing that bore any manner of Refemblance to them in any Part of the World that I had been in before.

I should be very glad, if I could make fuch a Description of these, as would give you any just Idea of them; but that is almost impoffible; because there is nothing in the whole, which has any Likeness to our manner of Building, or our Rules of Architecture. The only way to conceive what they are, is to see them; and if I can get any Time, I am refolved to draw fome Parts of them as exactly as I can, and fend them into Europe.

The Palace is, at leaft, as big as [c] Dijon ; which City I choose to name to you, because you are fo well acquainted with it. This Palace confifts of a great Number of different Pieces of Building; detached from one another, but disposed with a great deal of Symmetry and Beauty. They are separated from one another by vaft Courts, Plantations of Trees, and Flower-Gardens. The principal Front of all these Buildings fhines with Gilding, Varnishwork, and Paintings; and the Infide is furnished and adorned with all the moft beautiful and valuable Things that could be got in China, the Indies, and even from Europe.

As for the Pleasure-houses, they are really charming. They ftand in a vaft Compafs of Ground. They have raised Hills from Twenty to Sixty Foot high; which form a great Number of little Valleys between them. The Bottoms of these Valleys are watered with clear Streams; which run on till they join together, and form larger Pieces of Water and Lakes: They pass these Streams, Lakes, and Rivers, in beautiful and magnificent Boats: I have seen one, in particular, Seventy-eight Feet long, and Twenty-four Feet broad, with a very handsome House raised upon it. In each of thefe Valleys, there are Houses about the Banks of the Water, very well disposed; with their different Courts, open and close

[c] A handfome City in France; and the Capital one in the Province of Burgundy; between Three and Four Miles round,

Porticos,