and refided at Canton and Macao, in refponfible fituations, for many years. In the interval of thefe refidences, he lived in South-Carolina; and, when he had completed his journey as fecond in the embaffy fent by the Dutch Eaft-India company to China in 1794, he returned to North-America. His . journal received the fanction of the embaffador; and the French verfion of it was fuperintended by himself. The English tranflation is free, and apparently exact; but, as we have not the French copy before us, we cannot ascertain its fidelity. A change in the fituation of the notes occurs in this work. Thofe of M. Van Braam were felected, and, with the additions of the French editor, were fubjoined to the fecond volume. They are in the English verfion prefixed to the first. From this part we will felect the account of the temperature of the Chinese capital.

Pe-king is in 39 degrees 55 minutes north latitude, and Philadelphia in 39 degrees 56, fo that they may be faid to be under the fame parallel.

The winter is exceedingly cold and fevere at Pe-king; and the nature of the winter at Philadelphia is the fame.

• The winter begins earlier at Pe-king than at Philadelphia, but it is over equally late at both places.

At Pe-king the north wind is inexpreffibly piercing and prevalent.

In the city of Philadelphia the fame may be faid of the northweft.

At Pe-king, water freezes before Reaumur's thermometer has fallen to the freezing point, a phenomenon also observed at Phila❤ delphia.

There is however in general lefs intensity, and fill lefs duration in the cold at Philadelphia, than at Pe-king; fince in the former city there are pretty frequently partial thaws, which soften the furface of the ice (for it does not melt till at a degree of heat which would melt it in France).

As to the fummer it is fo hot at Pe-king, that Reaumur's thermometer is often at 32 degrees above o (104 of Fahrenheit).

In 1743 the heat was fo exceffive, that increafing from the 15th of July to the 25th, it raised the thermometer, that laft day, to 35 degrees and a half (1117 of Fahrenheit). There died within that time at Pe-king eleven thoufand four hundred perfons, although refreshments were diftributed in the streets.

* In 1760 the heat killed eight thousand persons in less than two months.

• Philadelphia is without doubt far from experiencing fuch a fatal degree of heat; but the thermometer often rifes as high as 28 degrees of Reaumur (95 of Fahrenheit). In the fummer the days are burning hot; they are diftreffing; and the nights are almost as hot as the day.

Another refemblance between the two places I am speaking of, is the fudden change in the flate of the atmosphere-a change which fometimes amounts to ten or twelve degrees of Reaumur, in lefs than twenty-four hours, and frequently to five or fix degrees in a very few hours. This variation is most frequently produced at Philadelphia by the north-west wind.

The barometer alfo undergoes very sudden changes at Phila delphia. I have fometimes obferved there from 6 to 7 lines difference in less than as many hours.

Pe-king is then at once colder and hotter than Philadelphia; but can the opinion adopted by the inhabitants of the latter city, concerning the favourable alteration that is to take place in both seasons, be confidered as well founded, after what we know of Peking, which, notwithstanding the clearing of the land fome thoufand years back, ftill remains the same ?

'I am aware that it may be faid that Naples and Madrid, which are nearly under the fame parallel of latitude as Pe-king and Phila delphia, enjoy notwithstanding a very different temperature from that of those two cities. But I believe that we may conclude from that very circumstance, that the clearing of the land, from which alone a change of climate feems to be expected in America, is not the only cause that operates in producing a particular temperature; and in fpite of all that is faid of the favourable alteration that has taken place in the laft fixty years, I doubt whether that opinion, though pretty generally received, deferves entire confidence. Nothing is more fubject to error than judgments formed concerning the state of the atmosphere, when they are only founded upon our fenfations. (Fr. Ed.) Vol. i. p. xxxix.

Although the miffion was dignified with the title of an enbaffy, and though the vifit feems to have been folicited, it was Jittle more than a civil compliment to the emperor on the fixtieth anniversary of his inauguration.

The journey, as might have been expected, was tedious and uncomfortable. The embaffador and his attendants were ftrangely neglected, frequently fuffering from extreme cold, from imperfect fupplies of provifion, and from a want of common conveniencies. The mandarins, to whose care they were intrufted, often failed in their duty; and those officers feem to have had little authority over the coolies or porters. Such is the want of fubordination in a country where a finifhed fyftem of political arrangement is faid, by pretended philofophers, to prevail.

According to our author, China is, in the fouth, flat, interfected by rivers and canals; in the north, mountainous. In many parts, the travellers paffed, by water, through defiles, hollowed between the most elevated and abrupt rocks;

in others, they faw thofe infulated mountains which are fo frequently reprefented in Chinefe pictures. A fpeciinen of the writer's defcriptive talents we will felect: it is a scene of the former kind.

In the afternoon we paffed by the village of Tey-peling-cok, fituated on the western fide of the river, which widens at this place, but which at the fame time is choked up with large banks of fand. At fun-fet we came to another narrow pafs, alfo between two ridges of very rugged and uneven rocks. This paffage coft us about half an hour's navigation, after which we faw nothing before us but a very extenfive plain, having conftantly level ground on both fides of the road, except during the night, when we entered a pass still narrower than the other two. This paffage, of fuch inconfiderable length that a ftone might be thrown from one end to the other, is fkirted with rocks fo lofty and fo terribly steep, that they cannot fail to infpire the beholder with a fentiment of fear. This place is called Ang-yong-hab.

26th. By break of day we had got beyond the limits of thefe horrible rocks, to the weftward of which, and at the foot of the mountain, is a handfome pagoda. The country then begins to reTume a level appearance, particularly to the eastward; but as the land on each fide of us, which was steep and lofty, prevented our profpect, curiofity induced me to go on fhore at eight o'clock in the morning, and to climb up to the top of the bank, which was thirty or forty feet high, in order to get a view of the furrounding fields. I continued my walk till half past eleven. As far as the eye could reach, it discovered a country admirably well cultivated, which, by its refemblance to the province of Utrecht, reproduced in my mind the delightful idea of my native land. Here was a field covered with wheat, contiguous to another of buck-wheat, embellifhed by its bloffom; there a piece of turnips; and then another fpot planted with fweet potatoes. An agreeable variety delighted the eye throughout this whole extent of country, where not the finalleft fpace was left without cultivation, and the whole of which compofed a moft beautiful landfcape. The foil was argilIaceous, though not strong; and if any judgment can be formed of its fertility from the ftubbles, it must abound in corn.' Vol. i. P. 46.

M. Van Braam's narrative feems to be faithful; but the ftatements of facts are feldom followed by appofite reflections or judicious applications. For inftance, he makes mention of the heaps of falt; but they have not led him into any specu lations, though, in fir George Staunton's narrative, they form the bafis of fome judicious calculations, relative to the popu dation of China.

This vifit is faid to have been folicited by the mandarins at Canton, apparently to flatter the emperor with marks of atten

tion from a remote country. The minifters of Louis XIV. for fimilar reafons, folicited an embaffy from Abyffinia. M. Van Braam boafts of attentions greatly fuperior to thofe received by the English vifitants. The Dutch were certainly admitted more frequently to the interior parts of the palace, and feem to have feen the emperor more frequently; but,, originally forbidden to fpeak of bufinefs, they only faw him, and were fo clofely watched, that only at the end of their refidence did M. Van Braam difcover that they were lodged within the exterior gate.

Our author has added little to the former defcriptions of Pekin. He adds, however, to the extant accounts of the im-. perial palace.

In the interior of the palace there are hundreds of edifices,. which make a magnificent appearance on the outfide, and which are ornamented with pieces of fculpture. Thefe buildings are befide richly gilt, and farther embellished by a red or green varnish of the Japan kind. The roofs are covered with yellow tiles.

Through the palace runs a winding canal, which is visible in fame places, while in others it difappears under the buildings. The paffages and the fquares are all neatly paved with hewn ftone. We perceived at a distance other edifices, in no refpect inferior to these as to external beauty; but we alfo faw, in paffing along feveral places, and between great maffes of building, the most miferable hovels and heaps of dirt, which were ill concealed by walls. The artments in which we were received by the first minifter were far from anfwering to the importance of fo great a man. The rooms are fo fmall, that there is not a common tradefman's houfe in Holland which does not contain handfomer and more fpacious apartments; and they were fo full of people of all ranks, that it was not without difficulty that we made our way through them. Nor was any great decorum preferved; masters and fervants were standing promifcuously and the latter, that they might the better gratify their curiofity by a fight of us, pushed aside the mandarins without ceremony, and placed themfelves before them. Every thing we faw appeared to us inconceivable, and would no doubt have seemed fo to any one who could have been witness of this affemblage.

The gate of the palace through which we entered is itself a large building with three paffages, the middle one being the wideft and moft lofty. Each paffage has a worden door ftrengthened by plates of iron, with yellow brafs knobs upon them, placed at about fourteen inches from one another, and difpofed in the fame order as the fquares of a chefs-board. These doors, and in general thofe of all the Imperial buildings, are painted red, and in all of them the middle paflage is referved for the emperor alone, while thofe on the fides are for the mandarins and private individuals. The length of the paffage under the gate-way is forty-two of my paces, and is ery handfomely arched over head. Upon the rampart over, the

gate is a building in the form of an oblong fquare, two stories high, and resembling in its conftruction, roof, and ornaments, those of the interior of the palace.

'On coming out of this paffage, we found ourselves in a vast fquare, paved and furrounded by buildings erected without the leaft regard to order or regularity. Each of these buildings, fome of which are dependencies of the chief tribunals, is furrounded with its own wall. Two only on the left hand of the entrance have their façades and windows looking immediately into the fquare. The walls inclofing these different buildings form right lines in the interior of the palace, each running in the direction of one of the four cardinal points of the compafs.' Vol. i. P. 196.

The moft fplendid fcene was the following, that of the cntertainment to which the Dutch were admitted.

In the middle of the hall is the imperial throne, upon a plat form fix feet high. The approach to it is by three flights of steps; one in the middle, and the two others on the fides. The platform is covered with a carpet, and furrounded with a balustrade, which is ornamented with carved work, as well as the emperor's armchair, and the rails that accompany each flight of steps. Behind the throne hung a yellow tapestry, and on the fides of the platform were several vafes filled with natural flowers, to the sweet emanations of which two other vafes of metal added the perfume of burning fandal wood and other Afiatic fubftances.

The two extremities of the gallery without the hall are paved entirely with ftones of a finely polished furface. There were ranged the bulky inftruments of mufic, fuch as that confifling of fixteen little bells, that compofed of fixteen pieces of metal, the great drum, and several other instruments of a fimilar kind. They were all richly gilt, as well as the pedestals on which they stood.

The outer court, in which most of the guests were obliged to breakfast in the open air, was covered with thick carpets, on which were laid the cushions that each guest had taken care to make his fervant bring, in order that he might fit down more conveniently on the ground fronting the pavilion.

'Oppofite the throne was pitched a great tent of yellow cloth, in which the fide-board was arranged. Then in the court before the pavilion were placed four rows of little and low tables, covered with coarse linen, and fo difpofed that there was one between every two perfons, except oppofite his excellency and me, where a separate table was placed for each of us.' Vol. i. P. 234.

The emperor's attention was great. He laughed when the author's hat fell off. He laughed more heartily when M. Van Braam declared, by a Chinese word, that he did not under ftand that language; but his imperial majefty is represented as in extreme old age; and, whatever powers of mind he might have had, little perhaps renained at the time of this vifit. His