disciples, who take decided precedence of all Europe, whereas England appointed for that object her first university professor during the last year. And those who are acquainted with the facts well know, that no Englishman in the East has made attainments in this study equal to those of Remusat and Klaproth. We wish not to disparage the labors of those men, who have within a few years published their observations respecting that part of China which they have seen. We are grateful for what they have contributed to the common stock of knowledge respecting China. Still, it cannot be denied, that with all their many excellences, they have less personal knowledge of the Chinese than the Jesuits had, and less Chinese scholarship than the French, Russians and Germans. In proof of the former part of the assertion, we may allude. to the remark, so frequently made by the best judges, that he who has learned all that Polo, Mailla and Du Halde can teach him, will find little that is new in the recent books on China. As it regards the latter, it is but too evident, that even in such men as Davis and Medhurst, there is an ignorance of nearly all the new light that has been cast upon Chinese geography and history, by the living oriental scholars of continental Europe. Still there is a very high value to be attached to this class of productions. They form an important link between us and Chinese authors, without which the latter would hardly be intelligible to us. Even the Jesuits' accounts would seem to belong to a remote age, and would have a foreign air, were it not that our conceptions are aided by the reiterated descriptions of living men, who observe and feel and judge as one of us. Where they agree either with Chinese documents or with the Jesuits' accounts, they render that certain, which was before doubtful. Still more frequently do they clear up what was obscure; and, in regard to the east and south-east parts of China, they give us no very small amount of information that is altogether new.

Now what the English and American public greatly need, and as yet do not possess, is some thorough work which shall bring all these materials together; and, by supplying deficiencies, adjusting differences and correcting mistakes, present a clear digest of the whole. For the

VOL. IV.-NO. XIII.

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Germans, Ritter, in his Geography of Asia, has accomplished this in a masterly manner.

Charles Ritter, born in 1779, and, since 1820, professor of geography to the university of Berlin, is the founder of the science of comparative geography, or geography in its relations to nature, and to the history of man. After presenting some general views, drawn mostly from his great work, we shall give, in an abridged form, a translation of select passages, as a specimen of his manner.*

China is, by its geographical position, almost as much secluded from the rest of the world as America. On three sides it is bounded by lofty and impassable mountains, and thus separated from the other parts of Asia. Though the Chinese have an ocean on one of their borders, they are not a seafaring people, and have never acquired the cosmopolitan character of a commercial nation. The rivers of this country are surpassed only by those of America; and, notwithstanding the north and south and west, including three-fourths of the whole country, are mountainous, the remaining fourth, stretching across the lower parts of both the great rivers, presents the greatest Delta land in the world, being a perfect Holland on a Chinese scale. Here the population and wealth and power of China are chiefly concentrated. The inland water communication, too, which is not confined to the alluvial territory, is like that of Holland, again, in respect to distribution, and like our own in vastness of extent. Besides the two great streams, there is a direct inland water communication from Canton to Pekin. South of the Kiang, it is by means of two rivers, with a passage between them by land of only twelve or fourteen miles; north it is by the imperial canal. This great national canal pervades the whole extent of the Chinese Delta, cutting the two great rivers at right angles, and receiving innumerable branches.

Except at Canton, which is approached by water, there are but three ways of access to China,-that on the north, from Asiatic Russia, through the wall, to Pekin; that on

The most

* Our common maps of China are not to be much relied on for accuracy. critical work at a moderate expense is the Atlas of Asia, by Ritter and O'Etzel, Berlin, 1833. The most complete and satisfactory in all respects, is the following: Asia, by Dr. H. Berghaus. 18 large Maps, with a copious Text. Gotha, 1837-38. The great work of Klaproth on Asia, which has been many years in preparation, and as precursors to which several single maps have already appeared, will, in all probability, surpass every other, Such, at least, appears to be the opinion of Ritter.

the north-west, from central Asia, through the narrow passage between the mountains of Thibet, and the great desert of Tartary; and that from Burmah, on the southwest, into the province of Yunnan. The preeminent importance of the place, and its connection with the history of the empire, require us to commence with "the north-west passage" of China. It touches upon the main part of China, between Sining in Thibet, and Ninghia on the Hoangho. It is here that a part of the great wall west of this river takes a north-western direction, following the pass. It is a little south of this, that the Hoangho leaves Thibet, and enters China; and a little north of it, that the wall, cutting the bend of the river from the east, strikes the western arm. From the gates near Pekin, on the north and west bank of the river, all the way up to Ninghia, there is an unbroken range of mountains. The wall here is needed only as a defence against the Ortos, within the bend of the river. From Ninghia, near which that range of mountains terminates, it is some little distance south, before you reach the mountains of Thibet. Passing from that city, south-west, towards Sining, and then turning directly to the north-west, you have on the right the great desert of Gobi, or Shamo, and on the left, the gigantic range of the Himalayan mountains. South of this pass, there is no opening through the mountain to the west, till you reach Yunnan, near Tali, where there is a passage into Burmalı, a little above Ava. Thus, a line drawn from the gates near Pekin, to Ava, would leave all the Chinese boundary west of it with but one single passage to central Asia. This narrow passage, with mountains of perpetual snow on the one side, and the desert and a branch of the wall on the other, fortified for many hundreds of miles with strong military towns, is the key to all that part of the empire. Here the fate of many kingdoms has been decided; and near this point the present empire of China took its origin.

The military defence of this part of the empire must appear preposterous to any one who has not an accurate knowledge of the country. That extremity of the Chinese wall designed to be a barrier against central Asia, instead of running north and south, as would be expected, runs, as artillery would be pointed, directly towards the enemy. Besides, it would be supposed, that at this point,

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-the only one where invasion directly from the west is practicable, the territory should be as compact, and the line of defence as short as possible; and yet the western province of Kansu here crosses the river, and runs out in a narrow neck of land, nearly a thousand miles, in a north-westerly direction. For more than a thousand years, Kiayakuan, not far from the longitude of Pekin, and the latitude of Ava, formed the western boundary of China; but now, the jurisdiction of the province of Kansu extends in that direction, beyond the longitude of Calcutta. Now the Chinese historians inform us, that it was the policy of the government to shape this frontier province just in such a way as to include the whole of the passage. By this means, it holds in its own hands a position which commands all that part of Asia. there are two natural enemies of China in this quarter, the Mongolians on the north, and the Thibetans on the south, both of which, the former, to be sure, making their way over deserts, and the latter over mountains,—would naturally enter China by this pass. If both should happen to unite, and pour in upon the empire at that point, the latter would inevitably fall a prey to them. To prevent such a junction, the wall was built, and fortified with military stations. Thus a double purpose was answered; and, with the natural barriers of the mountain on one side, and the desert beyond the wall on the other, it may be said, that no ordinary power can wrest that important passage from the hands of the Chinese.

But

Near Ninghia and Sining, is the point to which three routes from northern, western, and southern Asia converge, leading to China. The western, or central one, coming from the Caspian sea, by way of Samarcand, Kashgar, Hami, or Chamil, and the passage above described, is the one of principal travel; the southern route is from Lassa in Thibet, over high mountains, to Sining, a distance of about twelve hundred miles, according to the journals of some of the catholic missionaries, who passed that way from India to China; that from the north comes from lake Baikal, and crosses the great desert, and is sometimes travelled by the Russians, but chiefly by the Tartars. Such are the difficulties attending a journey by both of these last routes, that no European can travel them with any degree of comfort.

We can now perceive why Genghis Khan, no mean calculator of important positions, in his attempt against China, directed his whole attention to the frontier of Ninghia. His last great victory was the capture of this place, and his successors reaped the benefits of this master stroke of policy, and Kublai Khan soon swayed a Tartar sceptre over all China.

Of the entrance to China by the gates near Pekin, we need say but little here. This is the ordinary channel of Russian and Chinese intercourse. Besides the route from lake Baikal, directly south to Ninghia, reaching China. on the west, there are two which are more frequented, leading from that lake to Pekin. The older one is the more easterly, and takes a circuitous course, going around the great desert of Shamo, or to the east of it, and following the general direction of Nerchinsk, Argunsk, and Tsitsicar. The new route, now more commonly travelled, and followed by Lange, Bell, Klaproth, and Timkowski, leads directly from Baikal to Pekin, by way of Selinsk, Kiachta, Urga, and the desert. According to the treaty of 1689, between China and Russia, the boundary between them was to be passed only by triennial caravans, and any attempt to enter China during the intervals, was to be regarded as an aggression. As a party of Russian traders once crossed the line, and ventured to form a settlement on the Amur, a hundred and fifty miles beyond the boundary, they were captured by the Chinese, and carried to Pekin. This at length led to a Russian colony in the Chinese capital, in which the Russian religion and Russian schools are tolerated. The Chinese emperor allows the colony to have six clergymen and four teachers, to be succeeded by others, once in every ten years. The Russian government takes advantage of this arrangement, suggested by Chinese jealousy, and sends, every ten years, a new set of men, to study Chinese and Mongolian literature, and after their ten years of service have expired at Pekin, to return to Russia, as professors of Asiatic literature! This is one of the reasons, that so much Chinese literature comes to us by the way of Petersburg.

The entrance to China on the south-west, from Burmah to the province of Yunnan, is one of great interest to us, as it seems to point out a connection between our Burman