and a new Chinese mission. The passage is from Bhanmo on the Irrawaddy, above Ava, by way of Santa, Tengye, and Yung tchang, to Tali. The route is mountainous, and crosses the Salwen and Cambodia rivers. There is another way, by going directly east from Ava, till you cross the Cambodia river, and then following its course up towards Tali; and others still, between these two, all, however, leading to nearly the same part of Yunnan. The first is described by M. Polo, who probably accompanied the Chinese army under Kublai Khan into Burmah, and also by the Burmese embassy to Pekin, in 1833; the second, in the journal of a similar embassy in 1787; the others, in a communication made by Lieut. MacLeod, in 1836. Col. Burney, in three successive numbers of the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, of 1837, gives an account, drawn from Burmese annals, of more than a dozen large armies that passed and repassed this route during the wars between China and Burmah. Klaproth has proved, from various oriental documents, as well as from M. Polo's account, that the inhabitants of the Chinese province of Yunnan are by descent Karens; and that this people are spread through the mountainous country between that province and Canton. The province itself, in M. Polo's time, was called Karaien, and the Mohammedans now call it Karayen.

The mountains of China receive their direction from the great Himalayan system, running east and west, and forming a broad belt across the centre of Asia. That part of it, which enters China, proceeds from the borders of Thibet to the Chinese coast. There are four parallel ranges, of which the most southerly runs along the coast, south of the river of Canton. The second, which is the largest, pursues a south-easterly course along the 26° N. L., directly towards the island of Formosa, and is, in the western part, the retreat of the Miao tse, an independent, aboriginal race. In this range, the rivers Kan, Yan, and Yuen, which flow north into the Kiang, take their rise, as also the Pe kiang, which flows south, to Canton. The short pass between these head waters is the only interruption of water communication between Canton and Pekin. The third range, in latitude 32, is the most elevated, where it forms the boundary between the western provinces, Szechuen and Kansu; the fourth, two degrees further

north, runs between the two great rivers of China. On the west side of China, where these mountains leave Thibet, they form a series of impassable, snowy peaks, which serve as a barrier between the two countries.

The gigantic twin rivers of China, rising near each other, in Thibet, then receding, and finally approaching again near the ocean, are much larger than our school geographies represent them. The Hoangho, according to Ritter, stretches about one tenth the way round the globe, being half as long again as the Danube. It flows 800 miles among mountains of perpetual snow, before it reaches China; from that point to the right angle at the east termination of the great bend, its course is 1100 miles from thence to the ocean, it is 650 miles, making in all 2550 miles. The upper course is very mountainous; the middle is on high table land; the lower is a low alluvial country. The Kiang is still more gigantic, having a course of 3000 miles.

It is well known, that the eastern part of the Chinese wall is now nearly useless, not only because it was, in many places, prostrated by the Tartars, who conquered China, but because it is no longer a border wall, lying, as it now does, within the empire. For the Manchous, now on the Chinese throne, were originally in possession of the territory to the north-east of Pekin. In this direction, therefore, the present dynasty need no defence; from the land of their fathers, from their own homes, they fear no danger. Not so with respect to the Mongolians, who live farther west, and who remember that they were once masters of the empire. There is a short distance, from Pekin west to the Hoangho, where they are not shut out by impassable mountains. This is along the direct route from Pekin to lake Baikal. But the wily Chinese have converted all that mountainous country through which one must pass to reach the great desert, into a kind of Mark, or military colony. The territory is mostly owned by the nobles, and is partly cultivated by the wild mountaineers, and partly by the state criminals, who here find their Botany Bay, or Siberia. This untamed, and untamable population supply the empire with cavalry, and, situated as they are, between China and Mongolia, they form the bulwark of China at that point. The annual chase in these wild regions by the emperor,

his court and the whole army answers a threefold purpose. It inures the court and army to hardship; it furnishes an opportunity to review the military condition of the colony; and awes the people of the country into subjection, by the imposing exhibition which it makes of the military power of the empire.

The imperial canal consists of three parts, the northern from Pekin to the Hoangho, a distance of 675 miles; the central, between the two great rivers, 95 miles ;* and the southern from the Kiang to Hang tcheou, 350 miles, making the whole length of the canal 1120 miles. The northern part was built first, and was commenced in the thirteenth century by Kublai Khan. The work begun at the height of land in latitude 36, in the year 1289. Here the waters of the Wenho, a river flowing from the east and then turning south to the Hoangho, were so divided, that a certain part of the stream took a new direction towards Pekin. Here stands the celebrated temple of the Dragon King, the divinity of the canal. The new channel towards the north, receives at Lin tsin, the river Weiho from the south-west and passes into the province, Pe che le, and, after receiving another small river and passing several large towns, it reaches the Peho, which comes from Pekin and passes by to the ocean. Here the Peho itself is used as a canal and may be ascended to Pekin or descended to Tiensing, a commercial city on the coast. Lord Macartney, when he returned from Pekin to Canton, was nine days in coming from that seaport town up to the point where the Weiho enters the canal. Thus far the channel of this river (that is, its lower or northern part) was converted into a canal, comparatively with little labor; the country here is level, and its appearance very monotonous. In four days more, the embassy passed through that part of the canal, which is entirely the work of art, up to the dividing of the waters. The high

artificial banks," says Ritter, "the temples, the conical sepulchres of the priests, the forest of masts, the fortifications, the throngs of boatmen, the great breadth of the channel, all combine to give an air of sublimity to the scene. At the floodgates, seventy-two in number, bridges are thrown over the canal on account of its narrow at

* It will be seen that this account differs from that of the English embassy.

those places; here also the government receives toll." After passing the eminence, there is a pretty rapid current to the south, and the canal passes by lakes and large cities through a fertile country, and crosses the Hoangho 140 miles from its mouth. "Through this whole distance," -we quote again from Ritter,-"the canal often passes through lakes, ponds and marshes, with which they communicate by floodgates for letting off or receiving water, as occasion requires. It has been found necessary to have large reservoirs of water, so that in time of drought there might be a supply. All these lakes and pools are so covered with floating villages and the boats of fishermen, with their fishing cormorants, and all the dry land is so perfectly cultivated, as to render this whole section of the country highly productive."

The Chinese authors inform us, that the canal between the two great rivers was made between 1490 and 1584, and that it followed the course of a stream which ran to the south. A little below the large lake that is situated here, at Yang tcheou, where M. Polo was governor, the canal is divided into two branches, the left one going directly south and crossing the Kiang, and thus continuing the main route to Hang tcheou and Ningpo, the one on the right bending south-west and striking the Kiang farther up towards Nankin, and forming the passage to that city and to Canton. The canal from the Hoangho to the Kiang has an average breadth of 200 feet, and being twenty feet above the level of the country, necessarily exposes many cities to inundations. On account of the great prevalence of the waters, the land is less cultivated here than elsewhere; but the waters themselves teem with the lotus and with fishing villages. The crossing of the Kiang is very different from that of the Hoangho. Though the current is much less rapid, it being only two miles an hour, whereas that of Hoangho is five, it is not less than two miles wide, and is supposed to be from three to four hundred feet deep. Tsing kiang, further down towards the ocean, is called the "key of the empire." It has an immense, though unknown, population, and being a maritime emporium, its harbor exhibits a perfect forest of masts. Europe is almost as ignorant of the country along this great river from the canal to the ocean, as it was

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recently of the centre of Africa. Some discoveries are just beginning to be made.

The south branch of the canal, from the Kiang to Hang tcheou, was commenced near this city in the seventh century, but was not completed till 1181. It runs through a very populous territory, which is intersected by innumerable branch-canals, and in its northern section is divided into three large parallel arms. "The names of the collateral branches," says our geographer, "which are very numerous, for the land is completely covered with populous cities all of which stand connected with the grand canal by branches,-we must pass over, because, without more accurate maps than we possess, they would be unintelligible to our readers. To be well versed in the complicated canal network of this Netherland, Lombard, or Babylonian territory, is the first duty of the mandarins who are stationed here. Some idea of the immense population of this canal and river territory may be gathered from the imperial census of 1813, which gives in round numbers twenty-eight millions for the province of Pe che le, twenty-nine for Shautung, twenty-three for Honan, seventy-one for Kiangnan, and twenty-six for Chekiang, making for these provinces alone one hundred and seventy-seven millions, more than two-thirds the population of all Europe."

We subjoin a sketch of the route from Canton to the Kiang, and thus place before the reader, at one view, all that European ambassadors to Pekin generally see of the Chinese empire. From Canton to the mountain pass (Meiling), a distance of about 250 miles, the route is by water on the river Pe kiang, which comes from the north, and empties in at Canton. Large boats can ascend as far as Chao tcheou, a distance of 170 miles, and small boats can go as far as Nanyong, 75 miles farther up. Near Canton the appearance of the country is like one continuous garden; next follows, for a distance of several days' journey, an unbroken plain, fertile, but not so highly cultivated. At Tsing yuen, about one degree north of Canton, uncultivated patches of ground begin to appear, though in general, the vale of the river is covered with crops of rice and tobacco, and the hills on each side with cotton and camomile. At Chao tcheou, are multitudes of vessels, laden with goods destined for Canton, Macao,