expend to the value of eight or ten pounds sterling for one lantern; and those which are ordered by the emperor, viceroys, and great mandarins, cost from one hundred to one hundred and fifty pounds each. 39. These lanterns are very large, either painted or neatly gilt, and filled up with transparent silk, upon which are painted flowers, animals, and various other figures. Seve ral lamps, and a great number of wax candles, are put into these lanterns; to the corners of which are fixed streamers of satin and silk of different colours, and a curious piece of carved work is placed over the top. SECT. 8. Agriculture and Industry. 40. Agriculture in China is held in high estimation; and the husbandman holds the next rank to men of letters, and the officers of state. The emperor annually, at the vernal equinox, performs the ceremony of holding the plough; an example in which he is followed by all the great officers throughout the empire. The emperor is regarded as the sole proprietor of the land; but he receives only a tenth part of the produce, which forms the only burden: nothing is paid either for poor rates or the support of the clergy. 41. The wonderful circumstance, in Chinese agriculture, is the care taken to bring every spot under cultivation. The chief instrument in such a climate is moisture, which is conveyed to every district, and almost to every field, by innumerable canals. The sides of lofty mountains are formed into terraces, to which the water is conveyed up in buckets; or the rain is collected in reservoirs at the tops, and conveyed down by conduits. 42. Mr. Ellis expresses very strongly the relief which his eye once felt at seeing, for the first time, in the sail of several days, a small patch of ground abandoned to nature. On a high mountain, says Mr. Anderson, I discovered several distinct patches of ground under cultivation in such a state of declivity, as to me would have appeared altogether inaccessible, if I had not seen the owner employed on one of those alarming precipices. 43. The peasant had a rope fixed about his middle, which was secured at the other end on the top of a mountain, and by this means, the hardy cultivator was able to let himself down to any part of the precipice, where a few square yards 1 of ground gave him encouragement to plant his vegetables or his corn; and in this manner he had decorated the mountain with a number of cultivated spots; near the bottom he had erected a wooden hut, surrounded with a small piece of ground, planted with cabbages, where he supported, by this hazardous industry, a wife and several children. 44. The agriculture of China, in point of science and skill, cannot come into competition with that of Europe. There are no great farms; nothing is conducted on a large scale; there are no teams, no rotation of crops; little milk, and no butter, or cheese, is produced. Their instruments of tillage are extremely defective; and their common plough is composed of a single stick of crooked timber, and is dragged by a single buffalo. In many places the spade and hoe are the chief means of cultivation. SECT. 9. Architecture and Buildings. 45. The Chinese architecture bears no resemblance to that of Europe; their style of building is inelegant in design, and clumsy in execution. Their houses have little that is remarkable in their external appearance, and their public edifices are distinguished rather by their extent than their magnificence. 46. The external form and aspect of all their houses are very similar; and the habitation of a grandee in the capital is distinguished from that of a tradesman, chiefly, by being surrounded by a high wall, and by occupying a greater piece of ground. The dwellings of the peasantry are, indeed, extremely wretched. 47. The floors, in the houses of the wealthy, are of brick or clay; the ceiling is of bamboo laths, covered with plaster, or left bare. The walls are generally whitened with lime, made of shells, or covered with white paper. Instead of glass for windows, they use oiled paper, silk gauze, horn, or pearl shell, as a substitute. 48. The temples are constructed upon a similar plan to that of the houses, with the addition of a second, and sometimes of a third story. The pagodas are frequently composed of five, seven, or nine roofs, but always an uneven number, and commonly very ill constructed. They are from 80 to 160 feet in height, and are the most striking objects in China. Note. China, an extensive empire of Asia, is bounded on the north by Tartary, from which it is separated by a stupendous wall; east and south by the Chinese Ocean and Burmah; and west by Thibet. It lies between 200 and 41° north latitude, and is said to contain two hundred millions of inhabitants. It is in general a plain and level country. PITCAIRN'S ISLAND. 1. PITCAIRN'S Island, a small island, only six miles long, and three broad, is situated to the southeast of the Society Islands. This island was settled in 1789, by nine Englishmen, mutineers of the English ship Bounty, each of them having taken a wife from Otaheite. Eight other natives of Otaheite accompanied them, six males and two females, making in all 26 persons. 2. Within a few years, all the men, except one, were dead, being mostly killed in quarrels. John Adams, an Englishman, alone survived to be the father and protector of the children of his shipmates; and although he had been a mutineer, he seems to have performed the duty of his charge with great fidelity. The island was visited by two British vessels, in 1814, and the inhabitants were described as follows: 3. "This interesting new colony now consisted of 46 persons, mostly grown up young people, besides a number of infants. The young men, all born in the island, were very athletic, and of the finest forms, their countenances open and pleasing, indicating much benevolence and goodness of heart; and the young women were objects of particular admiration, tall, robust, and beautifully formed." 4. "Their faces beamed with smiles and unruffled good humour, but wearing a degree of modesty and bashfulness that would do honour to the most virtuous nation on earth; and all of them, both male and female, had the most marked English features. Their native modesty, assisted by a proper sense of religion and morality, instilled into their youthful minds by John Adams, the leader of the colony, has hitherto preserved this interesting people perfectly chaste. |