When They Are
To Sow Wheat, Barley, Pulse, Or Other Grain, They Grub Up The Surface Of
The Ground Superficially, Earth, Grass, And Rook, And Mixing This With
Some Straw, Burn All Together.
This earth, being sifted fine, they mix
with the seed, which they sow in holes made in straight lines, so that
it grows in tufts or rows like the rice.
The field is divided into
regular beds, well harrowed both before and after the seed is sown,
which makes them resemble gardens. The rice grounds are meliorated
merely by letting water into them; but for the other grains, where the
soil requires it, they use dung, night-soil, ashes, and the like. For
watering their fields, they use the machine mentioned by Martini in the
preface to his Atlas, being entirely constructed of wood, and the same
in principle with the chain-pump.
In order to procure salt, as all the shores are of mud instead of sand,
they pare off in summer the superficial part of this mud, which has been
overflowed by the sea-water, and lay it up in heaps, to be used in the
following manner: Having first dried it in the sun, and rubbed it into a
fine powder, they dig a pit, the bottom of which is covered with straw,
and from the bottom a hollow cane leads through the side of the pit to a
jar standing below the level of the bottom. They then fill the pit
almost full of the dried salt mud, and pour on sea-water till it stands
two or three inches above the top of the mud. This sea-water drains
through the mud, carrying the salt along with it from the mud as well as
its own, and runs out into the jar much-saturated with salt; which is
afterwards procured by boiling.
Sec.4. Of the famous Medicinal Root, called Hu-tchu-u.
Having last year seen, in a newspaper, some account of a singular root,
brought from China by Father Fontaney, I shall inform you that I have
seen this root since my arrival at Chuaan. It is called Hu-tchu-n[333]
by the Chinese, and they ascribe to it most wonderful virtues, such as
prolonging life, and changing grey hair to black, by using its infusion
by way of tea. It is held in such high estimation as to be sold at a
great price, as I have been told, from ten tael up to a thousand, or
even two thousand tael-for a single root; for the larger it is, so much
the greater is its fancied value and efficacy: But the price is too high
to allow me to try the experiment. You will find it mentioned in the
Medecina Sinica of Cleyer, No. 84; under the name of He-xeu-ti,
according to the Portuguese orthography. It is also figured in the 27th
table of the plants which Mr Pettier had from me. The following is the
story of its discovery, which I will not warrant for gospel.
[Footnote 333: This is probably the ginseng, so famed for its fancied
virtues. - E.]
Once upon a time, a certain person went to gather simples among the
mountains, and fell by some accident into a vale of which the sides were
so steep that he was unable to get out again. In this situation, he had
to look about for some means to support life, and discovered this root,
of which he made trial, and found that it served him both as food and
cloathing; for it preserved his body in such a temperature, that the
injuries of the weather had no evil influence upon him during a
residence of several hundred years. At length, by means of an
earthquake, the mountains were rent, and he found a passage from the
vale to his house, whence he had been so long absent. But so many
alterations had taken place during his long absence, that nobody would
believe his story; till, on consulting the annals of his family, they
found that one of them had been lost at the time he mentioned, which
confirmed the truth of his relation. - This is a fable, not even credited
among the Chinese, invented merely to blazon forth the virtues of this
wonderful root.
Sec.5. Removal of Dr Cunningham to Pulo Condore, with an Account of the
Rise, Progress, and Ruin of that Factory.[334]
The English factory at Chusan was broken up in the year 1702, so that Dr
Cunningham had very little time allowed him for making his proposed
observations respecting China. From this place he removed to another new
settlement at Pulo Condore, in a small cluster of four or five
islands, about fifteen leagues south of the west channel of the river of
Camboja, usually called the Japanese river.[335] I am unable to say what
were the advantages proposed from this factory; but, from the memoirs I
have seen on the subject, this place seems to have been very ill chosen,
and much worse managed. The person who had at this time the management
and direction of the affairs belonging to the East India Company in this
distant part of the world, was one Mr Katchpole, who, according to the
usual custom of the Europeans in eastern India at this period, took into
the service a certain number of Macassers or native soldiers, by whose
assistance he soon constructed a small fort for the protection of the
factory. So far as I can learn, the most indispensable necessaries of
life, water, wood, and fish, were all that these islands ever afforded.
[Footnote 334: This and the subsequent subdivision of the section are
related historically by Harris. - E.]
[Footnote 335: Pulo Condore is in lat. 8 deg. 45' N. long. 106 deg. 5' E. and
the object of a factory at this place was evidently to endeavour to
secure a portion of the trade of China, from which the English at this
time were excluded by the arts of the Portuguese at Macao, as we learn
from the Annals; as also to combine some trade with Siam, Camboja,
Tsiompa, Cochin-China, and Tonquin.
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