His
Orders Were Complied With, And His Body Was Burnt, According To The Custom
Of The Country.
Until the late revolution had reduced them to their present state of
anarchy, the Chinese were wonderfully regular and exact in every thing
relative to government; of which the following incident affords a striking
example.
A merchant of Chorassan, who had dealt largely in Irak, and who
embarked from thence for China, with a quantity of goods, had a dispute
at Canfu with an eunuch, who was sent to purchase some ivory, and other
goods for the emperor, and at length the dispute ran so high, that the
merchant refused to sell him his goods. This eunuch was keeper of the
imperial treasury, and presumed so much on the favour and confidence which
he enjoyed with his master, that he took his choice of all the goods he
wanted from the merchant by force, regardless of every thing that the
merchant could say. The merchant went privately from Canfu to Cumdan, the
residence of the emperor, which is two months journey; and immediately went
to the string of the bell, mentioned in the former section, which he
pulled. According to the custom of the country, he was conveyed to a place
at the distance of ten days journey, where he was committed to prison for
two months; after which he was brought before the viceroy of the province,
who represented to him, that he had involved himself in a situation which
would tend to his utter ruin, and even the loss of his life, if he did not
speak out the real truth:
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