‘OF ROBINSON :‘CRUSGE. 475

 

going away being set, and the other missionary who was to go with him
being arrived from Macao, it was necessary that we should resolve
either to go, or not to go; so I referred him to my partner, and left
it wholly to his choice, who at length resolved it in the affirmative, and
we prepared for our journey. We set out with very good advantage,
as to finding the way; for we got leave to travel in the retinue of one
of their mandarins, a kind of viceroy, or principal magistrate, in the
province where they reside, and who take great state upon them, tra-
velling with great attendance, and with great homage from the people,
who are sometimes greatly impoverished by them, because all the
countries they pass through aré obliged to furnish provisions for them,
and all their attendants. That which I particularly observed, as to
our travelling with his baggage, was this; that though we received
sufficient provisions, both for ourselves and our horses, from the coun-
try, as belonging to the mandarin, yet we were obliged to pay for
every thing we had after the market price of the country, and the
mandarin’s steward, or commissary of the provisions, collected it duly
from us; so that our travelling in the retinue of the mandarin, though it
was a very great kindness to us, was not such a mighty favour in him,
but was, indeed, a great advantage to him, considering there were about
thirty other people travelling in the same manner besides us, under
the protection of his retinue, or, as we may call it, under his convoy.
This, I say, was a great advantage to him; for the country furnished
all the provisions for nothing, and he took all our money for them.

We were five-and-twenty days travelling to Pekin, through a coun-
try infinitely populous, but miserably cultivated: the husbandry, eco-
nomy, and the way of living, all very miserable, though they boast so
much of the industry of the people,—I say miserable; and so it. is,
if we, who understand how to live, were to endure it, or to compare it
with our own; but not so to these poor wretches, who know no other.
The pride of these people is infinitely great, and exceeded by nothing
but their poverty, which adds to that which I call their misery. I
must needs think the naked savages of America live much more happy,
because, as they have nothing, so they desire nothing; whereas, these
are proud and insolent, and, in the main, are mere beggars and
drudges:. their ostentation is inexpressible, and is chiefly showed in
their clothes and buildings, and in the keeping multitudes of servants
or slaves, and, which is to the last degree ridiculous, their contempt
of all the world but themselves.

T must confess, I travelled more pleasantly afterwards, in the deserts
and vast wildernesses of Grand Tartary, than here: and yet the roads
here are well paved and well kept, and very convenient for travellers;