586 THE GREAT CHINA WALL,

stayed some days to see and examine the particulars of it. They
told me there were fountains and fish-ponds in the garden, all paved
at the bottom and sides with the same, and fine statues set up in
rows on the walks, entirely formed of the porcelain earth, and
burned whole.

As this is one of the singularities of China, so they may be
allowed to excel in it; but I am very sure they excel in their
accounts of it; for they told me such incredible things of their
performance in crockery ware, for such it is, that I care not to
relate, as knowing it could not be true. They told me, in par-
ticular, of one workman that made a ship with all its tackle, and
masts, and sails, in earthenware, big enough to carry fifty men. If
he had told me he launched it, and made a voyage to Japan in it,
T might have said something to it indeed; but as it was, I knew
the whole of the story, which was, in short, asking pardon for the
word, that the fellow lied. So I smiled, and said nothing to it.

This odd sight kept me two hours behind the caravan, for which
the leader of it for the day fined me about the value of three
shillings, and told me, if it had been three days’ journey without
the wall, as it was three days within, he must have fined me four
times as much, and made me ask pardon the next council day. So
I promised to be more orderly ; for, indeed, I found afterwards the
orders made for keeping all together were absolutely necessary for
our common safety.

In two days more we passed the great China wall, made for a
fortification against the Tartars; and a very great work it is, going
over hills and mountains in a needless track, where the rocks are
impassable, and the precipices such as no enemy could possibly
enter, or indeed climb up, or where, if they did, no wall could hinder
them. They tell us, its length is near a thousand English miles,
but that the country is five hundred in a straight measured line,
which the wall bounds, without measuring the windings and turn-
ings it takes. "Tis about four fathom high, and as many thick
in some places.

I stood still an hour or thereabout, without trespassing our
orders, for so long the caravan was in passing the gate; I say,
T stood still an hour to look at it on every side, near and far off;