Andreas Everardus van Braam Houckgeest

“ Is, properly speaking, a Vice-roy governing a province. This employ is the most elevated that can be held by a Mandarin of the first rank, who is not officially resident at Court. Only eight of the fifteen provinces of China are governed by Tsong-tous, three of whom have two provinces subject to their administration. The four remaining are superintended by Fou-yuens.
The authority of a Tsong-tou is very great. He is never addressed without marks of the most profound respect: no Chinese, unless a Mandarin, is ever allowed even to speak to him but on his knees. ”

“ Accordingly, to expect always extraordinary things from a Traveller who speaks of China, and to doubt his veracity merely because he relates things which seem extraordinary — is the disposition of mind of those, who read any thing written concerning that astonishing country. ”

“ That immense Empire is so little known; the prejudices of its inhabitants, or rather the wisdom of its government, has thrown so many obstacles in the way of those Europeans who might feel a desire to penetrate into the country in order to satisfy their curiosity and to examine what imperfect and hasty sketches have given them a faint idea of, that if it is easy to give imaginary details for certain facts, it is at the same time difficult to secure a true relation, from the existing distrust, which puts the Reader upon his guard against the Narrator. ”

“ The second sort of religion, adopted long after the first, and consequently when the Chinese were already embodied into a regular nation, is Idolatry, and Idolatry carried to such a length, that every one is free to make Gods according to his fancy, so that every head of a family has some of his own creation. ”

“ Gemelle reproaches Nieuhoff with saying, that there are women of that description in China; but the fact is but too true, and is proved unequivocally by what the Author says upon the subject.
On the river of Canton there are boats with women of pleasure in them. With these women the Chinese of the town sometimes pass three or four days together.
They are trained up by other women, who carry on this shameful traffic; and are so instructed as to be ignorant of nothing lascivious or immodest. As the Chinese experience no tenderness from their wives, they are fond of this fort of immorality. ”

“ THE more distant the Regions which the Traveller describes, the more they differ in their moral and physical nature from the nations for whose instruction and gratification he destines his observations, the more important is it to the reader to know in what degree his confidence is due to the man who speaks to him of what is passing in remote countries, and almost at the other end of the world.
It is particularly in respect to China that the Fear of receiving the productions of an imagination more or less fertile for a true recital is easily awakened. ”

“ The Dragon is venerated throughout China; but the Emperor alone has the right of having them painted, embroidered, or sculptured with five claws or talons. The rest of the nation cannot use figures of dragons with more than four. ”

“ They are detached from the rocks as soon as the young one's take their flight; for it is the nest, and not the bird, that is of value. Whole boats are filled with this commodity, which becomes a considerable branch of commerce in the above countries. The property of this singular sort of aliment is to give a savoury taste to every dish of which it makes a part."
The Chinese are also of opinion that these bird's-nests are a stimulant to love, and in this persuasion, some of them have been known to give as much as an hundred Louis d'ors for twenty-five pounds weight of bird's-nests. ”

“ Finally, as if it were M. Van-Braam's destiny to signalize his abode in China by the most striking circumstances, he has brought over with him several Chinese, who seem to be come purposely to attest the truth of what he has related concerning their country, or has represented in his collection of drawings: a collection which he exposed for several months at Philadelphia to the view of all amateurs of the sciences. ”

“ The rest of the suburbs, in fact, present nothing to the eye but a piece of ground very irregularly built upon, in which are plots of cultivated land, and empty spaces, so that one half of it is yet without buildings, as we had an opportunity of clearly perceiving on the fifteenth of February 1795, when we left Pe-king. ”

“ With respect to the Translation, he wilt venture without hesitation to affirm, that it is faithfully performed. It is the work of a Gentleman of approved talents, whom a long residence in France has rendered incapable of the blunders that almost always deform books translated from the French tongue into ours. ”

“ My Journal, on the contrary, was copied for the Ambassador, and lay open to the inspection of all the other Dutchmen who performed the journey.
On our return to Canton, I had the good fortune to meet with a very exact topographical chart of the city of Pe-king. The proprietor of that chart, which was already of very ancient date, would not part with it; but permitted me to take a copy. It is so particular, that every street is distinguished, and the elevation of every edifice delineated. ”

“ It is with the same disregard of truth that it has been said, that the Chinese shut themselves up in their houses when the Emperor goes out, and that those he happens to meet on his road turn their backs with their face to the ground, to escape the penalty of death. ”

“ The wick of all the Chinese candles is of bamboo.
Regency.
The word Regency is repeatedly used in this work to signify government or administration; as the regency of Batavia, the regency of Macao, and even the regency of Canton, that is, the administration of the province of Quang-tong, intrusted to the Tsong-tou, the Pou-yuen, and the Hou-pou, who all reside in the city of Canton. (Fr. Ed.)
Religion.
The primitive religion of China is that of the ancient patriarchs, such as Abraham, Melchisedeck, &c. ”

“ The Editor will conclude this Advertisement by a reflection which will no doubt strike the Reader as it does him: it is, that M. Van Braam's journal, not being a work undertaken with a view to reason upon China in a systematic manner, but to give an account of what he has met with and perceived, it cannot be supposed or expected that he should reduce facts to an agreement with any particular opinions. It is simple facts that he relates; he commits them to paper in the order in which they present themselves ”

“ The Mongul Tartars, who conquered China in 1280, and who were driven out in 1280, inhabit Chinese Western Tartary. They are governed by Kans, or princes, who are all subject to the Emperor of China, as Grand Kan of the Tartars, (Fr. Ed.)
Temperature.
I beg the reader here to pardon my entering into a comparison of temperatures.
Pe-king is in 39 degrees 55 minutes north latitude, and Philadelphia in 39 degrees 56, so that they may be said to be under the same parallel.
The winter is exceedingly cold and severe at Pe-king; and the nature of the winter at Philadelphia is the same. ”

“ With this desire was combined that rational curiosity which seeks to penetrate into mysteries under which it imagines useful truths to lie concealed; and, lastly, that sentiment so natural to a European, of wishing to acquire further knowledge of a nation of which the little already known furnishes matter of so much well-founded astonishment.
As soon as this project was conceived, M. Van-Braam made it one of his principal concerns. Industrious both by habit and disposition; led by his very duties to make observations; having opportunities more or less frequent of questioning Chinese ”

“ This relates to the young men who devote themselves to the study of the sciences. There are generally four thousand in the Academy, or Gymnasium, at Canton.
The Chinese attach the highest importance to the examinations they undergo, because those who get through them successfully are destined to fill the different posts in the Administration, even the most eminent. ”

“ It is to shew the well-informed reader what degree of confidence he may place in the Travels now submitted to his inspection, that the Editor has thought it adviseable to give him some idea of the character of the person who presents them to the public. ”

“ The Author himself sold some at Canton as high as six Louis d'ors the Cati, or twenty ounces French. (Poids de marc.)
They are carried to Holland, where there is a great consumption of them, and where they are in high request. (Fr. Ed.)
Button.
A button, placed upon the front of the cap, serves In China to mark all the gradations of power, from the Emperor to the lowest Mandarin. The Emperor alone wears a large pearl as a button. ”

“ Paint.
It appears in the instructions of the Emperor Kang-hi to his sons, given in the Mémoires Chinois, quarto edition, vol. ix. page 226, that under the preceding dynasty, the ceruss and cinnabar consumed by the servant-girls belonging to the palace, cost ten millions of livres. (Fr. Ed.) ”

“ There died within that time at Pe-king eleven thousand four hundred persons, although refreshments were distributed in the streets.
In 1760 the heat killed eight thousand persons in less than two months.
Philadelphia is without doubt far from experiencing such a fatal degree of heat; but the thermometer often rises as high as 28 degrees of Reaumur (95 of Fahrenheit) . In the summer the days are burning hot; they are distressing; and the nights are almost as hot as the day. ”