be another fair at the place where we were, and then we
might be able to purchase various manufactures of the country, and withal
might possibly find some Chinese junks from Tonquin for sail, that would
carry us and our goods whither we pleased. This I liked very well, and
resolved to wait; besides, as our particular persons were not obnoxious,
so if any English or Dutch ships came thither, perhaps we might have an
opportunity to load our goods, and get passage to some other place in
India nearer home. Upon these hopes we resolved to continue here; but,
to divert ourselves, we took two or three journeys into the country.

First, we went ten days' journey to Nankin, a city well worth seeing;
they say it has a million of people in it: it is regularly built, and the
streets are all straight, and cross one another in direct lines. But
when I come to compare the miserable people of these countries with ours,
their fabrics, their manner of living, their government, their religion,
their wealth, and their glory, as some call it, I must confess that I
scarcely think it worth my while to mention them here. We wonder at the
grandeur, the riches, the pomp, the ceremonies, the government, the
manufactures, the commerce, and conduct of these people; not that there
is really any matter for wonder, but because, having a true notion of the
barbarity of those countries, the rudeness and the ignorance that prevail
there, we do not expect to find any such thing so far off. Otherwise,
what are their buildings to the palaces and royal buildings of Europe?
What their trade to the universal commerce of England, Holland, France,
and Spain? What are their cities to ours, for wealth, strength, gaiety
of apparel, rich furniture, and infinite variety? What are their ports,
supplied with a few junks and barks, to our navigation, our merchant
fleets, our large and powerful navies? Our city of London has more trade
than half their mighty empire: one English, Dutch, or French man-of-war
of eighty guns would be able to fight almost all the shipping belonging
to China: but the greatness of their wealth, their trade, the power of
their government, and the strength of their armies, may be a little
surprising to us, because, as I have said, considering them as a
barbarous nation of pagans, little better than savages, we did not expect
such things among them. But all the forces of their empire, though they
were to bring two millions of men into the f