ield together, would be able
to do nothing but ruin the country and starve themselves; a million of
their foot could not stand before one embattled body of our infantry,
posted so as not to be surrounded, though they were not to be one to
twenty in number; nay, I do not boast if I say that thirty thousand
German or English foot, and ten thousand horse, well managed, could
defeat all the forces of China. Nor is there a fortified town in China
that could hold out one month against the batteries and attacks of an
European army. They have firearms, it is true, but they are awkward and
uncertain in their going off; and their powder has but little strength.
Their armies are badly disciplined, and want skill to attack, or temper
to retreat; and therefore, I must confess, it seemed strange to me, when
I came home, and heard our people say such fine things of the power,
glory, magnificence, and trade of the Chinese; because, as far as I saw,
they appeared to be a contemptible herd or crowd of ignorant, sordid
slaves, subjected to a government qualified only to rule such a people;
and were not its distance inconceivably, great from Muscovy, and that
empire in a manner as rude, impotent, and ill governed as they, the Czar
of Muscovy might with ease drive them all out of their country, and
conquer them in one campaign; and had the Czar (who is now a growing
prince) fallen this way, instead of attacking the warlike Swedes, and
equally improved himself in the art of war, as they say he has done; and
if none of the powers of Europe had envied or interrupted him, he might
by this time have been Emperor of China, instead of being beaten by the
King of Sweden at Narva, when the latter was not one to six in number.

As their strength and their grandeur, so their navigation, commerce, and
husbandry are very imperfect, compared to the same things in Europe;
also, in their knowledge, their learning, and in their skill in the
sciences, they are either very awkward or defective, though they have
globes or spheres, and a smattering of the mathematics, and think they
know more than all the world besides. But they know little of the
motions of the heavenly bodies; and so grossly and absurdly ignorant are
their common people, that when the sun is eclipsed, they think a great
dragon has assaulted it, and is going to run away with it; and they fall
a clattering with all the drums and kettles in the country, to fright the
monster away, just as we d