we endeavoured to tempt them by showing them a number of dollars, a most alluring bait for Chinese of all ranks and professions, yet we could not entice them on board us, nor procure any directions from them; though, I presume, the only difficulty was their not comprehending what we wanted them to do, as we could have no communication with them but by signs. Indeed we often pronounced the word Macao; but this we had reason to suppose they understood in a different sense, since in return they sometimes held up fish to us; and we afterwards learnt that the Chinese name for fish is of a somewhat similar sound. But what surprized us most was the inattention and want of curiosity which we observed in this herd of fishermen. A ship like ours had doubtless never been in these seas before; and perhaps there might not be one amongst all the Chinese, employed in that fishery, who had ever seen any European vessel; so that we might reasonably have expected to have been considered by them as a very uncommon and extraordinary object. But though many of their boats came close to the ship, yet they did not appear to be at all interested about us, nor did they deviate in the least from their course to regard us. Which insensibility, especially of maritime persons, in a matter relating to their own profession, is scarcely to be credited, did not the general behaviour of the Chinese in other instances furnish us with continual proofs of a similar turn of mind. It may perhaps be doubted whether this cast of temper be the effect of nature or education; but, in either case, it is an incontestable symptom of a mean and contemptible disposition, and is alone a sufficient confutation of the extravagant praises which many prejudiced writers have bestowed on the ingenuity and capacity of this nation. But to return. Not being able to procure any information from the Chinese fishermen about our proper course to Macao, it was necessary for us to rely entirely on our own judgment: and {320} concluding from our latitude, which was 22° 42' north, and from our soundings, which were only seventeen or eighteen fathoms, that we were yet to the eastward of Pedro Blanco, we still stood on to the westward. And for the assistance of future navigators, who may hereafter doubt what part of the coast they are upon, I must observe that besides the latitude of Pedro Blanco, which is 22° 18', and the depth of water, which to the westward of that rock is almost everywhere twenty fathoms, there is another circumstance which will be greatly assistant in judging of the position of the ship: this is the kind of ground; for, till we came within thirty miles of Pedro Blanco, we had constantly a sandy bottom; but there the bottom changed to soft and muddy, and continued so quite to the Island of Macao; only while we were in sight of Pedro Blanco, and very near it, we had for a short space a bottom of greenish mud, intermixed with sand.