From the number of souls crowded in so small a space, it must naturally be supposed they are horridly dirty, which is evidently the case, and their vessels swarm with all kinds of vermin. Rats in particular, which they encourage to breed, and eat them as great delicacies;[119] in fact, there are very few creatures they will not eat. During our captivity we lived three weeks on caterpillars boiled with rice. They are much addicted to gambling, and spend all their leisure hours at cards and smoking opium. THE END. LONDON: Printed by J. L. Cox, Great Queen Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields. FOOTNOTES: [1] The Chinese have particular histories of the robbers and pirates who existed in the _middle empire_ from the most ancient times; these histories form a portion of every provincial history. The three last books (the 58th, 59th, and 60th) of the _Memoirs_ _concerning the South of the Meihling Mountains_ (see the Catechism of the Shahmans, p. 44) are inscribed _Tsing fun_ (10,987, 2,651), and contain the Robber history from the beginning of Woo wang, of the dynasty Chow. The Memoirs only give extracts of former works; the extracts to the three last books are taken from _the Great History of Yu[)e]_, or Province of Kwang tang (_Yu[)e] ta ke_), from _the Old Transactions of the Five Realms_ (_Woo kw[)o] koo sse_), _the Old Records of Yang ching_, a name of the ancient city of Kwang tung (_Yang ching koo chaou_), _the Official Robber History_ (_Kw[)o] she y[)i]h shin chuen_), &c. [2] We are chiefly indebted to the Jesuits that the Russians had not conquered part of China about the middle of the seventeenth century. See the passage of Muller in Burney's Voyages of Discovery to the North-East Passage, p. 55. The Manchow destroyed the Chinese patriots by the cannon cast by the Rev. Father Verbiest.--Le Comte, Nouvelles Observations sur la Chine. [3] We have a learned dissertation, pleading for the authenticity of the famous inscription of _Se ngan foo_, by a well-known Sinologue. May we not be favoured with another _Oratio pro domo_ concerning the many crosses which had been found in Fuh këen, and on the "Escrevices de Mer, qui estans encore en vie, lors mesme qu'elles estoient cuites?" See Relation de la Chine par Michel Boym, de la Compagnie de Jesus, in Thévenot, et Relations de divers Voyage, vol. ii, pp. 6 and 14. [4] _Toland_, History of the Druids, p. 51.-- "This justice, therefore, I would do to Ireland, even if it had not been my country, _viz._ to maintain that this tolerating principle, this _impartial liberty_ (of religion), ever since unexampled there as well as elsewhere, _China excepted_, is far greater honour to it," &c.