[149] Authorities on Tibet besides those already referred to: _Journal Asiatique_, Tomes IV., p. 281; VIII., p. 117; IX., p. 31; XIV., pp. 177, ff. 277, 406, etc. Du Halde, _Description of China_, Vol. II., pp. 384-388. Capt. Samuel Turner, _Account of an Embassy to the Court of Teshoo Lama in Tibet_, London, 1800. _Histoire de ce qui s’est passé au Royaume du Tibet, en l’année 1626_; trad. de l’Italien. Paris, 1829. P. Kircher, _China Illustrata_. MM. Péron et Billecocq, _Recueil de Voyages du Thibet_, Paris, 1796. _Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal_, passim. _Chinese Repository_, Vols. VI., pp. 28, 494, IX., p. 26, and XIII., p. 505. Ritter, _Asien_, Bd. II., 4er Abschnitt, and Bd. III., S. 137-424. Richthofen, _China_, Bd. I., S. 228, 247, 466, 670, 683, etc. C. H. Desgodin, _La mission du Tibet de 1855 à 1870, comprennant l’exposé des affaires religieuses_, etc. _D’après les lettres de M. l’abbé Desgodins, missionaire apostolique_, Verdun, 1872. Lieut. Kreitner, _Im fernen Osten_, pp. 829 ff., and in _The Popular Science Monthly_, for August, 1882. Emil Schlagintweit, _Tibetan Buddhism, Illustrated by Literary Documents and Objects of Religious Worship_, London, 1863. Abbé Huc, _Travels through Tartary, Tibet and China_, 2 vols. CHAPTER V. POPULATION AND STATISTICS. Much of the interest appertaining to the country and people here treated of, in the minds of philanthropic and intelligent men, has arisen from the impression they have received of its vast population. A country twice the size of the Chinese empire would present few attractions to the Christian, the merchant, or the ethnologist, if it were no better inhabited than Sahara, or Arizona: a people might possess most admirable institutions, and a matchless form of government, yet these excellencies would lose their interest, did we hear that it is the republic of San Marino or the kingdom of Muscat, where they are found. The population of few countries in the world has been accurately ascertained, and probably that of China is less satisfactory than any European or American state of the present day. It is far easier to take a census among a people who understand its object, and will honestly assist in its execution, than in a despotic, half-civilized country, where the mass of the inhabitants are afraid of contact or intercourse with their rulers; in most of such states, as Abyssinia, Turkey, Persia, etc., there is either no regular enumeration at all, or merely a general estimate for the purposes of revenue or conscription. ~CREDIT DUE TO CHINESE CENSUSES.~