If the Chinese had, at any period of their history, been acquainted with the art of casting large cannon, and of making use of them in their wars, it is scarcely probable they would ever have lost it. Yet it is very certain the two Jesuits, Schaal and Verbiest, took great pains to instruct them in the method of casting cannon; in which, however, they have not made any progress or improvement. I observed, near one of the gates of Pekin, a few rude, ill-shapen, and disproportionate pieces, lying unmounted on the ground, and these, with some of the same kind on the frontiers of Canton, and a few pieces, apparently twelve pounders, at _Hang-tcheu-foo_, which had wooden pent-houses erected over each, were the only cannon that we noticed in the whole country. Whether the specimens, exhibited in the annexed plate, which were drawn by the late Captain Parish of the Royal Artillery, be originally of Chinese invention, or borrowed from some other nation, I cannot take upon me to decide; but such are the pieces which are sometimes found, scattered about the gates of some of their cities. Mr. Bell, who visited China in the suite of the Russian Embassador, near a century ago, remarks, that "towards the western extremity of the Great Wall, he observed some hundreds of old cannon piled up in one of the towers, each composed of three or four pieces of hammered iron, joined and fastened together with hoops of the same metal." It is probable indeed that the Chinese, like the Hindoos, before the time of Schaal and Verbiest, made use of cannon of wrought iron, which were hooped together like those mentioned by Mr. Bell. [Illustrations: _Sketches of Chinese Artillery._ References. _Fig. 1 Iron four Pounder about 8 feet long at Han cheu Fou 2. Iron four Pounder about 8 feet long at Chong san chien 3. A Field Piece about the Calibre and length of our Wall Piece but of much greater thickness of Metal 4. Half Pounder Field Piece 5. A Platform of Masonry with irregular Pieces about 2 pounders probably for throwing stones. They are thus placed in the open Spaces at the Gate Ways at =PEKIN= and Ton cheu 6. A Stand for Field Pieces at Cou pe keou_ _Fig. 1_ _Fig. 2_ _Fig. 3_ _Fig. 4_ _Fig. 5_ _Fig. 6_ _Published May 1^st. 1804 by Cadell & Davies Strand._ _Neele sculp. 352 Strand._]