On the whole, then, it may be concluded, that neither Monsieur Grammont, nor they who conceived that an unconditional and servile compliance, on the part of the British Embassador, would have been productive of more favourable results, were right in their conjectures. On the contrary, it may, perhaps, be rather laid down as a certain consequence, that a tone of submission, and a tame and passive obedience to the degrading demands of this haughty court, serve only to feed its pride, and add to the absurd notions of its own vast importance. CHAP. II. Occurrences and Observations in the Navigation of the Yellow Sea, and the Passage up the Pei-ho, or White River. _Different Testimonies that have been given of the Chinese Character.--Comparison of China with Europe in the sixteenth Century.--Motives of the Missionaries in their Writings.--British Embassy passes the Streights of Formosa.--Appearance of a_ Ta-fung._--Chu-san Islands.--Instance of Chinese Amplification.--Various Chinese Vessels.--System of their Navigation--their Compass, probably of Scythian Origin--foreign Voyages of.--Traces of Chinese in America--in an Island of the Tartarian Sea--in the Persian Gulph--traded probably as far as Madagascar.--Commerce of the Tyrians.--Reasons for conjecturing that the Hottentots may have derived their Origin from China.--Portrait of a Chinese compared with that of a Hottentot.--Malays of the same descent as the Chinese.--Curious coincidences in the Customs of these and the Sumatrans.--Cingalese of Chinese Origin.--One of the Brigs dispatched to_ Chu-san _for Pilots.--Rapid Currents among the Islands.--Visit to the Governor.--Difficulties in procuring Pilots.--Arbitrary Proceeding of the Governor.--Pilots puzzled with our Compass--Ignorance of--Arrive in the Gulph of_ Pe-tche-lee.--_Visit of two Officers from Court, and their Present--enter the_ Pei-ho, _and embark in convenient Yachts.--Accommodating Conduct of the two Officers.--Profusion of Provisions.--Appearance of the Country--of the People.--Dress of the Women.--Remarks on their small Feet.--Chinese an uncleanly and frowzy People.--Immense Crowds of People and River Craft at_ Tien-sing.--_Decent and prepossessing Conduct of the Multitude.--Musical Air sung by the Rowers of the Yachts.--Favourable Traits in the Chinese Character.--Face and Products of the Country.--Multitudes of People Inhabitants of the Water.--Another Instance of arbitrary Power.--Disembark at_ Tong Tchoo, _and are lodged in a Temple._ "If any man should make a collection of all the inventions, and all the productions, that every nation, which now is, or ever has been, upon the face of the globe, the whole would fall far short, either as to number or quality, of what is to be met with in China." These, or something similar, are the words of the learned Isaac Vossius.