From such a situation, admitting the earth to have been peopled in succession, the two great rivers which took the southerly direction and crossed the fertile and extensive plains of China, were fully as likely to direct the few survivors of the deluge to this country, as that they should follow any of the other streams; and probably more so, as these led to a warmer and more comfortable climate, where fewer wants were felt and those few more easily supplied. Considered in this point of view, the opinion of the Jesuits will not appear so ill founded, which supposes that Noah, separating from his rebellious family, travelled with a part of his offspring into the east, and founded the Chinese monarchy; and that he is the same person as the _Foo-shee_[38] of their history. The words of scripture _from the east_, an ingenious commentator has observed, ought more properly to be translated, _at the beginning_. At all events, the fact I conclude to be irresistible, that the Tartars and the Chinese have one common origin, and the question then is simply this, whether the fertile plains of China were abandoned for the bleak and barren heights of Tartary, or that the wandering and half-famished Scythians descended into regions whose temperature and productions were more congenial to the nature of man. [38] As a corroborating proof of the Chinese being of Scythic origin, it may be observed, that the adjunct character _Shee_ (to the family name _Foo_) is composed of a _sheep_, _rice_, an _arrow_, and the conjunctive character _also_, from whence may be inferred that he united the occupations of _shepherd_, _agriculturist_, and _warrior_.