The porters and the heavy baggage moved forwards without halting; and having ended our comfortable repast, we followed without loss of time. We had scarcely proceeded three miles, till we found the sides of the road lined with spectators on horseback, on foot, in small carriages similar to those we rode in, in carts, waggons, and chairs. In the last were Chinese ladies but, having gauze curtains at the sides and front, we could see little of them. Several well-looking women in long silken robes, with a great number of children, were in the small carriages. These we understood to be Tartars. A file of soldiers now moved along with the procession on each side of the road, armed with whips, which they continually exercised in order to keep off the crowd that increased as we approached the capital, and, at length, was so great as to obstruct the road. We observed, however, that though the soldiers were very active and noisy in brandishing their whips, they only struck them against the ground, and never let them fall upon the people. Indeed a Chinese crowd is not so tumultuous and unruly as it generally is elsewhere. The excessive heat of the weather, the dustiness of the road, the closeness of the carriages, and the slow manner in which we moved along, would have made this short journey almost insupportable, but from the novelty of the scene, the smiles, the grins, the gestures of the multitude, and above all, the momentary expectation of entering the greatest city on the surface of the globe. Those also who had been so unlucky as to make choice of the little covered carriages, found themselves extremely uncomfortable, notwithstanding they are the best, the most easy and genteel sort of carriage that the country affords. Being fixed on the wheels without springs, and having no seats in the inside, they are to an European, who must sit on his haunches in the bottom, the most uneasy vehicles that can be imagined. Father Semedo, one of the earliest missionaries to China, asserts, that coaches were anciently in common use in this country, and that they were laid down on account of the great convenience and little expence of sedan chairs. The coaches alluded to by the reverend father were, in all probability, the little carts above mentioned, for not the vestige of any thing better is to be found among them; not the least appearance of any thing like a spring carriage. It is more probable that palanquins and chairs have been in common use here and in India, from the earliest period of their histories. The _lectica_ of the Romans is supposed to have been brought to Rome in the time of the Republic from some of the eastern nations.