ircumspection, to avoid treading on any stragglers who might remain in
the streets, although the orders were very strict, that all people should
keep in their houses, at their own peril. The garret windows and tops of
houses were so crowded with spectators, that I thought in all my travels
I had not seen a more populous place. The city is an exact square, each
side of the wall being five hundred feet long. The two great streets,
which run across and divide it into four quarters, are five feet wide.
The lanes and alleys, which I could not enter, but only view them as I
passed, are from twelve to eighteen inches. The town is capable of
holding five hundred thousand souls: the houses are from three to five
stories: the shops and markets well provided.

The emperor's palace is in the centre of the city where the two great
streets meet. It is enclosed by a wall of two feet high, and twenty feet
distance from the buildings. I had his majesty's permission to step over
this wall; and, the space being so wide between that and the palace, I
could easily view it on every side. The outward court is a square of
forty feet, and includes two other courts: in the inmost are the royal
apartments, which I was very desirous to see, but found it extremely
difficult; for the great gates, from one square into another, were but
eighteen inches high, and seven inches wide. Now the buildings of the
outer court were at least five feet high, and it was impossible for me to
stride over them without infinite damage to the pile, though the walls
were strongly built of hewn stone, and four inches thick. At the same
time the emperor had a great desire that I should see the magnificence of
his palace; but this I was not able to do till three days after, which I
spent in cutting down with my knife some of the largest trees in the
royal park, about a hundred yards distant from the city. Of these trees
I made two stools, each about three feet high, and strong enough to bear
my weight. The people having received notice a second time, I went again
through the city to the palace with my two stools in my hands. When I
came to the side of the outer court, I stood upon one stool, and took the
other in my hand; this I lifted over the roof, and gently set it down on
the space between the first and second court, which was eight feet wide.
I then stept over the building very conveniently from one stool to the
other, and drew up the first after me with a h