mentator on Magalhen seems
doubtful as to the length of the Chinese _che_ or cubit. At this island
they have two sorts, one measuring thirteen inches and seven-tenths
English, which, is commonly used by merchants; the other is only eleven
inches, being used by carpenters, and also in geographical measures.
Though Father Martini is censured by Magalhen for spelling a great many
Chinese words with _ng_, which the Portuguese and others express with
_in_, yet his way is more agreeable to our English pronunciation and
orthography; only the g may be left out in Pekin, Nankin, and some
others.

Having made enquiry about what is mentioned by Father Martini of sowing
their _fields_ at _Van-cheu_ with oyster-shells, to make new ones grow,
I was told, that after they have taken out the oysters, they sprinkle
the empty shells with urine, and throw them into the water, by which
means there grow new oysters on the old shells.[332] Martini says he
could never find a Latin name for the _Tula Mogorin_ of the Portuguese;
but I am sure it is the same with the _Syringa arabica, flore pleno
albo_, of Parkinson. Martini also says that the _kieu-yeu_, or
tallow-tree, bears a white flower, like that of the cherry-tree: But all
that I have seen here bear spikes of small yellow flowers, like the
_julus_ of the _Salix_. The bean-broth, or mandarin-broth, so frequently
mentioned in the Dutch embassy, and by other authors, is only an
emulsion made of the seeds of _sesamum_ with hot water.

[Footnote 332: This strange story may possibly be thus explained. At
certain seasons, numerous minute oysters may be seen sticking to the
shells of the old ones; and the Chinese may have thrown the emptied
shells into the sea, in the highly probable expectation of these minute
oysters continuing to live and grow. The circumstances in the text are
absurd additions, either from ignorance or imposition.--E.]

The chief employments of the people here are fishing and agriculture. In
fishing, they use several sorts of nets and lines as we do; but, as
there are great banks of mud in some places, the fishermen have
contrived a small frame, three or four feet long, not much larger than a
hen-trough, and a little elevated at each end, to enable them to go more
easily on these mud banks. Resting with one knee on the middle of one of
these frames, and leaning his arms on a cross stick raised breast high,
he uses the other foot on the mud to push the frame and himself
forw