set, and the other
missionary, who was to go with him, being arrived from Macao, it was
necessary that we should resolve either to go, or not to go; so I
referred him to my partner, and left it wholly to his choice; who at
length resolved it in the affirmative; and we prepared for our journey.
We set out with very good advantage, as to finding the way; for we got
leave to travel in the retinue of one of their mandarins, a kind of
viceroy, or principal magistrate, in the province where they reside, and
who take great state upon them, travelling with great attendance, and
with great homage from the people, who are sometimes greatly
impoverished by them, because all the countries they pass through are
obliged to furnish provisions for them, and all their attendants. That
which I particularly observed, as to our travelling with his baggage,
was this; that though we received sufficient provisions, both for
ourselves and our horses, from the country, as belonging to the
mandarin, yet we were obliged to pay for every thing we had after the
market-price of the country, and the mandarin's steward, or commissary
of the provisions, collected it duly from us; so that our travelling in
the retinue of the mandarin, though it was a very great kindness to us,
was not such a mighty favour in him, but was, indeed, a great advantage
to him, considering there were about thirty other people travelling in
the same manner besides us, under the protection of his retinue, or, as
we may call it, under his convoy. This, I say, was a great advantage to
him; for the country furnished all the provisions for nothing, and he
took all our money for them.

We were five-and-twenty days travelling to Pekin, through a country
infinitely populous, but miserably cultivated; the husbandry, economy,
and the way of living, all very miserable, though they boast so much of
the industry of the people: I say miserable; and so it is; if we, who
understand how to live, were to endure it, or to compare it with our
own; but not so to these poor wretches, who know no other. The pride of
these people is infinitely great, and exceeded by nothing but their
poverty, which adds to that which I call their misery. I must needs
think the naked savages of America live much more happy, because, as
they have nothing, so they desire nothing; whereas these are proud and
insolent, and, in the main, are mere beggars and drudges; their
ostentation is inexpressible, and is chiefly shew