8

HISTORY OF

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CHAP. II.

Canals of China , prodigious 7 "rade carried on by them from the remotejlPart of the Empire—Account of the Royal Canal , its Length and Trade—No private Property or Plantation , even of the Emperor , allowed tocbfruSt the cutting of a Canal—The Emperor , or Governor of a Pro-vince in which a new Canal is made , digs the frjl Spade of Earth—NoLocks on the Chinese Canals—The f range Method employed by theChinese to raise or fall Vessels out of one Canal into another , where theyare not level—Prodigious Numbers of Vessels employed on these Canalsfor the Emperor only—Carefulness of the Chinese to husband everySpring of Water—Account os Canals in Hindoos an.

CHINA.

I N the great empire of China there is scarcely a town, or even a village,which has not the advantage either of an arm of the sea, a navigableriver, or a canal, by which means navigation is rendered so common,that there are almost as many people live on the water as the land.

The Great Canal, which is also called the Royal Canal, is one of thewonders of art: it was finished about the year 980; thirty thousand menof all denominations were employed forty-three years in completing it.It runs from north to south, extending from the city of Canton to theextremity of the empire; and by it all kinds of foreign merchandise,entered at that city, are conveyed directly to Pekin, being a distance of825 miles. Its breadth is about fifty feet, and its depth a fathom and a

half,