Page:The Chinese Repository - Volume 01.djvu/56

 We have thus given a slight sketch of 'the middle country,' or what is commonly called China Proper. We shall next proceed to describe Mantchouria; and afterwards the colonial possessions of China. If we are found frequentyl to differ from more able geographers, it must be remembered that the subject is little known even to the best-informed Europeans; and that we have therefore followed Chinese in preference to foreign authorities. (to be concluded in the next number.)

have already alluded to the papers appended to the work under review; one of these is an inquiry into the time when the Mohammedans first came to China; another is concerning the Jews and a third is concerning the origin of the Christian religion, in this country. We shall briefly notice each of these topics which may be again introduced and discused in a future number of this work. Reverting then to the question,—At what time, and in what way did the Mohammedans first enter China? we quote from Renaudot:

"It is the belief of many that the Mohammedans went first to China by land, and that the track pursued by some modern travellers, ought to point out to us the the road the ancients may have taken. Marco Polo, say they, went into China by the way of Tartary; Mandeville almost trod in his very footsteps; Jenghiz Khan, the first Emperor of the Moguls, conquered a part of China, and marchers thereto from the ancient Mogulistan or Turkestan; we havw a Persian account of an embassy from a Tartar prince to the Emperor of China, and this Ambassador went also by land; at the begining of this century, Benet Goez, a Jesuit, travelled also from the Indies to Peking; the fathers Grueber and Orville did, a few years ago, perform the same journey the Moscovite Ambassadors do when they go to China, and they even assure us, this route, which is not always the same, is pretty well frequented by the caravans of the merchants of upper Asia. These different routes are picked down in the map of Cathay, published by Kircher in his China Illustrata.

"All these instances sufficiently prove, that we may go to China by land, and there is no doubt of it; but the way held by a small number of travellers does not seem to prove that, for certain, the same was held by the caravans and merchants; which ought to have been the case, for such a number of Mohammedans to get into China that way. For, according to the old method of travelling in caravans, it was a very hard matter for the merchants of Persia and Mesopotamia to go thither by land, unless the track was well frequented; and it seems not only certain that it was far from being so, but also that it was considered only as a by way—a short cut."