[11] Notwithstanding the slight importance of the Tartar tribes, we shall give them the name of kingdoms, because the chiefs of these tribes are called Wang (King.)[12] Sixth Emperor of the Tartar-Mantchou dynasty. He died in the year 1849.[16] The Chinese Li is about equivalent to the quarter of an English mile.[23] Dried dung, which constitutes the chief, and indeed in many places the sole fuel in Tartary.[35] With the exception of a very few inaccuracies, this map of the Chinese empire is a most excellent one. We found it of the most valuable aid throughout our journey.—Huc.

An English version of the map is prefixed to this volume.—Ed.[43] The English, then at war with the Chinese, were designated by the Tartars the Rebels of the South.[51] “Voyage À Peking, À travers la Mongolie, par M. G. Timkouski,” chap. ii., p. 57.[93] The anecdote, which we give as we heard it, must have reference to Tchun-Tche’s father, who died immediately after the conquest. Tchun-Tche himself was only four years old at the time.[105] The Chinese designate them San Pao; the Mantchous, Ilan Baobai; the Mongols, Korban erdeni; and the Thibetians, Tchok-Soum.[116] The Fathers Jesuits introduced the use of Arabic numerals into the Observatory at Peking.[141] The bed of the Yellow River has undergone numerous and notable variations. In ancient times, its mouth was situated in the Gulf of Pe-Tchi-Li, in latitude 39. At present it is in the 34th parallel, twenty-five leagues from the primitive point. The Chinese government is compelled annually to expend enormous sums in keeping the river within its bed and preventing inundations. In 1779, the embankment for this purpose cost no less a sum than £1,600,000. Yet, despite these precautions, inundations are of frequent occurrence; for the bed of the Yellow River, in the provinces of Ho-Nan and Kiang-Sou, is higher for 200 leagues than the plain through which it passes. This bed, continuing to rise, with the quantity of mud deposited, there is inevitably impending, at no remote period, an awful catastrophe, involving in death and desolation all the adjacent district.[170] Barains is a Principality situated north of Peking. It is one of the most celebrated in Mongol Tartary.[218a] Gen. xxix., 1–3.[218b] Gen. xxiv., 19, 20.[259] This compilation was made in the fourteenth century, by order of Pope John XXII.[273] At this period there was no French embassy in China, and no treaty in favour of Europeans. All missionaries, therefore, who penetrated into the interior, were, ipso facto, liable to be put to death.[285] The Thibetians call the English in Hindostan, PÉling, a word signifying stranger, and equivalent to the Chinese y-jin, which the Europeans translate, barbarian, probably with the notion of flattering their self-love by the implied contrast.