"I have carefully examined the book I have been ordered to peruse," (the book written by the first traveller, which forms the first and principal part of the whole work,) "that I might confirm what the author relates, where he agrees with what I have heard, concerning the things of the sea, the kingdoms on the coasts, and the state of the countries; and that I might also add, upon this head, what I have elsewhere gathered concerning them, and is not to be found in this book.
"I find it was written in the year of the Hejra 237, and that the accounts the author gives touching the things of the sea were, in his time, very true and agreeable to what I have understood from merchants who depart from Irak, to sail upon those seas. I find also that all the author writes is agreeable to truth, except some passages."
In the manuscript of the first traveller, says the translator, there is a leaf or more wanting where the author begins to treat of China. The first extract, which we make from this part of the work, seems to refer to this city, which he calls Canfu, i.e. Kwang-chow-foo, or as it is now written by Europeans, Canton.
"Canfu is the port of all the ships and goods of the Arabs, who trade in China; but fires are there very frequent, because the houses are built with nothing but wood, or else with split cane (bamboo;) besides, the merchants and ships are often lost in going and coming; or they are often plundered; or obliged to make too long a stay in harbour; or to sell their goods out of the country subject to the Arabs, and there make up their cargo. In short, ships are under a necessity of w-aiting a considerable time in refitting, not to speak of many other causes of delay."
Fires are frequent in Canton at the present time; that which swept away the western suburbs of the city, with the Foreign Fretories, early in November 1822, was an extensive one. But the introduction of fire-engines, and a strict and constant watch, with other precautions, usually prevent them from being very destructive; and commerce is, probably, as unlikely to be affected by fires in Canton, as in any other mart in the world. The second traveller, alluding to the "causes of delay," says, 'since much is related to show the reason why the voyages to China are interrupted, and how the country has been ruined, many customs abolished, and the Empire divided, I will here declare what I know of the causes of this revolution.' After briefly noticing its commencement, and the leader of the rebellion which occasioned it, he adds,
