A Letter from Father Anthony Gaubil Jesuit, to Dr. Mortimer, Secr. R. S. Containing Some Account of the Knowlege of Geography among the Chinese, and of Paper-Money Current There. Translated from the French by T. S. M. D. and F. R. S.

quiescunt interni musculi. Hæc ad primam qua- sitionem. Ad alteram. Sumatur animal quodcumque vivum aut mortuum, mergatur sub aqua, et sub aqua prudenter, ne pul- monem lædas, pertundatur pleura. Si aer elasticus est inter pleuram et pulmonem, bullæ adscendent per aquam. Si nullæ adscendunt, nullus adeat aer. Id me rectius nōstis, et ex principiis patet. Sed repetita satis experimenta feci. Bullæ nun- quam adparuerunt in ullo experimento, et videor mihi nihil præcipitis corollarii inde deducere, si inde conclusero, nullum adeo elasticum aerem inter pleu- ram et pulmonem esse. D. Gottingæ, d. 6. Jan. 1749. VIII. A Letter from Father Anthony Gaubil Jesuit, to Dr. Mortimer, Secr. R. S. con- taining some Account of the Knowledge of Geography among the Chinese, and of Pa- per-Money current there. Translated from the French by T. S. M. D. and F. R. S. Peking Nov. 9. 1748. SIR, Read Feb. 1. 1749. IT is now some time since I received from M. de L'isle Part of a Map of the World, found among the Papers of the late Dr. Kempfer. In this Map were several Chinese Characters, some well, some ill written, which the late Professor Bayer had attempted to decypher. — In my Answer to Mons. de L'isle, I informed him that it was by no means a Chinese Work*; that it could be of no Service to a learned European, such as he or you were; and that Mr. Bayer's Explanations were full of Faults. I suppose that M. de L'isle has already writ you my Thoughts concerning it from Petersbourg. You have possibly seen in several Books, what the Chinese know, and have set down, concerning foreign Countries: And there is no Monument extant to prove, that before the arrival of the Jesuits in this Country, they had Charts or Maps of the World, any way resembling that, which you found among Kampfer's Writings. It is now above sixteen hundred Years since they tolerably well knew the Northern and Eastern Countries of India, and those which lie between China and the Caspian Sea. On these different Countries their History affords several Informations, which are not to be found in the Greek, Latin, or other Historians. They had some, but very confused, Notions of the Regions beyond the Caspian Sea; such as Syria, Greece, Egypt, and some Parts of Europe. I do not speak of the Times of Gentchiskan and his Successors; for then the Chinese were made acquainted with Russia, Poland, Germany, * Doubtless it is the Work of an European, who was giving some Notion of Geography to a Chinese or Japanese; or perhaps that of a Chinese or Japanese from Memory of what he had heard from Europeans, or of the Map which he might have seen with them. Hungary, Hungary, Greece, &c. from Accounts given by their own Countrymen who followed that Prince, his Sons, and Grandsons: But the Monuments that remain of this their Knowledge are very confused. As to the Countries to the East of China, there are Proofs remaining in Books, that, above seventeen-hundred Year ago, the Chinese were well acquainted with the Eastern Part of Tartary as far as the Sea, and the River Ameur, Corea, and Japan. Their Books speak also in general, and without sufficiently entering into Particulars, of many Countries to the East and to the North of Japan. With regard to the Monuments of the Cap of Good Hope, which have been mentioned by some, there are none in China; and if there have been any, they are now lost. It was from the Europeans, that the Chinese have learnt the Name and the Situation of the Cape: [and you will soon see a Dissertation, wherein all this Affair will be circumstantially treated]. I herewith send you two Paper Money-Bills; do me the Favour to accept them. Next Year we may possibly send something to Canton, either for you, or for your illustrious Society. I am, with great Respect, SIR, Tours, &c. A. Gaubil. An Account of the above-mentioned Bills. Two Paper Money-Bills of the Reign of Hongvou. The Year of Christ 1368, was the First of the Empire of Hongvou, Founder of the Dynasty of Ming. During the Dynasty of Yuen (who were Mogul Tartars) which Hongvou destroy'd, there was a great deal of Paper-Money. There had also been some, 140 Years before, under the Dynasty of Kin (oriental Tartars) who reign'd in the Northern Provinces of China, and in Tartary. The Yuens destroy'd this Dynasty, as well as that of the Song's, who were Chinese, that reign'd in the Southern Provinces of China. We find no Paper Money of the Dynasties of the Yuen's and Kin's; and that of Hongvou is scarce. The Bonzes and Chinese Empirics superstitiously say, that this Paper-Money laid upon Children brings them good Luck. These two Bills are the same with those, the Figures and Explanations of which are to be seen in Father du Halde's Description de la Chine, Tom. II. pag. 168. I send you the Two,* because probably you have none of that Sort. The late Father Dentrecolles formerly sent to France an Account of the Chinese Money, antient and modern: And some Notes and Remarks on this Sort of Money were of late Years sent hence to Petersbourg. * One of which I presented to the Royal Society. C. M.