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Travels in Europe and Asia.
JUNE,
speak a word or two about the reasons that first induce'd me to undertake. them. Some years ago, the R. F. Verbiest of the society of Jesus, a famous missionary in China, acquainted his superiors in Europe, that the missions of the East were in great want of evangelical labourers; and that it would be easy to finish a considerable number of them, without exposing them to the hazards that had stopt the best part of those who were going into China heretofore by sea. fle show'd them that the Tartars in making themselves masters of China, have made a passage into that vast empire through Great Tartary, and that it would be easy to take the advantages of the commerce the Tartars had maintain'd ever since with the Chinese, to introduce the light of the gospel among both nations.
"This project prov'd the more acceptable, by reason that the loss of an in- finite number of zealous missionaries, who had consummated the sacrifice of their life, before they could reach the place of their mission, was sen- sibly regretted; and that this way, though difficult in the beginning, did not seem impracticable, since history mentions some travelers who have had the good fortune to reach China by land. But whereas the way thither was not particularly known, I was pitch'd upon by Providence, and by my superiors, for the better discovery thereof, and to get such instructions and informa tions as were most proper to that end. I hope this relation may prove ser- viceable to such missionaries who find themselves inclin'd to carry the gospel into those countries; and that charitable persons who are zealous for the glory of God, will the more willingly contribute to a design so glorious, the execution whereof will daily become the less difficult.
"Besides the advantage of those missions which were the principal aim of my travels, my relation will give several new insights into sciences, and particularly into geography. I will give an instance of it in this place. None had yet been able to discover the exact distance of Peking. It is true, that the last relation of Siam, and the observations of the stars, and of the eclipses, taken in that country, and by the way, by the fathers of the socie- ty of Jesus, sent thither by his majesty as his mathematicians, had already show'd us, that our geographical maps had plac'd the extremities of Asia above 25 degrees too far. But yet Mr. Isaac Vossius, who had already print- ed his sentiments about the measures of longitude, taken according to the principles of astronomy, seem'd to distrust those kind of proofs, and was so far from allowing China to be nearer, that be pretended it lay even farther. The relation of Siam not having been able to convince him, he publisd'd a small pamphlet to maintain his first sentiments. But father Gouye, profes- sor of the mathemathics at the college of Lewis the XIV, refuted all his reasons, in a very solid manner, which satisfi'd the publick. The truth is, that both the ancient and modern astronomers have effectually made use of the eclipses of the moon to determine longitudes; and those who are anywise vers'd in those matters, know how much we are oblig'd to Galileo for the discovery of the satellites of Jupiter, and the value we ought to set upon the learned and easy method the illustrious M. Capini has given us to find out
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