Directory_and_Chronicle_1842 — Page 404

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Portrait of Wung tí

JULY,

which some of the members of the embassy gained a delightful view of the surrounding country.

XIII. The department of Nån-án forms the southwest portion of the province. At or near its chief city the inland navigation, from the north, terminates. The city is divided into two separate walled portions one on each bank of the river. The Engish visitors have recorded little of it worthy of notice. The distance from the lake to this city is about three hundred miles.

XIV. The department of Ningtú is situated between the depart- ments of Ki-án and Kánchau on the west, and Kiencháng and Fu- kien on the east, being the upper valley of one of the eastern tribu- taries of the Kán. It comprises only two districts.

The principal lake, and most of the rivers of the province, have been already named; and enough said of them to show, not only that the whole territory is well watered, but that the inland navigation is both extensive and easy. The Póyáng is differently described by different writers. Those of the English embassies have represented it as the very "sink of all China." Others have given a more favora- ble, and probably a more correct, account of it. In regard to extent, it is second only to the Tungting in Húkwáng. The people of the province are laborious, enterprising, but in no way distinguished for their civilization and intellectual improvements. The women in many places are accustomed to the hard labors of the field. The pro- ductions, in the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms, are great in variety, many of them plentiful, and excellent in quality.

ART. HII.

Portrait of Wang ti, the third of the five emperors, with notices of his life and character.

This monarch's character has been drawn with great precision by the Chinese, who honor him as the author of many useful inventions, and as the possessor of almost every intellectual and moral excellence. The rude and uncultivated appearance of his predecessor is laid aside, and you see, in his portrait, the countenance and costume not only of the civilized man, but of the royal sovereign and the venera-

ble sage.