of all the Mohammedans, who resort to those parts. Upon festival days he performs the public services with the Mohammedans, and pronounces the sermon or kotbat, which he concludes, in the usual form, with prayers for the Soltan of the Moslems. The merchants of Irak who trade hither, are no ways dissatisfied with his conduct, or his administration in the post he is invested with; because his actions, and the judgments he gives, are just and equitable, and conformable to the Koran, and according to the Mohammedan jurisprudence."
The same writer remarks, in another part of his work, that 'he knows not that there is any one of the Chinese who has embraced Mohammedanism or speaks Arabic.' One of the Mohammedans of Canton, whom we recently met, assured us that, the ancestors of his clan came to Canton in the time of Tih-tsung, whose reign closed A. D. 805; and that they take no pains to propagate their religion, believing that man is formed by fate, to live and die in the same faith in which he was born. Concerning the course to China, Renaudot remarks,
"It is very difficult exactly to trace out the course the Arabs steered for China, as it is found in our authors; not only because many towns they mention have been destroyed, but also because the ancients, who coasted it along, held a different course from that now shaped by our pilots. The Chinese came as far as Siraf, but dared not stir beyond it, because of the foulness of the weather, and the heaviness of the sea, which their ships could not live in. They did not then venture so far as Madagascar, as Father Martini pretends they did, because in the bay of Santa Clara there is a people resembling the, Chinese, and not unlike them in speech. He offers nothing in proof of this but the report of some seamen; but granting the thing to be as he would have it, these Chinese may have been driven thither by tempest, and there have taken up their abode, because they could not possibly return back again to their country. On the other hand, it is evident that Navarette is mistaken when he says, the Straits of Singapore were their ne plus ultra."
At the present time, no Arabian Ships, as such, come to China; nor do any Chinese ships reach Calcutta, though they are frequently seen, and in considerable numbers, at Penang, Bankok, and in many of the ports of the Eastern Archipelago. The following is an abridged account of the course to Cliina, as given by the first traveller.
'As for the places whence ships depart, and those also they touch at, many persons declare that, the navigation is performed in the following order. Most of the Chinese ships take in their cargo at Siraf, where also they ship their goods which come from Bassora, and other ports; and this they do, because in this sea, there are frequent storms, and shoal water in many places. When ships have loaded at Siraf, they there water also; and from thence make sail for a place called Maskat, which is in the extremity of the province of Oman, about 200 leagues from Siraf. From Maskat ships take their departure for the Indies: and first they touch at Kaucammali; and from Maskat to this place, is a month's sail with the wind aft. Kaucammali is a frontier place, and the chief arsenal in
