character, and a variety of incidents that would well repay the perusal. It was thought sufficient, however, in the present work, merely to allude to the system of chronology adopted by that people, partly to remove an erroneous notion entertained by some, that the Chinese boast of a chronology extending through an almost indefinite period, and partly to establish the fact that, exclusive of their fabulous and traditionary periods, they do possess a series of historical records, extending back to the very first ages of the world, agreeing, in many important points, with the astronomical and chronological calculations of the West, and entitled, in some degree, to confidence and credit.
It will not be unsuitable now to call the attention of the reader to the dominions which have been possessed by these successive dynasties. A glance at the map of China Proper exhibits it as bounded on the south and east, by the ocean; on the west, by Thibet and the desert; and on the north, by the great wall. Two mighty rivers are seen rising, nearly together, in the mountains of the west, one flowing north, and the other south; and, after a lengthened and tortuous course, aproaching each other nearly about the centre of China, from whence they flow side by side, till they empty themselves into the eastern sea, not far from each other; the one is called Hoang-ho, or the Yellow River, and the other, Yang-tsze-keang, or the Child of the Ocean.
At the first settlement of the Chinese in their patriarchal regions, they doubtless occupied but a small portion of that space which they now call their own.
