To account for the limited and defective nature of our information upon theſe intereſting ſubjects, notwithſtanding the number and variety of the literary communications concerning the Chineſe empire, which we already posseſs in Europe, through the medium of the European languages, it will be requiſite to advert particularly to the circumſtances under which theſe communications have been made, and to the ſources from which they have, for the moſt part, been derived.
It will not be neceſſary, in the courſe of this enquiry, to trace back the ſubject to any very remote period. It is well known that the Empire of China, bounded on one ſide by the ocean, and on the other by ranges of inacceſſible mountains, or vaſt and ſeemingly impervious deſarts, continued, until about the commencement of the 13th century of our era, to be effectually ſecluded by theſe natural barriers from any direct and regular intercourſe with the reſt of the inhabited globe. The various inquiſitive and enlightened nations, which ſucceſſively flouriſhed in ancient times, both in Weſtern Aſia and in Europe, ſcarcely appear to have even ſuſpected its exiſtence.
In the mean while, however, the people who, at a remote period of antiquity firſt colonized this fertile and extenſive region, were gradually emerging from primeval barbariſm. Without either receiving aſſiſtance, or encountering oppoſition, from their leſs fortunate neighbours, they ſlowly but regularly advanced upon the ſtrength of their own internal reſources and local advantages, nearly, if not entirely, to their preſent ſtate of civilization and improvement.
The commencement of the 13th century is the period at which the Chineſe firſt ſubmitted in a body to the ſway of a foreign conqueror; and although the dynaſty, eſtabliſhed by the ſucceſsful invaders, was not of any long duration, it muſt have had a material, and even in ſome degree a permanent effect, upon the relations between China and contemporary Powers; more eſpecially, as this revolution in the Eaſt was, it will be perceived, at no conſiderable interval of time,
