Page:To the Court of the Emperor of China - vol I.djvu/37

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xxxviii
NOTES.

Samsou.

A Chinese liquor drawn from rice by distillation. The common Samsou has a very disagreeable taste, but that of the court is on the contrary very pleasant.


Salutes.

The salutes sited by the Chinese, in honour either of the Embassy, or Ambassador, consisted in discharging three small pieces of cannon, or rather pedereros, stuck in the ground with their muzzles upwards.


Sampane.

A Chinese boat, which carries from five to eight hundred weight. They are used at Vampou to load and unload the European ships, which find it impossible to get beyond that roadsted into the river of Canton, on account of the shallowness of the latter.


Sapantin.

The Portuguese name for a light vessel, built for going fast, either with oars or sails, and employed, for that reason, as advice boats between Canton and Macao. These vessels also go out to sea.


Tael.

A weight of gold or silver, equivalent to an ounce and a quarter French, or in money to about seven livres ten sous. In China a hundred Spanish dollars are reckoned worth seventy-two taels.

The Chinese have no pieces of money but sepeccas of copper.


Tartars.

The Manchoo Tartars are those who inhabit Chinese Eastern Tartary. Expelled from China in 1368, with the Monguls who