THE Lacedaemonians were a People , The severe Laws of the Lacedaemonians . who by their Laws and Customs were strictly prohibited from Travelling out of their own Countrey , lest so degenerating in Manners , ( as they supposed ) they might fall into a more loose and irregular course of Life , and by the acquaintance of the various Modes of several forein Nations , slight the strictness of their own severer Establishments .

Neither would they permit that any Strangers should reside amongst them , lest they by Conversation should be imbu'd with their Novelties and Opinions . Which more to strengthen , What Citizen soever that did not Educate his Children according to their own setled Laws , was immediately pronounced incapable of the Priviledges belonging to his Countrey . So great a love had this Nation to their native Soil , and such the aversion engraffed in them from their very Cradles to forein Parts , that a Youth onely once asking the Way to Pilea , by order of the Magistracy suffer'd condign Punishment presently upon the Spot .

But these severer ways and starch'd Formalities were , both by the other Greeks and the Romans , utterly exploded , who knowing better things , readily indulged Licence to Travel where they might best improve their Wealth , Literature , or Observation . And also we find by their most ancient and accurate Writers , that they neither spared Cost , Study , nor Pains , to be replenished with remote and transmarine Imbellishments , both of Arts , Science , and Industry .

When the Emperor Trajan , after the Parthian War , busied himself in a Philosophical Inquisition concerning the Wonders of the Deep , and occult Nature of the Ocean , a sudden Storm happening , hurried him from Coasting far into the Offin , where he beheld a Fleet standing in for India ; whereof being inform'd , he fetching a deep Sigh , said , Ah that I were young again , and could resume my former vigour , then would I visit those distant Regions , and penetrate the Avenues of the Oriental World .

King Mithridates , who after a long Contest with the Romans , having resetled himself in his Throne , resolved not onely upon the well managing of the Affairs at home , but the enlarging his Dominions abroad ; whereupon he made himself Master ( of which not any Prince had done before ) of the neighboring Scythians , who had never till then been absolutely subdu'd . This great Work finish'd , and so mighty a Nation brought under , he diverted himself to Travel , not onely to make a superficial view of Cities and Situations , Vulgarities and various Humors adherent to several Nations , but also of their Scolastick Knowledge , and Politick Governments : on which account he pass'd through all Pontus , Cappadocia , and most Parts of Asia .

Tacitus , the famous Roman Historian , enumerating the many Vertues of Germanicus , says , That he , greedy of Knowledge , especially of forein Transactions , made his Tour through Greece , Thrace , Asia , and Armenia : but thus much not satisfying the Curiosity of this Prince , he Voyaged into Aegypt , under pretence of setling the Government of that Kingdom , but rather of having a visual Speculation of the Antiquities reported to be there .

Democritus no less sollicitous of making search beyond his own Home , after the Death of his Father Damasippus , parted with a no unplentiful Patrimony for a scarce considerable Sum , to furnish out the Expences of his outward-bound Travels in quest of Science ; he first address'd himself to the Aegyptian Priests , next the Chaldaeans , after to the Gymnosophists in India , from whose Magazines , and the then Fountains of Learning , he returned rich , being Freighted with a full Cargo both of Divine and Moral Principles .

Let Plato , Prince of Philosophers , stand for all , who in like manner penetrated the Bowels of Aegypt , and other more distant Countreys , returning as plentifully furnished with their several Observations an Acquirements .

Inclinations no less vigorous have of late been observed in Europe , but with more success ; who not being bounded by Herculean Bars , pass'd so far through the ( till then ) unmeasured Atlantick , that they lighted upon a new World , a flourishing Hesperides , Regions whose Sands were Gold , Earth Plate , and Rivers Silver , a Paradice extended to the Arctick and Antarctick Circles , with several other Countreys and Islands , that reach almost the utmost latitude of either Poles , out-shining all the Fables of Antiquity , and boldest Tales of their Poetick Dreams ; so that the Ancients are not to stand in competition with our modern Discoverers , who found out in less than one Century , more than they in their many thousand years .

Whilst I contemplated the laudable Actions and great Enterprises of famous Navigators , I conceiv'd my self oblig'd to put in my Mite , and not to conceal some special Remarks , being taken by me with no small Care and Pains , in a Countrey as little known to Europe as any .

After my Return from the West-Indies , where I had sometime remained , my Occasions invited me from Home ( a contrary Course ) to the East-Indies ; where , not long after my arrival at Batavia , it was order'd by the General Maatzuyker , and the Honorable Council then residing there , to send Peter de Goyer , and Iacob Keysar as Ambassadors , with Credentials , and a considerable Train of Attendants , to Peking in China , to the Grand Cham of Tartary , the now Emperor of China , impowering to Negotiate concerning a free and mutual Commerce with them in his Kingdoms and Territories .

Whereupon receiving also Commands to attend this Embassy , I had thrown into my hands ( as I conceived ) fit opportunity to make a more exact Discovery of the Genius and Manners of the People , and Customs of the Place , and Countreys supposed by all Geographers to be the richest in the World , and where any Stranger formerly durst never attempt . And herein ( without breach of Modesty ) I dare boldly affirm , that nothing considerable slipt my observation relating to my Design , and that in taking accurate Maps and Sketches , not onely of the Countreys and Towns , but also of Beasts , Birds , Fishes , and Plants , and other Rarities never divulged ( as I am informed ) heretofore .

But now to remove some Obstructions , and to clear the way , that Posterity may not be bereav'd of the Fruit of these my Endeavors , I find my self highly necessitated to relate what passed in this Undertaking , with as much candour and brevity as the Work may possibly require .

But before I engage my self , it seems also not amiss to set forth briefly the Division of the universal Globe , and likewise the Etymology or Derivation of the word China , the Condition of the Soil , and the Extent thereof , and lastly the ten Provinces of the fifteen into which that County divides it self , and the Towns and Cities through which we did not pass .

The Terraqueous Globe comprehending Sea and Land , The Division of the Globe . Rivers and Lakes , stands divided by modern Geographers into two Semi-Orbs , viz. the Old and New World : The Old contains Europe , Asia , and Africa ; the New , America , not much less in Extent to all those vast Regions discovered before ; named so from Americus Vesputius a Florentine , but indeed first found out by Christopher Columbus a Genoese , furnished out for so great an Expedition by Ferdinand and Isabel King and Queen of Castile and Aragon , in the Year 1492. But five years after Americus Voyaging , made his Approaches higher into those unknown Confines , and so got by a lucky Hit , or something in his Name , the Honor of Denomination of the Moiety of the World from the prime Discoverer , to whom so great a Glory belonged : since vulgarly called The West-Indies , not improperly , the East being by Sea found by us about the same time .

Under our new World may also be comprised those vast Southern Coasts and Straights of Magellan , first lighted on by Ferdinandus Magellanus in the Year 1520. in his Circumnavigation of the Universe ; which forty five years after Sir Francis Drake , and next Sir Thomas Bendish , Englishmen , made a farther Inspection into ; and in the Year 1600. Oliver van Noord a Hollander pass'd ; but of later years a Spaniard , Ferdinand de Quier , out-shot them all by a more ample Discovery than all the former .

Asia ( not to make mention of any other Divisions of the World , Asia divided . being impertinent to the following Discourse ) stands bounded on the North by the Tartarick Sea , on the East with the great Indian Ocean called Eous , and on the South with the same ; on the West with the Arabian Gulph , and the Slip of Land situated betwixt this Gulph and the Mediterranean Sea ; the Extent of which from the Hellespont as far as Mallassa , the utmost Town of Traffick in India , consists of 1300 Dutch Miles ; the breadth from the Arabian Gulph to the Cape of Tabin 1220 Dutch Miles .

All Asia , which the Ancients divide into Asia the Great , and Asia the Less , modern Computors part into five Divisions ; Persia , the Turkish Empire , India , ( to which they cast in the adjacent Isles ) Tartary , and China .

What concerns the Name of China , The Name of China . or the farther part of Asia , much Time and Pains have been spent and taken by several Historians both old and new , as also by the Natives of the Countrey and Foreiners , to give the true Derivation thereof , and the several Names by which China has been formerly call'd , to whom I shall refer my self to satisfie the curiosity of the Reader in this particular .

That these are the People whom Ptolemy calls Chineses , both the Constitution of the Countrey , and the Name by which it is known at this time , may suffice to prove the truth thereof : for that which in Spanish is writ China , in Italian is called Cina , in High-Dutch Tschina , and in Low , Dutch and Latin , Sina . The difference in the pronunciation of the word China and Sina betwixt us and the Spaniards is not much ; but in regard it falls somewhat hard to those People to pronounce the Ch , they therefore make use of the Greek Letter χ. The Tartars call this Kingdom Catay , and sometimes Mangin ; but this Name rather denotes the Inhabitants themselves then the Countrey : for Mangin signifies in their Language a wild and unciviliz'd People ; and with this word the Tartars often deride the Chineses . This Countrey was likewise formerly called Catay by Marcus Panwelz a Venetian , who was the first Discoverer thereof in part . But the most known Name by which that Kingdom is call'd at present by those of Europe , is China . The reason why that Kingdom has been called by so many several Names , may be supposed to be this , from an ancient Custom observed amongst them , That whosoever gets the Sovereignty over them , Presents the Kingdom with a new Name according to his pleasure . Amongst the rest we read , that formerly this farther part of Asia , or China , was called Thau , Yu , Tha , Sciam , Cheu , as also Han , Thau , which signifies Boundless broad ; Yu , Rest ; Tha , Great ; Sciam , Curious ; Cheu , Perfect ; Han , The Milky-Way .

Long before the Conquest of China by the Tartars in their last Invasion , and the Deposing of the Emperor of China , ( viz. when the Sovereignty of the Kingdom was in the Family of Ciu ) China was called by the Chineses , Min , which signifies Perspicuity or Brightness . Afterwards they added to the word Min the syllable Ta , and called it then Tamin , or ( as some write ) Taming , which signifies The Kingdom of great Brightness . For above 300 years this Kingdom bore the Name of Tai●jven , and at this time is called by the Tartars , who possess the Kingdom under the Great Cham , Taicing .