AT certain distances, more or less remote according to the nature of the
country, along the roads, and the banks of the interior navigations, are
placed small parties of soldiers from five or six to a dozen, and
sometimes more. They are employed in conveying the public dispatches,
and in assisting the magistrates to quell disturbances. The immense army
of China is for the most part parcelled out in this way. Near each of
these posts is a tall wooden building from whence they can see and
communicate by signals with the next stations. The men till the ground,
and perform other kinds of labour; but are always expected to turn out
in their holiday dress when an embassador or any of their _ta-zin_ or
great men happen to pass the station, on which occasion they generally
fire three little petards stuck into the ground with the muzzle upwards
as a salute.
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London: Printed by W. Bulmer and Co.
Cleveland-row, St. James’s.
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● Transcriber’s Notes:
○ Missing or obscured punctuation was silently corrected.
○ Typographical errors were silently corrected.
○ Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation were made consistent only
when a predominant form was found in this book.
○ Text that was in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_).