About twenty-five miles west of Formosa, and attached to Taiwan fu, is the district of _Pănghu ting_ or Pescadore Islands, consisting of a group of twenty-one inhabited islets, the largest of which, called Pănghu, is eighty-four miles in circumference; none of them rise three hundred feet above the sea. The two largest, called Pănghu and Fisher Islands, are situated near the centre of the cluster, and have an excellent harbor between them. The want of trees, and the absence of sheltered valleys, give these islands a barren appearance. Millet, ground-nuts, pine-apples, sweet potatoes, and vegetables are grown, but for most of their supplies they depend upon Formosa. The population of the group is estimated at 8000, of whom a large part are fishermen. The Dutch seized these islands in 1622, and attempted to fortify them by forced Chinese laborers, but removed to Formosa two years after at the instance of the governor of Fuhkien.
[24] Bridgman’s _Chinese Chrestomathy_, p. 420. Macao, 1841.
[25] Compare an article in the _China Review_ for September-October, 1881, by H. Fritsche: _The Amount of Rain and Snow in Peking_.
[26] _Annales de la Foi_, Tome XVI., p. 293.
[27] _Chinese Repository_, Vol. VIII., p. 230; Vol. IV., p. 197. See also Fritsche’s paper in _Journal of N. C. Branch Royal Asiatic Society_, No. XII., 1878, pp. 127-335; also Appendix II. in No. X., containing observations taken at Zi-ka-wei.
[28] _Chinese Repository_, Vol. IV., p. 54.
[29] This word should not be written Pekin; it is pronounced _Pei-ching_ by the citizens, and by most of the people north of the Great River.
[30] “You would think them all made of, or at least covered with, pure gold enamelled in azure and green, so that the spectacle is at once majestic and charming.” Magaillans, _Nouvelle Description de la Chine_, p. 353.
[31] See also _L’Univers Pittoresque, Chine Moderne_, par MM. Pauthier et Bazin, Paris, 1853, for a good map of Peking, with careful descriptions. Yule’s _Marco Polo_, passim. De Guigues, _Voyages_, Tome I. Williamson, _Journeys in North China_, Vol. II. Dr. Rennie, _Peking and the Pekingese_. _Tour du Monde_ for 1864, Tome II.
[32] _Chinese Repository_, Vol. IX., p. 259.
[33] Dr. Martin, _The Chinese_ (New York, 1881), p. 85.