they sometimes held up fish to us, and we afterwards learnt, that the Chinese name for fish is of a somewhat similar sound.  But what surprised us most, was the inattention and want of curiosity, which we observed in this herd of fishermen:  A ship like ours had doubtless never been in those seas before; perhaps, there might not be one, amongst all the Chinese employed in this fishery, who had ever seen any European vessel; so that we might reasonably have expected to have been considered by them as a very uncommon and extraordinary object; but though many of their vessels came close to the ship, yet they did not appear to be at all interested about us, nor did they deviate in the least from their course to regard us; which insensibility, especially in maritime persons, about a matter in their own profession, is scarcely to be credited, did not the general behaviour of the Chinese, in other instances, furnish us with continual proofs of a similar turn of mind:  It may perhaps be doubted, whether this cast of temper be the effect of nature or education; but, in either case, it is an incontestable symptom of a mean and contemptible disposition, and is alone a sufficient confutation of the extravagant panegyrics, which many hypothetical writers have bestowed on the ingenuity and capacity of this nation.[5]

[Footnote 4:  It was probably occasioned by their being over a sand bank, which is laid down by Arrowsmith in this part of the Centurion’s course.—­E.]

[Footnote 5:  Neither the ingenuity nor the capacity of the Chinese is at all implicated by the circumstances recorded, the source of which may be probably enough conjectured, viz. their contempt of every thing foreign, which, it is well known, they never scruple to avow.  Besides, as is very soon mentioned, their fishermen were under authority, and had received no orders or permission to the effect desired.—­E.]

Not being able to procure any information from the Chinese fishermen about our proper course to Macao, it was necessary for us to rely entirety on our own judgment; and concluding from our latitude, which was 22 deg. 42’ north, and from our soundings, which were only seventeen or eighteen fathoms, that we were yet to the eastward of Pedro Blanco, we stood to the westward:  And, for the assistance of future navigators, who may hereafter doubt about the parts of the coast they are upon, I must observe, that, besides the latitude of Pedro Blanco, which is 22 deg. 18’, and the depth of water, which to the westward of that rock is almost every where twenty fathoms, there is another circumstance which will give great assistance in judging of the position of the ship:  This is, the kind of ground; for, till we came within thirty miles of Pedro Blanco, we had constantly a sandy bottom; but there the bottom changed to soft and muddy, and continued so quite to the island of Macao; only while we were in sight of Pedro Blanco, and very near it, we had for a short space a bottom of greenish mud, intermixed with sand.