The Military Fame Of The Chinese, Which Had Always Been Great
Among Asiatics, Attained Its Highest Point In Consequence Of These
Numerous And Rapidly-Succeeding Campaigns.
The evidences of military
proficiency, of irresistible determination, and of personal valor not
easily surpassed, were too many and
Too apparent to justify any in
ignoring the solid claims of China to rank as the first military country
in Asia - a position which, despite the appearance of England and Russia in
that continent, she still retains, and which must eventually enable her to
exercise a superior voice in the arrangement of its affairs to that of
either of her great and at present more powerful and better prepared
neighbors.
CHAPTER XIV
THE COMMENCEMENT OF EUROPEAN INTERCOURSE
Keen Lung was the first Manchu prince to receive formal embassies from the
sovereigns of Europe. Among these the Portuguese were the first in point
of time, although they never attained the advantage derivable from that
priority; and indeed the important period of their connection with China
may be said to have terminated before the Manchus had established their
authority. Still, as the tenants of Macao, the oldest European settlement
in China for more than three centuries and a half, their connection with
the Chinese government must always possess some features of interest and
originality. The Portuguese paid their rent to and carried on all their
business with the mandarins at Canton, who lost no opportunity of
squeezing large sums out of the foreigners, as they were absolutely in
their power.
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