This is probably the ginseng, so famed for its fancied
virtues. - E.]
Once upon a time, a certain person went to gather simples among the
mountains, and fell by some accident into a vale of which the sides were
so steep that he was unable to get out again. In this situation, he had
to look about for some means to support life, and discovered this root,
of which he made trial, and found that it served him both as food and
cloathing; for it preserved his body in such a temperature, that the
injuries of the weather had no evil influence upon him during a
residence of several hundred years. At length, by means of an
earthquake, the mountains were rent, and he found a passage from the
vale to his house, whence he had been so long absent. But so many
alterations had taken place during his long absence, that nobody would
believe his story; till, on consulting the annals of his family, they
found that one of them had been lost at the time he mentioned, which
confirmed the truth of his relation. - This is a fable, not even credited
among the Chinese, invented merely to blazon forth the virtues of this
wonderful root.
Sec.5. Removal of Dr Cunningham to Pulo Condore, with an Account of the
Rise, Progress, and Ruin of that Factory.[334]
The English factory at Chusan was broken up in the year 1702, so that Dr
Cunningham had very little time allowed him for making his proposed
observations respecting China.
