KOEI-TCHEOU, a province of China, and one of the smallest in the empire. On the south it has Quang-si, on the east Hoa-quang, on the north Se-tchuen, and Yun-nan on the west. The whole country is almost a desert, and covered with inaccessible mountains: it may justly be called the Siberia of China. The people who inhabit it are mountaineers, accustomed to independence, and who seem to form a separate nation: they are no less ferocious than the savage animals among which they live.—The mandarins and governors who are sent to this province are sometimes disgraced noblemen, whom the emperor does not think proper to discard entirely, either on account of their alliances, or the services which
Kœmpfer, which they have rendered to the state: numerous gar-
risons are intrusted to their charge, to overawe the in-
habitants of the country; but these troops are found in-
sufficient, and the court despairs of being ever able tho-
roughly to subdue these untractable mountaineers.—Frequ-
ent attempts have been made to reduce them to obe-
dience, and new forts have from time to time been
erected in their country; but the people, who are not
ignorant of those designs, keep themselves shut up among
their mountains, and seldom issue forth but to destroy
the Chinese works or ravage their lands. Neither silk
stuffs nor cotton cloths are manufactured in this pro-
vince; but it produces a certain herb much resembling
our hemp, the cloth made of which is used for summer
dresses. Mines of gold, silver, quicksilver, and copper,
are found here; of the last metal, those small pieces of
money are made which are in common circulation
throughout the empire.—Koei-tcheou contains 10 cities
of the first class, and 38 of the second and third.