a considerable island of Asia, situated in between 18° and 20° N. Lat. It is subject to China, and belongs to the province of Quang-ton. It has on the north the province of Quang-fu; on the south the channel formed between the bank Paracel and the eastern coast of Cochinchina; on the west, the same kingdom and part of Tong-king; and on the east, the Chinese sea. Its extent from east to west is between 60 and 70 leagues, and from north to south 45; this island therefore is about 160 leagues in circumference. Kiun-tcheou-fou, its capital, stands on a promontory, and ships often anchor at the bottom of its walls. Two different kinds of mandarins command here, as in all the other provinces of China: the first are called literati; the second, mandarins of arms, or military officers. Its jurisdiction extends over three cities of the second class and ten of the third. The greater part of the island is under the dominion of the emperor of China; the rest is independent, and inhabited by a free people, who have never yet been subdued. Compelled to abandon their plains and fields to the Chinese, they have retreated to the mountains in the centre of the island, where they are sheltered from the insults of their neighbours.

These people formerly had a free and open correspondence with the Chinese. Twice a-year they exposed, in an appointed place, the gold which they dug from their mines, with their eagle-wood, and calamba, so much esteemed by the Orientals. A deputy was sent Hainan, sent to the frontiers, to examine the cloths and other commodities of the Chinese, whose principal traders repaired to the place of exchange fixed on; and after the Chinese wares were delivered, they put into their hands with the greatest fidelity what they had agreed for. The Chinese governors made immense profits by this barter.

The emperor Kang-hi, informed of the prodigious quantity of gold which passed through the hands of the mandarins by this traffic, forbade his subjects, under pain of death, to have any communication with these islanders: however, some private emigrates of the neighbouring governors still find the means of having intercourse with them; but what they get at present by this clandestine trade is little, in comparison of that which they gained formerly. The natives of this island are very deformed, small of stature, and of a copper colour: both men and women wear their hair thrust through a ring on their forehead; and above they have a small straw-hat, from which hang two strings that are tied under the chin. Their dress consists of a piece of black or dark-blue cotton cloth, which reaches from the girdle to their knees: the women have a kind of robe of the same stuff, and mark their faces from the eyes to the chin with blue stripes made with indigo.

Among the animals of this island are a curious species of large black apes, which have the shape and features of a man; they are said to be very fond of women: there are also found here crows with a white ring round their necks; starlings which have a small crescent on their bills; blackbirds of a deep blue colour, with yellow ears rising half an inch; and a multitude of other birds, remarkable for their colour or song. Besides mines of gold and lapis lazuli, which enrich the island of Hainan, it produces in abundance various kinds of curious and valuable wood. The predecessor of the present emperor caused some of it to be transported to Peking, at an immense expense, to adorn an edifice which he intended for a mausoleum. The most valuable is called by the natives hoali, and by the Europeans rose or violet wood from its smell; it is very durable, and of a beauty which nothing can equal; it is therefore reserved for the use of the emperor.

Hainan, on account of its situation, riches, and extent, deserves to be ranked amongst the most considerable islands of Asia. Not far from thence is another small island, commonly called San-cian. It is celebrated by the death of St Francis Xavier: his tomb is still to be seen on a small hill, at the bottom of which is a plain covered on one side with wood, and on the other ornamented with several gardens. This island is not a desert, as some travellers have pretended: it contains five villages; the inhabitants of which are poor people, who have nothing to subsist on but rice and the fish which they catch.