a province of China, bounded on the east by Kiang-si and Fokien; on the south, by the ocean; and on the west, by Tonquin. This province is diversified by valleys and mountains; and yields two crops of corn in a year. It abounds in gold, jewels, silk, pearls, tin, quicksilver, sugar, brass, iron, steel, saltpetre, ebony, and several sorts of odoriferous wood; besides fruits of all sorts proper to the climate. They have a prodigious number of ducks, whose eggs they hatch in ovens; and a tree, whose wood is remarkably hard and heavy, and thence called iron-wood. The mountains are covered with a sort of osiers which creep along the ground, and of which they make baskets, hurdles, mats, and ropes.

Although the climate of this province is warm, the air is pure, and the people are robust and healthy. They are very industrious; and it must be allowed that they possess in an eminent degree the talent of imitation: if they are only shown any of our European works, they execute others like them with the most surprising exactness. This province suffered much during the civil wars; but at present it is one of the most flourishing in the empire; and, as it is at a great distance from court, its government is one of the most important. This province is divided into ten districts, which contain ten cities of the first class, and 84 of the second and third. Canton is the capital town.