a wooden bar used as a lever to heave about the windlass, in order to draw up the anchor from the bottom, particularly in merchant ships. The handle is round and tapering, and the other end is square, to conform to the shape of the holes in the windlass. It is also employed as a lever on many other occasions, as stowing the anchors, provisions, or cargo, in the ship's hold. The gunner's handspike is shorter and flatter than the above, and armed with two claws for managing the artillery.

HANGTCHETOU, a large and splendid city of China, in the province of Tchekiang, of which it is the capital. It is situated at the extremity of the great canal which extends southward from Pekin, on the banks of a great river called Tsien-tang, which passes by its walls, and affords extensive means of communication with the southern province. This city is said, in the accounts of the Chinese, to contain a million of inhabitants; and its population seems little if at all inferior to that of Pekin. It is but poorly built, the streets being narrow and the houses low; but the shops and warehouses are large, and well stored with goods. The silk trade is carried on to a great extent, and is supposed to employ about 60,000 persons. This city is celebrated by the Chinese as a terrestrial paradise. It communicates with the sea by means of the river. Europeans are rigorously excluded from it, as from all the other Chinese cities. Long. 119. 46. E. Lat. 30. 20. N.