C.

THE DUTCH CARPET.

Formerly, when the Dutch[162] were permitted to trade with China, the officer in command of the coast defences would not allow them, on account of their great numbers, to come ashore. The Dutch begged very hard for the grant of a piece of land such as a carpet would cover; and the officer above-mentioned, thinking that this could not be very large, acceded to their request. A carpet was accordingly laid down, big enough for about two people to stand on; but by dint of stretching, it was soon enough for four or five; and so they went on, stretching and stretching, until at last it covered about an acre, and by-and-by, with the help of their knives, they had filched a piece of ground several miles in extent.[163]

FOOTNOTES:

[162] We read in the _History of Amoy_:--“In the year 1622 the red-haired barbarians seized the Pescadores and attacked Amoy.” From the Pescadores they finally retired, on a promise that trade would be permitted, to Formosa, whence they were expelled by the famous Koxinga in 1662. “Red-haired barbarians,” a term now commonly applied to all foreigners, was first used in the records of the Ming dynasty to designate the Dutch.

[163] Our author would here seem to have heard of the famous bull’s hide which is mentioned in the first book of the _Æneid_. In any case, the substitution of “stretching” is no improvement on the celebrated device by which the bull’s hide was made to enclose so large a space.