frequently to play, for improvement, had a tradition of this nature; which is a further argument in behalf of what I am about to advance. But, with all my enquiries from persons who had been there, and from the publications relative to China, I could never obtain any confirmation of the Game being even known in the country; except that Chambers, in his Dictionary, mentions it to be the favourite pastime of the ladies, but quotes no authority for the assertion.

"Some unlooked-for circumstances, in the course of the last year, at length, brought me to the quarter which I had once wished, but never expected to visit. I need not say, that among other objects of curiosity, I was eager to ascertain the reality of the Bramin's story. And if the difficulty of acquiring information here, not more from the want of interpreters, than the jealousy of the government, were not well known in Europe, I should be ashamed to tell your Lordship, that I despaired of success for some time. A young Mandarin, however, of the profession of arms, having an inquisitive turn, was my frequent visitor; and, what no questions could have drawn from him, the accidental sight of an English chess-board effected. He told me, that the Chinese had a game of the same nature;

and, on his specifying a difference in the Pieces and Board, I perceived, with joy, that I had discovered the desideratum of which I had been so long in search. The very next day my Mandarin brought me the Board and Equipage; and I found, that the Bramins were neither mistaken touching the board, which has a river in the middle, to divide the contending parties, nor in the powers of the King, who is entrenched in a fort, and moves only in that space, in every direction. But, what I did not before hear, nor do I believe is known out of this country, there are two Pieces, whose movements are distinct from any in the Indian or European Game. The Mandarin, which answers to our Bishop, in his station and sidelong course, cannot, through age, cross the river; and a Rocketboy, still used in the Indian armies, who is stationed between the lines of each party, acts literally with the motion of the Rocket, by vaulting over a Man, and taking his Adversary at the other end of the Board. Except that the King has his two Sons to support him, instead of a Queen, the Game, in other respects, is like ours; as will appear in the plan of the Board and Pieces I have the honour to enclose, together with directions to place the men and play the Game.

"As the young man who had discovered this to me, was of a communicative and obliging disposition, and was at this time pursuing his studies in the college of Canton, I requested the favour of him to consult such ancient books, as might give some insight into the period of the introduction of Chess into China; to confirm, if possible, the idea that struck me of its having originated here.

"The acknowledged antiquity of this empire, the unchangeable state of her customs and manners, beyond that of any other nation in the world; and, more especially, the simplicity of the Game itself, when compared to its compass and variety, in other parts, appeared to give a colour to my belief. That I was not disappointed in the event, I have no doubt will be allowed, on the perusal of the Translation of a Manuscript Extract, which my friend Tinqua brought me, in compliance with my desire; and which, accompanied by the Chinese manuscript, goes under cover to your Lordship. As the Mandarin solemnly assured me that he took it from the work quoted, and the translation has been as accurately made as possible, I have no hesitation to deliver the papers as authentic.

"In the pursuit of one curiosity, I flatter

myself that I have stumbled by accident on another, and have gone some length to restore to the Chinese the invention of gunpowder, so long disputed with them by the Europeans; but which the evidence on their Chess-board, in the action of the rocket, seems to establish beyond a doubt. The institution of the Game is likewise discovered to form the principal æra in the Chinese history; since, by the conquest of Shensi, the kingdom was first connected in its present form, and the Monarch assumed the title of Emperor; as may be seen in the Extract which I have obtained from their annals.

"From these premises I have therefore ventured to make the following inferences: that the Game of Chess is probably of Chinese origin; that the confined situation and powers of the King, resembling those of a monarch in the earlier parts of the world, countenance the supposition; and that, as it travelled westward, and descended to later times, the sovereign prerogative extended itself, until it became unlimited, as in our state of the Game. That the agency of the Princes, in lieu of the Queen, bespeaks forcibly the nature of the Chinese customs, which exclude females from all power or influence whatever; which Princes, in its passage through

Persia, were changed into a single Vizier, or Minister of State, with the enlarged portion of delegated authority that exists there; instead of whom, the European nations, with their usual gallantry, adopted a Queen on their Board. That the river between the parties is expressive of the general face of this country, where a battle could hardly be fought without encountering an interruption of this kind, which the soldier was here taught to overcome; but that, on the introduction of the Game into Persia, the Board changed with the dry nature of the region, and the contest was decided on terra firma. And lastly, that in no account of the origin of Chess, that I have read, has the tale been so characteristic or consistent as that which I have the honour to offer to the Irish Academy. With the Indians, it was designed by a Bramin to cure the melancholy of the daughter of a Rajah. With the Persians, my memory does not assist me to trace the fable; though, if it were more to the purpose, I think, I should have retained it. But, with the Chinese, it was invented by an experienced soldier, on the principles of war: not to dispel love-sick vapours, or instruct a female in a science that could neither benefit nor inform her; but to quiet the murmurs of a dis