Illustrated Gazetteer of the Maritime Kingdoms, Volume 33

Page Three

The mountains, rivers, and customs of the various nations of Germania original: 瑪尼亞 (Mǎníyà); referring generally to the German-speaking lands of the Holy Roman Empire and Bohemia original: 博厄美亞 (Bó'è měiyà); the historical region in the modern-day Czech Republic can be found in the Chronicle of Foreign Lands original: 職方外紀 (Zhífāng Wàijì); an influential world geography written in Chinese by the Jesuit missionary Giulio Aleni in 1623.

Originally, the King of Portugal original: 博爾都噶 (Bó'ěrdūgá) died without an heir. Since the King of Spain original: 伊西巴尼亞 (Yīxībāníyà) was his kinsman, he temporarily took charge of Portugal's national affairs. Later, Portugal again established its own sovereign, and the two nations were no longer subordinate to one another This refers to the Iberian Union (1580–1640), a period when the Spanish Habsburgs ruled over Portugal before the Portuguese Restoration War. In the early years of the Qianlong reign [roughly the 1730s], a man from Portugal named Félix da Rocha original: 傳作林 (Chuán Zuòlín); a Portuguese Jesuit priest and mathematician came to serve the Middle Kingdom at the Imperial Astronomical Bureau the government office responsible for observing the stars, calculating the calendar, and predicting eclipses on account of his expertise in astronomy and celestial phenomena.

According to the Maritime Records original: 海錄 (Hǎilù); a geographical work based on the travels of the blind sailor Xie Qinggao, who visited Europe and the Americas in the late 18th century, the Kingdom of the Great Western Ocean is also known as Prussia original: 布路亞士 (Bùlùyàshì). The climate there is bitterly cold. Traveling due north from St. Petersburg original: 散參里 (Sǎncānlǐ) for approximately twenty days, one can reach its borders.

At the southern entrance of its seaport, there are two forts known as the "Interlocking Teeth" Forts original: 交牙礮臺 (jiāoyá pàotái); likely a descriptive term for forts positioned to provide overlapping fields of fire. These house four to five hundred large bronze cannons and are guarded by two thousand soldiers. Whenever seagoing vessels—whether from their own nation or others—arrive at the country, they must first send someone to check if there are any passengers suffering from smallpox original: 痘瘡 (dòuchuāng). If there are, the ship is not permitted to enter the port; they must wait until the smallpox has healed before they are allowed in. Within the country, there are seven market towns.