subjects. An innumerable quantity of precious documents thus perished, though the unfortunate literati freely sacrificed their lives in defence of their beloved books. Five or six hundred of them were buried alive for refusing compliance with this abominable edict, and, undismayed by their fate, the survivors exhibited the greatest ingenuity and courage in concealing volumes, and the wish of the tyrant that the records of every dynasty earlier than his own should be destroyed was happily unfulfilled, for many years afterwards a copy of the works of Confucius was found between the walls of an old house which was being pulled down, and many others have since been discovered hidden in caves and tombs or buried in the earth. Che-hwang-te survived this wholesale destruction but a short time, dying, after an illness of only three days, in the year 210 B.C.
From this time the Empire was devastated by civil wars, and dynasties succeeded each other with great rapidity. There were fourteen between the years 207 B.C. and A.D. 1279. Up to this time the Empire had maintained its integrity, notwithstanding the continual invasions of the Mongolians. This people, in 1277, sent out a fleet which took possession of Canton. Two years later a great naval battle was fought between the fleets of both nations. The Imperialists were at anchor off Yae island, with the Emperor Te-ping — a mere lad — on board, when the Tartar admiral summoned them to surrender, a demand which the Chinese minister, Loo-sew-foo, haughtily refused. An engagement then commenced, which lasted the whole day,
