How far these were prepared under the guidance of the Jesuit Fathers does not seem to be known.

About sixty years previously, under the reign of K`ang Hsi, the Jesuits had carried out extensive surveys, and had drawn fairly accurate maps of Chinese territory, which had been sent to Paris and there engraved on copper by order of Louis XIV.

In like manner, the pictures now in question were forwarded to Paris and engraved, between 1769 and 1774, by skilled draughtsmen, as may be gathered from the lettering at the foot of each; for instance--_Grave par J.P.Le Bas, graveur du cabinet du roi_ (Cambridge University Library).
Kuldja and Kashgaria were next added to the empire, and Manchu supremacy was established in Tibet.

Burma and Nepal were forced to pay tribute, after a disastrous war (1766-1770) with the former country, in which a Chinese army had been almost exterminated; rebellions in Ss{u}ch`uan (1770), Shantung (1777), and Formosa (1786) were suppressed.
Early in the eighteenth century, the Turguts, a branch of the Kalmuck Tartars, unable to endure the oppressive tyranny of their rulers, trekked into Russia, and settled on the banks of the Volga.

Some seventy years later, once more finding the burden of taxation too heavy, they again organized a trek upon a colossal scale.