To the Editor of the a-CHINA DalLy News." Green's "London Letter" in your Sin, veading 0.
Fesue "of the 2oeh ult, "'T Yous origin of the word Sunk Interested in° his auer as to
While 1 do, not presume to pose fas an authority on'such matters have ved Ju' China continuously ave ha Sppeetnitiey for lek and 80 may be supposed
various items. of informa: tion as to the people and' thely as a result of these oppor ow suggest to Mr. Green that a possible derivation of this work is the mandarin word "chuan meaning a boat or vessel. "Ag Mr: Green doubtless "knows, the. same character has many varying render ings in different parts of the land, fand it would "seem reasonable to suppose that since the natives them-elves call a boat or ship a chuan, cheon, a soong, a sheen, ete. it is just as reasonable to suppose that, the first waders to the Jed to Anglicize the native words which they came to "recognize as applying to a water-borne vessel, In this connect Green's explanation of the derivation of the better, T would sug may be merely another Anglieization of the three chavact= Jers" formerly "used to" denote official of high rank. °T submit that fin the early days of the conquest by the Manchus, the natives. would be likely to refer to those appointed by Peking to rule over them-ay the Manchu Great (or Superior) Man, Putting this in the Mandarin dialect have Man Ta Ren. Ip had never occurred to" me that this phrase might be Portuguese, but 1" must admit. that is is certainly plausible. But is it likely" that the early Portuguese navigators would Wee. a
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.