Hamilton’s account of the east indies.

502

good intereft, when he was able, I alfo wrote to the Lords Commiflioners of theRoyal Navy , about the charges I had been at on account of the lofs of his Maj city'sfhip, in China ; and petitioned that I might be reimburfed, and made Mr. MatthewCock, a brother of the captain’s, my attorney, to folicit for and receive what theirLordfhips would pleafe to allow me.

I received a letter from the captain, then at Cape Bona Efperance, in his way home 5wherein he gave me an account of their hard ufage aboard of the fhip, and of thedeath of his fecond lieutenant, and that was all I had from him in twenty-three years.When I arrived in England, I did myfelf the honour to write him from London toLeatherhead , to try if I could furbifh up his fhort memory with the remembrance olwhat had paffed between us in China ; but he protefted that he bad quite forgot it.I anfwered him, that his firft lieutenant, Captain Falconar, ftill remembered it verywell, and had made a grateful acknowledgment of the final! favour he received abovetwenty years before. My affairs calling me to Holland in anno 1724, he called forme at London , when he knew I was in Holland ; and before I returned to England, hehad paid his great debt to nature, without taking notice of the fmall one due to me.

Chap. LIII. — A Continuation of Obfervations on the Gods, Clergy, and Devotion cf

the Chinefe.

AND now I have followed him to his grave, I will return back to Amoy, and ol>ferve fome of their cuftoms, religious, civil, and criminal. Their temples are built allafter one form, but, as in other countries, very different in beauty and magnitude.Their jolfes, or demi-gods, are fome of human fhape, fome of monflrous figures, butin the province of Fokien , they are more devoted to the worfhip of goddeffes thangods. Quanheim has the molt votaries. She is placed in ftate, fitting on a cufhionwith rich robes, and her little fon handing before her, with a charged trident in hisright hand, ready to throw at offenders of the laws of humanity and nature, and alfo atthofe who make no freewill-offerings to his mother. The Chinefe, who have feen theRoman Catholic churches and worfhip, fay that fhe is the Chinefe Virgin Mary.

There is another goddefs called Matfoa, who fwam from a far country, throughmany feas, and came in one night to China , and took up her refidence there. She fitson a platform, with a cufhion laid on it, and her head is covered with blue wool infteadof hair. She is the protectrefs of navigation, for which reafon none go a voyage butthey firft make a facrifice of boiled hogs heads, and bread baked in the fteam of boilingwater. It is fet before the image when reeking hot, and kept before her till it is cold,flie feeding on the fmoke, and the devotees on the fubftance, when it is cold. On then*return from a voyage, they compliment her with a play, either acted on board of tndfhip, or before one of her temples.

They have another goddefs in form of a virgin, called Ouonin, who has many vo-taries, but is moftly worfhipped in the provinces of Peking and Nanking , but being avirgin, fhe has many lovers all over China .

The god Fe has an human fhape, except his head, which has the figure" of an eagle*Gan has a broad face, and a prodigious great belly. Fo is a very majeftic god, andis always placed with a great number of little gods to attend him. Minifo in Fokien *I take to be the god Miglett at Canton, being alike in fhape and countenance. He-iscalled the god of pleafure. Puffa is fet crofs-legged on a cufhion, befpangled vvitnflowers and ftars, and fhe has eight or nine arms and hands on each fide, and two

<5 before,