When a vessel is about to proceed on a voyage, she is taken in procession to a temple, where many offerings are displayed before her. The priest recites some prayers, the mate makes several prostrations, and the captain usually honors her, by appearing in a full dress before her image. Then an entertainment is given, and the food presented to the idol is greedily devoured. Afterwards the good mother, who does not partake of the gross earthly substance, is carried in front of a stage, to behold the minstrels, and to admire the dexterity of the actors; thence she is brought back, with music, to the junk, where the merry peals of the gong receive the venerable old inmate, and the jolly sailors anxiously strive to seize whatever may happen to remain of her banquet.

The care of the goddess is intrusted to the priest, who never dares to appear before her with his face unwashed. Every morning he puts sticks of burning incense into the censer, and repeats his ceremonies in every part of the ship, not excepting even the cook's room. When the junk reaches any promontory, or when contrary winds prevail, the priest makes an offering to the spirits of the mountains, or of the air. On such occasions (and only on such), pigs and fowls are killed. When the offering is duly arranged, the priest adds to it some spirits and fruits, burns gilt paper, makes several prostrations, and then cries out to the sailors,-"follow the spirits," who suddenly rise and devour most of the sacrifice. When sailing out of a river, offerings of paper are constantly thrown out near the rudder. But to no part of the junk are so many offerings made as to the compass. Some red cloth, which is also tied to the rudder and cable, is put over it; ineense sticks in great quantities are kindled; and gilt paper, made into the shape of a junk, is burnt before it. Fear the compass, some tobacco, a pipe, and a Burning lamp are placed, the joint property of all; ad hither they all crowd to enjoy themselves.

When there is a calm, the sailors generally contribute a certain quantity of gilt paper, which, pasted into the form of a junk, is set adrift. If no wind follows, the goddess is thought to be out of humor, and recourse is had to the demons of the air. When all endeavors prove unsuccessful, the offerings cease, and the sailors wait with indifference.

Such are the idolatrous principles of the Chinese, that they never spread a sail without having conciliated the favor of the demons, nor return from a voyage without showing their gratitude to their tutelar deity. Christians are the servants of the living God, who has created the heavens and the earth; at whose. command the winds and the waves rise or are still; in whose mercy is salvation, and in whose wrath is destruction: how much more, then, should they endeavor to conciliate the favor of the Almighty, and to be grateful to the Author of all good! If idolaters feel dependent on superior beings; if they look up to them for protection and success; if they are punctual in paying their vows; what should be the conduct of nations, who acknowledge Christ to be their Saviour! Reverence before the name of the Most High; reliance on his gracious protection; submission to his just dispensations; and devout prayers, humble thanksgiving, glorious praise to the Lord of the earth and of the sea, ought to be habitual on board our vessels ; and if this is not the case, the heathen will rise up against us in the judgment, for having paid more attention to their dumb idols, than we have to the worship of the living and true God.

The Chinese sailors are, generally, as intimated above, from the most debase classd of people. The major part of them are opium-smokers, gamblers, thieves, and fornicators. They will indulge in the drug till all their wages are squandered; they will gamble as long as a farthing remains: they will put off their only jacket and give it to a prostitute. They are poor a in debt; they cheat, and are cheated by one anothe

whenever it is possible; and when they have entered a harbor, they have no wish to depart till all they have is wasted, although their families at home may be in the utmost want and distress. Their curses and imprecations are most horrible, their language most filthy and obscene; yet they never condemn themselves to eternal destruction. A person who has lived among these men would be best qualified to give a description of Sodom and Gomorrah, as well as to appreciate the blessings of Christianity; which, even in its most degenerate state, proves a greater check on human depravity, than the best arranged maxims of men.

The whole coast of China is very well known to the Chinese themselves. As their whole navigation is only coasting, they discover, at a great distance, promontories and islands, and are seldom wrong in their conjectures. They have a directory; which, being the result of centuries of experience, is pretty correct, in pointing out the shoals, the entrances of harbors, rocks, &c. As they keep no dead reckoning, nor take observations, they judge of the distance they have made by the promontories they have passed. They reckon by divisions, ten of which are about equal to a degree. Their compass differs materially from that of Europeans. It has several concentric circles; one is divided into four, and another into eight parts, somewhat similar to our divisions of the compass; a third is divided into twenty-four parts, in conformity to the horary division of twenty-four hours, which are distinguished by the same number of characters or signs; according to these divisions, and with these signs, the courses are marked in their directory, and the vessel steered.

China has, for centuries, presented to the Romanists a great sphere for action. Latterly, the individuals belonging to the mission, have not been so eminent for talents as their predecessors, and their influence

has greatly decreased. Although the tenets of their religion are proscribed, some individuals belonging to their mission, have always found their way into China; at the present time, they enter principally by the way of Fuhkeën. It would have been well, at the time they exercised a great influence over the mind of Kanghe, if,-by representing European character in its true light, and showing the advantages to be derived from an open intercourse with western nations, they had endeavored to destroy the wall of separation, which has hitherto debarred the Chinese from marching on in the line of national improvement. Their policy did not admit of this; the only thing they were desirous of, was to secure the trade to the faithful children of the mother church, and the possession of Macao to the Portuguese. In the latter, they succeeded; in the former, all their exertions have been baffled by the superior enterprising spirit of Protestant nations; and their own system of narrow policy has tended, not only to exclude themselves from what they once occupied, but to excite the antipathy of the Chinese government against every stranger.

Protestant missionaries, it is to be hoped, will adopt a more liberal policy; while they preach the glorious gospel of Christ, they will have to show that the spread of divine truth opens the door for every useful art and science; that unshackled commercial relations will be of mutual benefit; and that foreigners and Chinese, as inhabitants of the same globe, and children of the same Creator, have an equal claim to an amicable intercourse, and a free reciprocal communication. Great obstacles are in the way, and have hitherto prevented the attainment of these objects; but, nevertheless, some preparatory steps have been taken; such as the completion of a Chinese and English dictionary, by one of the most distinguished members of the Protestant mission; the translation of the Bible; the publication of tracts

on a great variety of subjects; the establishment of the Anglo-Chinese college, and numerous schools; and other different proceedings, all for the same

purpose.

One of the greatest inconveniences in our operations has been, that most of our labors, with the exception of those of Drs. Morrison and Milne, were confined to Chinese from the Canton and Fuhkeën provinces, who annually visit the ports of the Indian Archipelago, and many of whom become permanent residents abroad. When the junks arrived in those ports, we were in the habit of supplying them with books, which found their way to most of the emporiums of the Chinese empire. As no place, south of China, is the rendezvous of so many Chinese junks as Siam, that country has been the most important station for the distribution of Christian and scientific books. And, moreover, a missionary residing there, and coming in contact with a great many people from the different provinces, may render himself endeared to them, and so gain an opportunity of entering China, without incurring any great personal risk.

All these advantages had long ago determined the minds of Mr. Tomlin and of myself, to make an attempt to enter China, in this unobtruding way; but indisposition snatched from my side a worthy fellow-laborer, and peculiar circumstances also prolonged my stay in Siam, till a geat loss in the death of a beloved partner, and a severe illness, made me anxious to proceed on my iutended voyage.' Although I had been frequently invited to become a passenger, yet my first application to the captain of a junk, destined to Teëntsin, the commercial emporium of the capital, met with a repulse. This junk, afterwards left Siam in company with us, and was never more heard of. The refusal of Jin, the captain, was re-echoed by several others; till, unexpectedly, the Siamese embassador, who had to go to Peking this year, promised to take me gratis to the capital,