tone, over and over again, the name of
    Buddha, ‘ameta fo,’ or something like that sound.  I observed some with
    lumps on the forehead, evidently produced by knocking it against the
    ground.  The utter want of respect of these people for their temples,
    coupled with this asceticism and apparent self-sacrifice in their
    religion, is a combination which I cannot at present understand.  It
    has one bad effect, that in the plundering expeditions which we
    Christians dignify with the name of war in these countries, idols are
    ripped up in the hope of finding treasure in them, temple ornaments
    seized, and in short no sort of consideration is shown for the
    religious feelings of the natives.

The following notice of the same sacred island occurs in one of his despatches:—­

I trust that I may be permitted to offer one remark in reference to Potou, an islet adjoining Chusan, which I touched at on my way from the latter place to Chapoo.  Little information, of course, was to be gathered there on questions directly affecting trade or politics, for it is a holy spot, exclusively appropriated to temples in tinsel and bonzes in rags; but it was impossible to wander over it as I did, visiting with entire impunity its most sacred recesses, without being forcibly reminded of the fact that one, at least, of the obstacles to intercourse between nations, which operates most powerfully in many parts, especially of the East, can hardly be said to exist in China.  The Buddhistic faith does not seem to excite in the popular mind any bigoted antipathy to the professors of other creeds.  The owner of the humblest dwelling almost invariably offers to the foreigner who enters it the hospitable tea-cup, without any apparent apprehension that his guest, by using, will defile it; and priests and worshippers attach no idea of profanation to the presence of the stranger in the joss-house.  This is a fact, as I humbly conceive, not without its significance, when we come to consider what prospect there may be of our being able to extend and multiply relations of commerce and amity with this industrious portion of the human race.

The private journal proceeds:—­

March 24th.—­We are gliding through a perfectly smooth sea, with islands on both sides of us, on a beautifully calm and clear day, warmer than of late, but still tart enough to feel healthy.  We passed a fleet of some hundreds of junks, proceeding northward under convoy of some lorchas of the ‘Arrow’ class, carrying flags which they probably have no right to.  These lorchas exact a sort of black mail from the junks, and plunder them whenever it is more profitable to do so than to protect them.  They often have Europeans on board.  Poor Yeh has suffered severely for our sins in respect to this description of craft.  We are on our way to Chapoo now, a port not opened to trade, but one which I am ordered by the Government to induce the Chinese to open.  As it is very little out of the way to Shanghae, I wish to look at it in passing.

[Sidenote:  Chapoo.]