Girl in Amoy China
Amoy, Monday, Easter, 8:35 a.m., your time 12:25 a.m.
Yesterday morning, Chinese service was held in the native church at 9:30. Mr. Thompson was the preacher. I accompanied him & the place was full. Males sit on one side & females on the other. A screen runs down the center from platform to door. Service similar to our own, of course I could not follow. Harmonium & a native young student plays, & very well they sing. After the sermon, Mr. Thompson asked me to say a few words to them, he interpreting. I did so. All the Mission schools were represented, LMS, American Presby’n, & ours. They work very harmoniously & do better than separately. Then English Church Service at 11:30 in the Union Church, which was beautifully decorated with choice flowers & tropical plants. [3:33] I sat in the choir. Mr. Thompson & Mr. Beattie sat there. On Thursday & Saturday nights there was a choir practice, Easter anthems &c. &c., so I accompanied them. Revd. Mr. Macgowan preached the morning service & Mr. Thompson at night. I did not go out during the afternoon. Mr. Beattie went to the native service 2:30 & a native preacher conducted.
After night service, I was introduced to Mr. Macgowan, & when he heard West H’pool, he said, “I was there a while ago & spoke in Tower St. Church, stayed with Mr. Baines”, had seen Lady Gray[1] & remembered all well, & desired me to convey his regards to them, so if Willie has the opportunity he can tell them, Lady Gray will be pleased if he tells her, I am sure. I often thought about you all as it was Easter Sunday & at 7 last night, 11 with you a.m., I thought about you all in church & the intercessory prayer. I had a very good chance yesterday of seeing the Christian Chinese & their manners & all was very commendable, but I should have to be a while here to get a closer insight to their life to speak with assurance. However, Mr. Thompson, who has wrought over 20 years amongst them, is very helpful & gives very satisfactory accounts of work done.
I leave here this evening for Swatou & will have a night there with the Maclagans. It is a fine sunshiny morning, & the first sunshine since I landed here. Been too bad for photos & I now wish I had waited till today, as most if not all I’ve taken will be failures or poor at best. We are going over to Amoy City during the forenoon. I may get some object worth snapping. On Saturday afternoon Mr. Beattie & Mr. Milward (agent for the Scottish Religion publication society) went over to [3:34] see a very celebrated temple on the Amoy island. Very heathenish it was, peculiarly constructed, many enormous idols of hideous expressions, awful to look upon. Graves are every where, dotted without any kind of order, & only here & there are there enclosures. The largest burial ground was alongside this temple & apparently long since closed. Every here & there you see graves having been opened. The bones have been removed & potted, large jars, & some of these are set on other graves, quite exposed. Every grave just now is decorated with paper cut in coin shapes, offering to the spirits as propitiation. Mr. Stoddart[2] should know Mr. Beattie’s connection. He was born at Harwood, near Hawick, but brought up at Westruther with an uncle of the same name. His father now farms Todshawhaugh, 4 miles from Hawick. As we came past a temple from church last night, a play was being enacted in the open on a platform in front of the idol, scores of natives looking on, & this is continued for some days, a kind of offering during a festival, & this being Easter will be a festival amongst them. The Christian natives are forbidden to look on, so for example’s sake we did not get a long look, just in passing, else I regretted missing what was to be seen. They are very meaningless it appears, even to the natives, & very immoral also.
The natural beauty of this island, Kuloongsu, is remarkable, & all around are islands, but very barren some of them. On two we see a pagoda, but too distant to make a convenient journey.
However do you manage to make out the faint writing? I often wonder but I expect with Willie‘s help & great patience you will make the most of it. I hope you got the 2 books I sent on from Singapore, then you will pick up any illegible parts on tissue.
[3:35]
A bell is rung at 7 in the morning to rise. Breakfast is at 7:30. Worship in Chinese. 4 natives do the house work & cooking. Dinner at 1, a cup of tea at 4, & supper at 7, & early to bed. No female servants in China. Women are a nonentity. In fact, it is not etiquette for women to be seen out, except aged women. Habits are very filthy & street abominations are sickening, even in the native village on this island. It was 1885[3] when Mr. Thompson visited the Hartlepools & stayed at East with J.W. Wylie. He was Richardson’s manager then. I remembered him. Then it was 1895 when he was at Chatton & neighbourhood. I hope if he is spared to come again we may have the pleasure of entertaining him. I shall have something to add to this from Swatou & will post it at Hong Kong for Saturday’s mail. By this time you must have received lots of letters from me & I hope they’ve interested you all.
(I had nearly forgotten to say, the Phipsons are on their way home via America, spending one month in England & returning to Bombay for November, making a round tour.)
[1] Wife of Sir William Gray, shipbuilder and first Mayor of West Hartlepool
[2] Inserted on facing page: “Mr Stoddart should know Mr. Beattie’s connections – born at Harwood near Hawick”.
[3] Inserted on facing page: “Mr. Thompson at H’pool 1885. Stayed with J.W. Wylie. 1895 he was at Chatton”.