Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society. Vol. 13, no. 3.

Date:
1869
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society. Vol. 13, no. 3. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ago, and Cooke liad not been there since. It was extremely gratifying to me to observe the enthusiasm and affection with which Cooke was greeted by the inhabitants, who had neither forgotten his person nor the beneficence of his short rule over them. So strictly had he kept his soldiers in discipline, that no plunder had been committed, and now, after so long an interval, when the people knew he was in the town, they ran out to see him and to show their respect in the exaggerated Eastern fashion of prostrating themselves before him. From here we proceeded on foot to the Hsein-ku-shan, or Old Deity Hill temple, which is three miles from Shan-yu. This temple is dedicated to a deity worshipped by the Chinese before the existence of Buddhism. Michelet, in his ‘ Bible of Humanity,’ makes the error of stating that China is an example of a nation which existed for over a thousand years without any religion whatever, until the introduction of Buddhism; and even Burnouf, careful as he generally is, accepts this statement as true without enquiry, though he owns it to be a fact that militates against all his theories on the philosophy of religion. I pointed this out to Dr. MacCartee, an American missionary of great learning, who tells me that, as the characters “ Sacrifice,” “ Prayer,” “ Ghost,” “ Spirit,” &c., occur in writings at least a thousand years anterior to the introduction of Buddhism,— that as Buddhism itself in China (modified as it has been by the ancient Chinese creeds and forms of worship) differs essentially from Buddhism in India,—he considers Michelet an untrustworthy guide in historical facts bearing on the subject. The temple of Ilsien-ku-shan has a picturesque position on the summit of a small cliff, halfway up a steep mountain, over which cliff and underneath the temple falls a pretty waterfall, which derives the water from a fall higher up the steep, flowing into and through a subterranean cavern. At Shan-yu MM. Simon and Cooke left us, leaving Mons. Rovion and myself to proceed on the journey. From Shan-yu we proceeded to Liangivu, the place at which we had to cross the Ago Chiao Biver, which runs into the Hangchow Bay. This river has a strong tide, and is at times visited by a powerful tidal wave or bore (a wave resembling an earthquake - wave, which comes up strongest two days after the new moon in midsummer). Though five miles nearer the sea at Pa Kwau, there is a haul-over or pa from the canals on either side of the Ego Chiao River; passengers gene- rally find it more convenient to go by Liangwu, where one has to disembark, and where the arrangements made by tho Chinese Transit Company are so admirable as to give very littlo trouble. Another reason for preferring this route is to avoid the noise.