Directory_and_Chronicle_1850 — Page 235

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Notice of Japan in the Hái-koh Tử Chi.

APRIL,

the matter fully illustrated by a reference to books, for if such be the case, the attributes of Shangti are different from what we had supposed.

The distinction made between idolatry and polytheism on page 199, and the remark that a people may "worship myriads of objects, not one of whoin would be regarded as divine or a God," is we think calculated to confuse the minds of those who employ these words in their usual English acceptation. Webster defines idol to be “an image consecrated as an object of worship, a pagan deity" polytheism is the doctrine of a plurality of gods," divine js, among other meanings, defined as "pertaining to a heathen deity or false gods," and god and deity are explained as synonyms. The reference to the usage of Papal and Greek churches on page 197, compared with the descrip- tion on page 200 of one ti, that “he is regarded as a God, a powerful and glor- ious Being," conveys the idea that the writer looks upon the Shangú of the classics as the true God, and the shin as deified or canonized saints. If such be the just inference, does not this term then become the proper name for God, and not the appellative, as proposed at the commencement of the article? The whole argument seems to us a little confuse i from the restricted signific- ation imposed upon some of the terms employed.-Ed. C. R)

ART. III. Japan: A Translation of the 12th Chapter of the Hải-kwoh Tú Chi, or Notices of Foreign Countries, illustrat- ed with Maps and Engravings. Published at the city of Yúng- chau fú in Kiangsú, in the summer of 1847.-(Continued from page 156.)

Kâu

The Lui Kau of Ya Chingsich, published in the year kweitsz' (1713?). (I have been unable to find anything about this author, or his work. He is probably a writer of the present dynasty, but the year kweilsz' may be 1713,

a of 1773, or 1833. It is most natural to suppose that these extracts are all arranged in the chronological order of the works to which they belong, and as that from which the next to this is taken appeared in 1730, we may perhaps not err in taking the first of the three, which will put it in the 52d year of K'ánghi.]

In the reign Wán-lih (1571-1619), the Japanese seized Formosa, and towards the close of the same period the red-haired men of Hol- land from the Western ocean, attempted to take possession of Hiáng- shán, but not being able, they made an attempt on the Pánghú (Pes- cadores) which was equally unsuccessful, and so they went south- ward and seized the Moluccas and Batavia. They seduced the Batavians into using opium, which swelled them out so that they could not move, and they were accordingly reduced to vassalage by the Dutch. A short time after, these collected a force of picked men, with which they attacked the town of Hiángshin, but being defeated in fight, they sailed east for the Pescadores, whence they sent persons to bribe the siunfú of Fuhkien with large sums, quoting the case of the Italians, [who had been allowed] to reside long before in Hiảngshán, in favor of their being put in possession of the Pescadores as they