The mansion of the Governor of the colony is situated upon the beautiful Praya Grande, and the extensive buildings formerly occupied by the East India Company also front on that lovely promenade. One of the oldest houses in Macao was the home of Dr. Williams, where we were guests. It is two hundred years old, and its spacious apartments--like those of other residences occupied by foreigners--are admirably arranged, and adapted to the necessities of so warm a climate. There are several forts, only one of which we visited. This is called the Guia, or Del Monte, and was built in 1638,--one hundred years after Macao was first settled. It stands on a rocky eminence of the same name. In building it the rocky summit was merely cut down so as to form a level surface. Stone battlements, having very thick walls, were then constructed, and upon these guns are mounted. The Guia fort is the highest elevation in the settlement, and as it commands an extensive view of the sea and roads, is used as a signal-station. In clambering up the hill to the Guia fort we encountered many Chinese graves. These, as we have already mentioned, are never enclosed; but the cattle pasture among them, and footpaths, made by the inhabitants, lead between and around them. Before reaching the hill we passed through a portion of the Government Park,[13] in which a memorialstone is erected to mark the spot where, two centuries ago, a Dutch admiral was killed while advancing from his boats to attack the colony. The temple of Makauk--the first Buddhist monastery which we visited in China--is a very picturesque joss-house, built among the cliffs and granite boulders near the sea-shore. It is sacred to the goddess _Kwanyin_, i. e. the Hearer of Cries; who is also called the Goddess of Mercy, Holy Mother, and Queen of Heaven,--which Dr. Williams says is only another form of “Our Lady.” Kwanyin, although more particularly the goddess of the boat-people, fishermen, and sailors, is also a favorite divinity of the Chinese generally. This temple is very old, and is said to have been built by Chinese sailors, who were saved, with their junks, through the perils of a dreadful typhoon, in which a great number of seamen were lost. The main entrance is guarded by two huge, but grotesque lions sculptured in stone, and the tall red flag-staff, in front of the temple, designates its locality to the passer-by. In one of the volumes of “Allum’s Views in the East,” there is a very correct picture of this temple as seen from the harbor,--so faithful a copy, indeed, that a careful observer, having once seen the temple from that point, would readily recognize the original. A descriptive writer of scenes in the East has given so minute and excellent an account of this pile, that we cannot do better than to quote his words entire:--