In company with an American missionary, the highly respectable and Reverend Mr. Bridgham, who has made great proficiency in the Chinese language, and is extending his researches in various ways, more especially in teaching a number of Chinese youths, &c., I paid a visit to the great idol temple of Honam, opposite the city, on the south side of the river, which is here about fifty rods wide.[A] This great temple and monastery contain one hundred and seventy-four priests. The general character given of these, by the Chinese, is, that they are great debauchees, gamblers, and common mendicants; like the criminals, their heads are close shaven, they not being suffered to wear the long braided queue; and they are held in no manner of respect by the people. The temple is said to be immensely wealthy. These priests are of the sect of Firk, or Budha, and the temple, or rather succession of temples, would, including the gardens, in which they raise large quantities of vegetable and other fruits, cover an area of twelve acres. Their diet is composed of fruits and vegetables. Meat and fowls being expressly forbidden them. [A] The legend of the _Jos House_, Hoe-chong-sze or Idol temple of Honam:-- Jos is a corruption of the Portuguese word Deos, God. Every idol temple is here called a Jos House; to worship any superior being is expressed by, to Chin-chen-Jos. This great temple was, originally, a garden, belonging to the family of Ko; about eight hundred years since, a small Budha temple was built and named, Tseen-tsow-sze, “the temple of ten thousand autumns.” It remained an obscure place till about the year 1600, when a priest of eminent devotion raised its character, and his disciple “Oh-tzze,” by his superior talents and sanctity, together with a concurrence of extraordinary circumstances, raised the temple to its present magnificence and extent. During the reign of Kang He, the second of the reigning Tartar dynasty, in the year 1700, Canton province was not fully subjugated; and the emperor’s son-in-law, entitled Ping-naw-wong, “the subjugator of the south,” reduced the whole to his father’s sway, and took up his headquarters in the Honam temple, according to the Tartar and Chinese usage. There were, on the island, thirteen villages which he had orders to exterminate. Previously to carrying into effect this order, the king, a blood-thirsty man, cast his eyes on Oh-tzze, a fat, happy, priest, and remarked, that were he to live on a vegetable diet, he could not be so fat--he must be a hypocrite, and should be punished with death. He drew his sword to put in effect the sentence; but the limb suddenly withered, and thus prevented its execution. That night a divine person appeared to him in a dream, and warned him that Oh-tzze was a holy man, and must not, unjustly, be killed. The following morning the king presented himself before Oh-tzze, confessed his crime, and immediately his arm was restored. He then did obeisance to the priest, took him for