On the river of Canton there are boats with women of pleasure in them. With these women the Chinese of the town sometimes pass three or four days together.
They are trained up by other women, who carry on this shameful traffic; and are so instructed as to be ignorant of nothing lascivious or immodest. As the Chinese experience no tenderness from their wives, they are fond of this fort of immorality.
Among these girls there are some who at the age of ten years are already withered and worn out by the excess of their complaisance.
Several of them sometimes join the execution of what they have been taught, or what they have devised to inflame the imagination of their admirers. (Fr. Ed.)
Red Candles.
They are made of a kind of tallow extracted from a tree, and are coated with tallow of a harder kind, and afterwards painted red. The wick of all the Chinese candles is of bamboo.
Regency.
The word Regency is repeatedly used in this work to signify government or administration; as the regency of Batavia, the regency of Macao, and even the regency of Canton, that is, the administration of the province of Quang-tong, intrusted to the Tsong-tou, the Pou-yuen, and the Hou-pou, who all reside in the city of Canton. (Fr. Ed.)
Religion.
The primitive religion of China is that of the ancient patriarchs, such as Abraham, Melchisedeck, &c. It is from that religion that the Emperor derives the title of High Priest of the Almighty; by virtue of which he alone exercises the functions of it in China.
