Jul 10-13, 1789 Home Logbook Jul 15-16, 1789
Revised Jun 30 2021
Fair Weather and fresh Breezes at ESE. Employed on the Schooner. Mr. Nelson very Ill and most dilligently attended by Mr. Max and his assistant, also Mr. Bertz and our own Surgeon. They use no Purgatives but frequent.
Carpenter getting better. Three others have intermitting Fevers. Myself much recovered but very weak.
This morning I attended a Chinese Funeral. The Person was of the superior class at this place the Order of the Funeral was said therefore to be attended with suitable pomp and grandeur.
Old age with its usual infirmities caused the death of this man, and as the approaches were regular, he had directed and got his coffin made at an early period, which I am told he often looked at with great composure neither showing a desire or a dread of Death. Life therefore about which we have so much solicitude and anxious care appeared only a secondary consideration with him, so that he had arrived at that state of present happiness altho a real Idolator, which is the grand object with every good Christian.
The Body lay four days, the Third it was put into the Coffin and the necessary preparations for the Funeral were completed.
On the 4th. day at 4 in the morning the ceremony began by a clattering of metal Pans (called Gongs) two small Trumpets and two Flutes. With the latter at intervals they played a dirge, and the Gongs at every quarter of an hour were beat with great Violence for the space of a minute. The Men relations of the deceased were dressed in white Callico Habits made as their common habilements are, and the Women had Veils of the same cloth. Two Boys dressed as the Men each with a peice of Bamboo two feet long performed the Office of Mules. The Coffin was painted black ornamented with gilded characters and an Iron Skewer went down past the left Shoulder to the bottom of the Coffin. The procession was in pairs the first held large paper Lanthorns [lanterns] with a Candle lighted in each carried at the top of long Poles which raised them 8 or 10 feet above the Ground. Next was carried a Hoop covered with Red Sattin like a Petticoat. Then followed by Pairs about 2 dozen decorative Paper Ensigns and one of Red Sattin. A sedan chair, with a small pot put therein filled with Sand, in which was stuck a number of small Sticks covered with some composition which made them burn without Haze, closed the Order while the Corps was got ready to be removed out of the House upon the Bier.
In the Room where the Corps lay was a Table spread with some Tea Equipage. At the back of it was a kind of Paper Altar with Chinese characters, and underneath a Pot of burning small Sticks and candles on each side. Adjoining was another Table spread with dressed Fowls, Ducks, a Leg of Pork and part of Harslet. On the left of the Altar was a goat cleaned of its Hair fixed on a bier for that purpose, in the attitude of listening or alarmed at some Sounds that it heard; and on the Right was Hog in a similar position.
The two Brothers of the deceased with his son stood before the Altar at the end of the Tables. One man stood on the left and two on the Right of them to perform the Office of Priests and one of them kneeling down read a prayer. After the Prayer a cup of Tea, or what was in the Tea pott was presented on a Silver waiter to the middle Person seven different times, who after paying a Devotion to the Altar and Manes of the deceased returned it to the Altar. A Basket of Gilded pepers were set fire to before the door to which also they paid Devotion. One of the Brothers kneeled down by the side of the Coffin and appeared to be in conversation with the deceased, when one of my Seamen swore he was bespeaking a good birth for himself in the next world. Which if he had permitted me to have had my own Ideas on it, I should have asked, if one might have reasoned from this, that their happiness in a future State is in their Idea in some degree procured by the intercession of their Friends who die before them. But the expression of the Seaman is as emphatical and no one can deny but it is more concise.
The Slaves and Servants took their farewell of their Master by loud shouts of Grief. The Victuals were removed from the Table into a Basket, and the Hog and Goat were taken into an adjoining House. The Corps was now taken out on a Bier during which the Symbols made a great noise as if to overcome the Grief that takes place on the removal of the Body.
The Altar also was removed out and carried before the Corps, and the procession moved off with their Friends and acquaintance following in Pairs and after all the Female Mourners. Three Swivels were fired and Rockets at every 5 minutes and the Road was strewed with gilded papers as they went to the Grave where the Body was deposited with no other ceremony than each person throwing a handfull of Earth on the Coffin, the Female mourners walking three times round the Grave, and a Bundle of Gilded papers burnt as they had done before the House.
The Men remained to see the Grave closed during which the Victuals were spread on the Ground and the Altar held at the Grave and any person that chose eat or drank. Some devotions were then performed by the two Brothers by bowing and Kneeling, after which the Victuals were taken up and every one returned Home.
Jul 10-13, 1789 Home Logbook Jul 15-16, 1789