Then placing a valuable ring on the boy's finger and telling him to take what silver he might require, till he reached the merchant of Pekin, who would supply him with more, he bid farewell to Nicholas, who, signalling one of the consort ships, went on board, and was soon landed at the port of Amoy.
CHAPTER II.
THE DEMON SHIP.—THE BOY CHOW.
Taking a passage in a merchant junk bound to the port of Ning-Po, Nicholas continued his journey for some days without meeting with any event of importance. The voyage was, however, rendered very tedious by the idolatry of the sailors, who spent a great portion of their time in offering up presents to a dirty little wooden god stuck behind a small oil lamp, the odor from which was any thing but agreeable. They would moreover frequently stop the ship to offer meat and incense to the images of the sea goddess Ma-tsoo-po, which are perched upon almost every promontory upon the Chinese coast.
They had been at sea, or rather along the coast, for these sailors never venture far from land, six days, when the murky atmosphere, the heavy swell of the waves as they rolled inward, and the fluttering flight of the sea-fowl, betokened a coming storm; and the crew, trembling with fear, thought of little else but making offerings to the dirty little god, praying of him to stop the storm. A sailor and a Christian from his childhood, Nicholas was no less disgusted with their cowardice than their foolish superstition, and really fearing that the ship would be dashed to pieces upon a rock, he earnestly entreated them to exert themselves. His efforts, however, were useless, for their faith was firm in the power of their gods, whose protection they sought to purchase in the following curious manner:—
Taking a quantity of gilt paper, kept on board for the purpose, they cut it into the shape of copper tchen, the only coin in the empire, and threw them into the sea as a bribe to the goddess Ma-tsoo-po; but finding that the marine lady's favor was not to be bought so cheaply, the whole crew began to busy themselves in building a paper ship, which, by the way, was so ingeniously constructed that it formed an exact model of their own junk, being complete with masts, ropes, sails, flags, compass, rudder, a crew, victuals, and even a book of accounts.
When this redoubtable vessel was finished they let it into the sea with great ceremony, and amidst the deafening clatter of drums and instruments, and their own shoutings to the goddess, to wreak her vengeance upon the toy instead of her adorers' ship.
Nevertheless the hard-hearted goddess was not to be caught with tinsel, for the storm raged with such terrible violence that the frail bark would speedily have been dashed to atoms but for Nicholas, who, after persuading a few of the least obstinate of the men to help him, set to work and managed to keep her head so straight that they passed through the channel without touching the rocks by which it was bounded on either side. So fearful was the hurricane of circular winds that the shivering crew could see trees torn up by the roots as easily as corks out of bottles by corkscrews. At length, however, the storm subsided, and the sailors believing that nothing less than a deity could have enabled their vessel to live in such a storm, fell upon their knees before Nicholas and thanked him for quelling the fury of the elements.
"Let my brothers toss their stupid idol into the sea, and offer up thanks to the One true God of heaven, who alone has saved them," said the boy.