Canton, (China,) Dec. 3, 1831.

MY DEAR YOUNG FRIENDS,--I will now, as I have desired, proceed
to tell you about the character and condition of females in China.
All that I can write, will give you only an imperfect idea of their
degradation. Women, who have been born and nurtured in Christian
lands, and have never seen with their own eyes the desolations
of the human race in heathen countries, can never know how much
they ought to value the blessings of the gospel. In Christian lands,
certainly in America, females constitute the most amiable, the
most virtuous, and the happiest part of the community. Exactly
the opposite is true here. They are the most ugly, the most vicious,
and the most miserable. I do not mean that they are born so, or
are so by nature. By nature all are alike; for God, that made the
world, and all things therein, "hath made of one blood all nations
of men, for to dwell on all the face of the earth." Thus saith
God in the Holy Scriptures. But see now what the Chinese say:--

"When a man is born, he sleeps on a bed;
He is clothed in robes, and plays with germs;--
But when a daughter is born, she sleeps on the ground;
She is clothed with a wrapper and plays with a tile;
She is incapable either of evil or of good:--
If she does ill, she is not a woman;
If she does well, she is not a woman;
Virtue and vice cannot belong to woman."

These, dear children, are the words of one of the ancient wisemen of China. And the present condition of females, is in exact
accordance with the sentiment which they contain. Females are
treated as if they were incapable either of evil, or of good.
There are no schools for girls. Very few indeed receive any
education. Only here and there one, a solitary individual, is able
either to read or to write. Such ignorance, and such degradation,
do not destroy female influence, but leave it to corrupt, and
to be corrupted. Thus, in the very nursery, and in the mother's
arms, where the story of Christ crucified ought often to be repeated,
and where all the first principles of our holy religion should
constantly be taught, the little child is left, not only
uninstructed in all that is good--but left, to follow vain
imaginations, and a mind which is enmity against God. You, dear
children, have received, and continue to receive much good
instruction from your parents--especially from your mothers. You
have line upon line, and precept upon precept. It is not so with
little children in China. By precept, and by example, they are
taught things contrary to the law of God--taught to dishonor God.
They are trained up in the way they should not go, and when they
are old, they do not depart from it.

Females in China are not like ancient mothers in Israel. They are
not like multitudes of excellent women now in Christian lands.
Females are regarded as a very inferior part of the community.
They are often doomed to the lowest and severest labor. I have
often seen the mother, with an infant tied on her back, laboring
hard in rowing her husband's boat, while he sat at his ease, smoking
his pipe.

Females of the poorer class, are every where to be seen meanly
attired, and usually barefooted. Those of the higher classes,
seldom, if ever appear abroad. Whey they do go out, it is always
in sedans;--partly, I suppose, that they may not be seen, and partly,
because of their little feet. The small foot is an odd thing.
A Chinese historian says, "It is not known when the bow foot (that
is, the small foot) of females was introduced. About nine hundred
years ago, a certain prince," says the same historian, "ordered
his concubine to bind her foot with silk, and cause it to appear
small, and in the shape of the new moon. From this sprung the
imitation of every other female." This is quite like that fashionin America, of lacing so tight as to bring on the consumption.
It is astonishing to what a small size their feet are sometimes
compressed. The toes, with the exception of the great toe, are
doubled under the foot, in the tenderest infancy, and fastened
by tight bandages, till they unite with and are buried in, the
sole of the foot. This utterly unfits them for walking, and gives
them, when they attempt it, an awkward, hobbling gait, like a person
trying to walk on his heels. Some of their feet, I have been told,
are no more than three inches long. These are what they call the
golden lilies, are regarded as the very perfection of beauty.
I have sent one of these, or rather a model of one of these along
with the box of idols, to the Seminary at Andover.

Female children are often sold. And there are strong reasons for
believing, that there are cases where parents drown their infant
female children, in order to free themselves from the care and
expense of nursing and supporting them. Mention is made of this
fact, in their books. Since I have been in China, I have not seen
or heard of a single case. I do not think it true, certainly not
in this part of China, that the inhabitants "throw out by thousands
their new born infants into the streets, so that they are gathered
up by the scavengers every morning." But that great numbers of
female children, that have been nursed and reared to the age of
six, eight, ten, or twelve years, are sold, I have no doubt.
Little girls are very often sold. Sometimes they are sold by their
parents. Sometimes they are sold by robbers, who have stolen them
away from their parents. This practice is very common in Canton,
and in other places in the south of China. Sometimes, when they
are sold by the parents, it is on condition, that at a certain
age, the buyer shall procure for them a husband, and set them at
liberty. At other times, and usually, they are sold
unconditionally. Not long ago, I knew a case, where a little
girl, eleven years of age, was sold for fifty dollars.

A great many of the most beautiful female children among the poor
are sold, and carried away to be the inmates of those abominable
abodes, of which it is almost a shame even to speak. In the Bible,
they are called "the way to hell; going down to the chambers of
death." There are many hundreds of these wicked houses in and about
Canton. They are just like those bad boats, those floating
sepulchres, mentioned in the last letters. A great many of the
poor, abandoned creatures that inhabit them, become weary with
life, and kill themselves; sometimes three or four more in a company,
and at one time. The Judge of Canton recently stated, that eight
or nine tenths of the untimely deaths brought to the notice of
government, were suicides; and that six or seven tenths were women.

With this sad story, I must close this letter. I could relate many
facts of the same sort. But I think I have told you enough;--enough
to show you how miserably the fairest half of the human family
will always be degraded, and abused, until they have the Bible,
and enjoy the blessings of the Christian religion. Farewell.

Your true friends,
E.C.B.

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