make him drink till he is fuddled. Thus they keep possession of their victim for three or four days, never losing sight of him, making him smoke, drink, and eat; while they sell his live stock, and purchase for him whatever he may want, charging him generally double or triple for everything.

Polygamy, abolished by the gospel, and contrary in itself to the happiness and peace of families, should, perhaps, be considered as a good for the Tartars. In the actual state of their society, it acts as a barrier to the libertinage and corruption of manners. Celibacy being imposed upon the Lamas, and the class which shaves the head, and lives in the lamaseries, being sa numerous, if the daughters could not place themselves in families in the rank of secondary wives, it is easy to imagine the disorders which would arise from this multiplicity of young women left to themselves without support.

term. The husband can send back the lady to her parents without even assigning a reason. He is quits by the oxen, the sheep, and the horses which he was obliged to give as the marriage present; and the parents, it seems, can sell the same merchandise over again to a second bidder!

M. Huc puts in a strong light that appropriation to themselves of Manchow, or Eastern Tartary, (the country of their last conquerors,) which has been effected by the Chinese within something more than a century, and to which we have already alluded. In a map of this country, constructed by The married state, however, is anything but the the Jesuits, Père Duhalde states his reason for in-conjugal, in the literal and derivative sense of the serting the Tartar names, and not the Chinese. "Of what use," says he, "would it be to a traveller in Manchouria to know that the river Saghalien is called by the Chinese Hé-loung-Keang, (river of the Black Dragon,) since he has no business with them, and the Tartars, with whom he has to deal, know nothing of this name?""This observation might be true in the time of Kanghy," says M. Huc,when it was made, but the very opposite is the fact at present; for the traveller in Manchouria now finds that he has to deal with China, and it is of the Hé-loung-Keang that he hears, and not of the Saghalien." In our own colonies, the rapidly increasing numbers and wealth of the Chinese, where they exist, are apt to give them a degree of presumption which, with the aid of their vices, might make them troublesome, were it not for the wholesome dread they entertain of European power, wherever they happen to be really acquainted

with it.

Our travellers, in their progress westward, had to cross the Yellow River more than once where it makes a bend northwards through the Great Wall and back again, enclosing in this curve an area of some three degrees square, the miserably waste and sandy country of the Ortous. Unhappily for the poor missionaries, this ruthless and ungainly stream (which a late emperor justly called "China's sorrow") was in its frequent condition of overflow, and we have a pitiable description of the miseries endured by themselves and their camels, of all beasts the least adapted to deal with floods. The waters of the Yellow River, pure and clear at their source among the Thibet mountains, do not assume M. Huc explains how Thibet, and even Mongol their muddy tinge until they reach the alluvial tracts Tartary, to a considerable extent, is a nation of of the Ortous, where they spread over thousands Lamas. He says he may venture to assert that in of acres during the inundations, altogether concealMongolia they form at least a third of the whole ing the bed of the stream. Being from this point population. In almost every family, with the ex- always nearly on a level with the country through ception of the eldest son, who remains "homme which they flow, this defect of encaissement is the noir," all the rest of the males are destined to be cause of disastrous accidents, when the rapid stream Lamas. Nothing can be more obvious than the is swollen by melting snows near its source. fact that, in China Proper, Buddhism and its same velocity, which charges the river thickly with temples are in ruins, and the priests left in a starv-comminuted soil, prevents its deposition on the ing condition; while, on the other hand, the government gives every encouragement to Lamanism in Tartary. The double object is said to be thus to impose a check on the growth of the population, and at the same time render that population as little warlike as possible. The remembrance of the ancient power of the Mongols haunts the court of Peking. They were once masters of the empire, and, to diminish the chances of a new invasion, the study is now to weaken them by all possible means. With this large proportion of the male population condemned to celibacy, M. Huc gives us the following reasons for his thinking that polygamy, under all the circumstances, is the best thing for the Mongol Tartars. It seems generally to have existed in the pastoral and nomadic state.

The

nothing more than a simple piece of masonry, and sometimes a modest rampart of earth. We even occasionally saw their famous wall reduced to its most simple expression, and composed solely of some heaped stones.*

to give us a proof of his sagacity, called upon us to say without hesitation whether we were not English: and, to leave no doubt of the meaning of his question, he added, that by Ing-kie-li, he meant the "seadevils" who had made war on Canton.-" No, we It may be observed, with reference to the land are not English; and not devils of any kind, whether frontiers of the Chinese empire on the west, that of the sea or of the earth." An idler came up, very the authority of the emperor, instead of abruptly tempestuous examination: "You," said he to the innluckily, just in time to remove the ill effect of this encountering the hard outline of an entirely inde-keeper, " do not know how to look at the human form. pendent authority, is shadowed off by something of a blended jurisdiction. "There exists in the Kansou, and upon the frontiers of the province of SseTchouan, many tribes who thus govern themselves, under special laws. All bear the denomination of Tou-sse, to which is added the family name of their chief or sovereign." (P. 36.) We find in another place that this prevails to the south-west, on the borders of Ava. "On the outskirts of the empire, towards the west, are a number of towns or stations, called Too-sse, or native jurisdictions,' where the aborigines are more or less independent, and where there is, in fact, a kind of divided authority, each party being immediately subject to its own chiefs. This is particularly true of the Lolos."-The Chinese, vol. i.

How dare you pretend that these people are Yangkouei-tse? Don't you know that they have all blue eyes and red hair?"" You are right," said the innkeeper, "I had not considered it well."—" No, certainly," added we, "you have not. Do you think that marine monsters could live upon land as we do, and ride on horseback?"-"Oh, that's right, it is just so; the Ing-kie-li, they say, never dare to quit the sea; as soon as they get on land they tremble and die, like fish taken out of water."-They talked much of the manners and character of sea-devils, and after all was said, it was settled that we were not at all of the same race.]

These volumes contain the most detailed and complete account of Lamanism that we remember ever to have met with; and they confirm, on the authority of these Romish priests themselves, the astonishing resemblance that exists between the external rites and institutions of Buddhism and those of the Church of Rome. Besides celibacy, fasting, and prayers for the dead, there are enshrined relics, holy water, incense, candles in broad day, rosaries of beads counted in praying, worship of saints, processions, and a monastic habit resembling that of the mendicant orders. Although our worthy missionaries call the images of Lamanism

It is an odd result of our war with China, that something of the same principle should have been established by treaty at the Five Ports of trade on the opposite side of the empire. British subjects are there entirely independent of the Chinese law, and governed by their own consuls, who act under ordinances framed by the governor and legislative council of Hong-kong, confirmed by her majesty in council. The inference from the frequency of these "native jurisdictions" is, that Chinese law, as administered towards foreigners, becomes intoler-idols, and the Romish idols images, we do not think able; so at least it proved at Canton.

It would be a pity to spoil the following passage by a translation :

Notre aubergiste, un Chinois pur-sang, pour nous donner une preuve de sa sagacité, nous demanda sans tergiverser si nous n'étions pas Anglais; et pour ne laisser aucun doute à sa question, il ajouta qu'il entendait par Ing-kie-li les diables marins," qui faisaient la guerre à Canton. Non, nous ne sommes pas Anglais; nous autres, nous ne sommes diables d'aucune façon, ni de mer, ni de terre. Un désœuvré vint fort à propos détruire le mauvais effet de cette interpellation intempestive.-Toi, dit-il à l'aubergiste, tu ne sais pas regarder les figures des hommes. Comment oses-tu prétendre que ces gens là sont des Yangkouei-tse ? Est-ce que tu ne sais pas que ceux-ci ont les yeux tout bleus, et les cheveux tout rouges?-C'est juste, dit. l'aubergiste, je n'avais pas bien réfléchi.Non, certainement, ajoutàmes-nous, tu n'avais pas bien réfléchi. Crois-tu que des monstres marins pourraient, commes nous, vivre sur terre, et seraient capables d'aller à cheval?-Oh, c'est juste, c'est bien cela; les Ing-kie-li, dit-on, n'osent jamais quitter la mer; aussitôt qu'ils montent à terre, ils tremblent et meurent comme les poissons qu'on met hors de l'eau. On parla beaucoup des mœurs et du caractère des diables marins, et d'après tout ce qui en fut dit, il demeura demontré que nous n'étions pas du tout de la même race.

the distinction is worth much, and therefore may throw in this item with the rest; the more especially as, on the summary principle of "inveniam viam, aut faciam," the commandment against idol worship has been thrust bodily out of their Decalogue by the Romanists, as may be seen from any copy of the Missal. It is remarkable that these very missionaries had an image made for their own adoration, from a European model, at a place on their journey where a huge image of Buddha had just been cast, and sent off to Lhassa. (Vol. i., p. 41.) Thus the object of their worship was a molten image, the work, not only of men's, but pagan hands, employed indifferently for either Buddhism or Romanism.

It is at once curious, and an instructive lesson to unprejudiced minds, to observe that M. Huc, while Buddhists, entirely forgets how applicable his he indulges in pleasantries at the expense of the sarcasms are to his own side of the question. After describing an assembly in a college of Lamas, where the explanations given by the priests or professors on certain points of their religion proved as vague and incomprehensible as the thing to be explained, he adds, "On est, du reste, convaincu que la sublimité d'une doctrine est en raison directe de son obscurité et de son impénétrabilité.” [Our inn-keeper, a full-blooded Chinese, in order Let us only suppose M. Huc expounding to those * Père Gerbillon informs us, that beyond the Yellow Lamas the dogma of Transubstantiation, and addRiver, to its western extremity, (or for full one half ing, in testimony of its truth, that St. Ignatius of its total length,) the wall is chiefly a mound of Loyola, with eyesight sharpened by faith, declared earth or gravel, about fifteen feet in height, with only he actually saw the farinaceous substance changoccasional towers of brick. Marco Polo's silence con- ing itself into flesh. "Les hommes," observes our cerning it may therefore be accounted for on the suppo-author in another place, "sont partout les mêmes!" sition that, having seen only this imperfect portion, he did not deem it an object of sufficient curiosity to deserve particular notice, without the necessity of imagining that he entered China to the south of the great barrier.-The Chinese, vol. i.

the devotees and recluses of Buddhism, are similar The jokes in which M. Huc indulges, against to what have been repeated a thousand times with reference to those of Romanism :

This young Lama of eighty years old was a large pictures and tablets which conceal, without adornwell made fellow, whose lumbering and stout figure ing, the walls and pillars of many a church at seemed to prove a great consumption of butter, in his Rome, and not to think of strict seclusion. We could never see him put his nose out of his house door, without thinking of La

nam posse mederi

Picta docet templis multa tabella tuis. Fontaine's rat, who, out of devotion, had retired into & Dutch cheese.

To instance a higher department of art—as the old The monasteries of the Lamas, resembling as bined each look that charın'd him in the fair of

artist, in painting his Venus, is said to have comthey do in so many respects those of the Romanists, Greece," so the Italian painters have sometimes differ from them on soine few points. The mem- immortalized the features of their own mistresses bers are all subject to the same rule and the same in pictures, of saints and martyrs, intended to adorn discipline ; but they do not seem to live to the same churches. extent in coinmunity; and exclusive rights of In its modern traits, as well as in its ancient, property prevail among them. Our missionaries Lamanism maintains its resemblance to Romanism. passed some months in these establishments. Besides Prodigies and miracles of constant occurrence come his holiness, the Supreme Lama at Lhassa, there are to the aid of the priesthood, and maintain their inGrand Lamas, who derive their investiture from him, Auence over the stupid multitude. Some of the and descend from past ages in uninterrupted succes- instances adduced are palpable cases of ingenious sion. With reference to one of these, it is ob- jugglery ; but M. Huc, with characteristic facility, served :

believes in the miracle, while he attributes it to the If the person of the Grand Lama drew little of our agency of the devil :admiration, it was not so with his dress, which was exactly that of bishops : he wore on his head a yellow doubt, such facts, or without hesitation would set

A purely human philosopher would reject, without mitre; a long staff in form of a crosier was in his them down as Laman tricks. As for us, Catholic right hand ; and his shoulders were covered with a missionaries, we believe that the great liar, who mantle of violet taffety, held over his breast by a deceived our first parents in Paradise, still carries on clasp, and in everything resembling a cope. After his system of lies; he who had the power of supportwards we noticed many resemblances between the ing in the air Simon the sorcerer, may very likely Catholic worship and the ceremonies of the Lamans.

now speak to man by the mouth of a child, to M. Huc afterwards recapitulates as follows:

strengthen the faith of his worshippers. The cross, the mitre, the dalmatic, the cope or

Whatever Protestants may think and say of the charuble which the Grand Lamas wear in travelling, means by which the Romish Church has maintained or when they perform some ceremony outside the and extended its influence over the masses of mantemple, the service of two choirs, the psalmody, the kind, it is impossible to deny the thorough knowlexorcisms, the censer supported by five chains, edge of human nature on which all its measures opened or shut at pleasure ; the benedictions given by have been calculated. The same causes which the Lamas with the right hand stretched over the heads have aided it so long against the reforms of a purer of the faithful ; the chaplet ; the celibacy of the clergy; faith are likely to aid it much longer ; and we the spiritual retreats ; the worship of saints ; fusts ; really see very little chance of a change. The processions ; litany ; holy water ;-see, in how many priesily array, the lighted taper, and the histrionic ways the Buddhists agree with us !

pantomime, are aided by smoking censers, graven He might have added, that they likewise have a images, and all the paraphernalia by which so goddess, whom they call Tien-how, literally regina many temples of so many different religions have cæli, “Queen of Heaven;" but with a different M. Huc, that the Romish Church has a fair field for

been before distinguished. We entirely agree with legend.

Our author very naturally endeavors to persuade proselytism in the vast regions where Buddhism at himself and his readers that by some process of present prevails. In external forms, the transition diablerie these things have been borrowed from his is the easiest possible ; and during his short resiown church ; but why should we do such violence blait toujours que la beauté de nos cérémonies eût

dence at Lhassa, he remarked :-"Il nous semto the subject, when there is the much easier, more intelligible, and more straightforward course of ag, puisamment sur ce peuple, si avide de tout ce deriving both from something older than either ;

qui tient au culle extérieur.' and remaining persuaded, as most of us must have * In a book which had belonged to a Romish misbeen long ago, that the Pagan rites and Pontifex sionary in China was found this estimate written on Maximus of the modern Rome represent, in out

the fly-leaf in Italian :ward fashion, the paganism and Pontifex Maximus

" Numbers included under different known relig

ions-
of the ancient ? Strange to say, instead of blink-
ing the matter, a sort of parallel has often been

Catholic Apostolic Church of Rome, 139,000,000
Schismatic Greek Church, -

62,000,000 studiously preserved and paraded, as when the

Protestant Church and its branches, 59,000,000 Pantheon, the temple of "all the gods,” was consecrated by Pope Boniface to “ all the saints." Is

Total of Christianity,

260,000,000 it necessary for us to compare the annual sprinkling of horses with holy water to the like process at the Jews,

4,000,000 Circeusian games—the costly gifts at Loretto to the Mahometans,

96,000,000 like gifts at Delphi-the nuns to the virgines

Hindoos,

60,000,000 sanctæ of old Rome — the shrines of “ Maria in Buddhists,

170,000.000 triviis'' to the like rural shrines of more ancient

Confucianists and others,

147,000,000 idols — the flagellants (whose self-discipline Sancho

737,000,000 so dexterously mitigated in his own case) to the practices of ihe priests of Isis ? In running the " The number of Buddhists is probably not overparallel, the only difficulty is where to stop. It is rated, considering that they extend from Japan to impossible to look at the innumerable votive Lhassa, and from the confines of Siberia to Siam."

reached their majority; a circumstance which seems to indicate foul play, and which was, in fact, expressly attributed to treachery on the part of the administration of Thibet, vested chiefly in the hands of a functionary styled Nomekhan, during the Grand Lama's minority.

If the new system cannot be made to supersede | whom, therefore, we may compare to the Carthe old, it may at least be grafted upon it, as dinals. The present Dalé-Lama is only nine years experience has already proved at our own colony of age, and his three predecessors had none of them of Ceylon; for Romanism has sometimes been satisfied with a part, where the whole was unattainable. In a recent work by Sir Emerson Tennent, he observes of the early converts in that island to the Romish Church, "There is no reason to doubt that, along with the profession of the new faith, the majority of them, like the Singalese of the present day, cherished, with still closer attachment, the superstitions of Buddhism;" and he attributes the ease of their external conversion to "the attractions of a religion which, in point of pomp and magnificence, surpassed, without materi-proceed as ambassador to Thibet, and overturn the ally differing from, the pageantry and processions with which they were accustomed to celebrate the festivals of their own national worship." We may, however, charitably and reasonably suppose that the present emissaries of Rome would stop short of the complaisant conformity of their Jesuit predecessors, who, according to the Abbé Dubois, conducted the images of the Virgin and Saviour on triumphal cars, imitated from the orgies of Jaggernath, and introduced the dancers of the Brahminical rites into the ceremonial of the church.

A party at Lhassa opposed to this Nomekhan applied secretly, in the year 1844, for the interference of the Emperor of China, who is sufficiently ready to extend his influence, on all occasions, in Thibet and elsewhere. The person selected to ill-acquired power of the Nomekhan was Ke-shen, who only about four years before had been ruined by the result of his negotiations at Canton; but whose energy and talents appear still to have been appreciated by the emperor's government, and whose failure might possibly have met with palliation and excuse in the still worse failures of his successors in the south. On reaching Lhassa, Ke-shen took his measures in concert with those opposed to the Nomekhan. That high functionary was arrested; when, to avoid torture, he at length confessed to the guilt of having taken three lives from the Grand Lama, or, in other words, having caused his transmigration three times by violence. To this confession the seals of Ke-shen and the other parties were affixed, and it was transmitted by a special courier to Peking.

kings, and of sovereigns great or small;-after exhortations to potentates, monarchs, princes, magistrates, and the people of the four seas to walk in the paths of justice and virtue, under pain of incurring the wrath of Heaven, and the anger of the great Khan

After eighteen months of mingled residence and journeyings through the immense tract which intervenes between the neighborhood of Peking and Lhassa, MM. Huc and Gabet reached the capital of Thibet in a very weary and exhausted state. The snowy range of mountains which formed the fatter portion of their route was passed with a caraThree months afterwards the capital of Thibet was van, which is periodically collected as a protection frightfully agitated; at the door of the palace of against robbers; and the miseries and privations Nomekhan, and in the principal streets of the city, which they endured had well-nigh proved fatal to was placarded an imperial edict, in three languages, M. Gabet, though both travellers were in the prime on yellow paper, and with borders representing winged of life-one thirty-two, and the other only thirty-dragons. After lofty reflections upon the duties of seven. Scarcely settled in the lodging where they had installed themselves, when troubles not less harassing, though of another kind, were to be encountered. "Après les peines physiques, c'était le tour des souffrances morales." As far as rested with the native government of the country, they might long have remained unmolested to exercise their zeal at the head-quarters of Buddhism; but obstacles arose in a direction which they were hardly prepared to anticipate. The minister of the Emperor of China resides at the Court of the Supreme Lama, something like the Austrian ambassador at Rome, but with a vastly greater and more undivided influence. His spies were the first to detect the intruders; and he succeeded, at length, notwithstanding the favor and kindness shown to them by the temporal Regent of Thibet, in effecting their expulsion from the country. The whole narrative is extremely curious, and, in fact, gives a better insight into the real relations existing between Peking and Lhassa than any other source within our reach.

In addition to the numerous and striking analogies which have been traced between the rites of Lamanism and the Roman worship, M. Huc observes that "Rome and Lhassa, the Pope and the Supreme Lama, might also furnish points of resemblance full of interest." The Thibetian government is altogether ecclesiastical. The Talé or Dalé-Lama is its political and religious head. When he dies, or, as the Buddhists say, transmigrates, his indestructible personification is continued in a child, chosen by the great Lamas, distinguished as Houtouktou, whose sacerdotal rank is inferior only to that of the Grand Lama, and

the emperor recalled the crimes of Nomekhan, and. condemned him to perpetual banishment to the shores of Sakhalien-oula, at the extremity of Manchouria.— At the end, was the usual form-tremble and obey.

Such an unusual sight as this Imperial Edict on the gates of their governor excited a general insurrection among the Thibetians of Lhassa. At half a league's distance is a College of Lamas, composed of some thousands. These armed themselves at random, and came down like an avalanche, denouncing death to Ke-shen and the Chinese. They carried by assault the residence of the ambassador, who, however, was not to be found. They next attacked those who had acted with him, and sacrificed more than one to their fury. They released the condemned Nomekhan, who, however, had not the spirit to avail himself of the occasion. "He had," says M. Hue, "the cowardly energy of an assassin, and not the boldness of a conspirator."

The next morning, the Lamas were again agitated like a hive of bees, and again swarmed down upon Lhassa. But Ke-shen had profited by the interval, and his measures were taken. A formidable array of Chinese and Thibetian troops barred their passage; and the Lamas, whose trade was not fighting, betook themselves to their cells and their books, and were glad to avoid the consequences of their temerity in an immediate resumption of their clerical character. In a few days, the Nomekhan, who had thrown away his only chance,

"You are

After

The good-natured functionary assured the missionaries that he had sent for them merely in consequence of the contradictory reports in circulation, and without the least wish to molest them. having found, to his surprise, that they could express themselves in the written characters of China, Tartary, and Thibet, and having satisfied himself as to the nature of their pursuits, he informed them that the Chinese resident was himself going to He advised that they should question them. frankly state their history, and added, that they might depend upon his protection, for it was himself who governed the country.

was on his way comme un mouton" to Tartary | low."-"Do the rest of you," said he, turning to -while Ke-shen, elated with his triumph, showed those standing round him, "understand this lana disposition to extend the penalties to his reputed guage?" They bowed all together, and said they did accomplices in guilt. The ministers of the local not understand it. "You see, nobody here undergovernment, however, thought the Chinese influ- stands your language; translate your words into that ence had done enough, and the ambassador had of Thibet."-"We said that in the physiognomy of the prudence to forbear. The new Nomekhan the chief kalon there is much goodness."-"Ah, yes; was selected from the Lamas of the greatest emi- you find me very good? Nevertheless, I am very wicked. Am I not very wicked?" he asked his peonence in the country; but as the choice fell on a ple. They smiled, and did not speak. youth of only eighteen, a regent was appointed in right," continued the regent; "I am good, for goodthe person of the chief kalon, or minister. This ness is the duty of a kalon. I ought to be good to individual soon showed that his first care was to my own people, and also to foreigners." provide barriers against the ambition and encroachments of the Chinese ambassador, who had so boldly taken advantage of the weakness of the Thibetian government, to usurp its powers, and extend the pretensions of his master, the emperor. Things were in this state on the arrival of our two missionaries, who, after some weeks of unmolested residence, began to flatter themselves that they might pass unobserved. They were one day seated at their lodging in conversation with a Lama well versed in Buddhistic learning, when a well-dressed Chinese suddenly made his appearance, and expressed a strong desire to inspect any merchandise they might have to dispose of. They in vain declared they were not merchants; he was not satis-departure, the noise of the gong announced the fied, and in the midst of the discussion arrived a approach of Ke-shen. The experience of our second Chinese, and then a third; after which, travellers made them anticipate a less agreeable the number of visitors was soon swelled to five, by interview in this quarter; but they screwed their the appearance of two Lamas in rich silk scarfs.courage up to the sticking place, determined that They all joined in a multitude of questions, ad. as Christians, as missionaries, and as Frenchmen, dressed to MM. Gabet and Huc, and their looks they would not kneel to anybody; and they bade were directed on all sides, in a minute examination their squire and neophyte, Samdadchiemba, confess of the contents of the dwelling. They at length his faith, if the occasion should require. The took their leave, promising to return, and left our portrait of the celebrated mandarin must be given missionaries in an uncomfortable state, justly at full length. thinking that the pretended chance visit looked like a concerted measure, and that their new friends had very much the appearance of either spies or swindlers.

As he took his

Ke-shen, although sixty years of age, seemed to us full of strength and vigor. His face is undoubtedly the noblest, most gracious, and most intellectual, that we had ever seen among the Chinese. As soon as we When dinner was over, two out of the late five had taken off our hat to him, making a bow to him in reäppeared, and at once announced that the regent our best possible fashion, "That's right," said he, desired to see the missionaries ;" and that "follow your own customs. I have heard that you young man," said they, pointing to their faithful Tartar speak the language of Pekin correctly. I wish to attendant, Samdadchiemba, who eyed them with no converse with you for a moment."-" We make many very friendly looks-"he must come too." The will be able to make up for the obscurity of our mistakes in speaking, but your wonderful intelligence authorities must be obeyed, and they set out to-words."—"Why, this is pure Pekin indeed! You gether towards the palace of the regent. On their arrival, they were conducted through a court and passages, crowded with Thibetians and Chinese, to a large room, at the end of which was seated the regent, with his legs crossed upon a thick cushion covered with a tiger's skin. He was a man of about fifty, stout, and remarkably fair, with a most intelligent and benevolent countenance. The strangers were invited to seat themselves on a bench covered with red carpet to their right.

66

French have a great facility for all sciences. You are
French, are you not?"-"Yes, we are French."
"Oh! I know the French; formerly there were many
of them at Pekin. I saw some of them."—" You
should have known some of them also at Canton,
when you were imperial commissioner." This souve-
nir made our judge knit his brow; he drew out of his
repository a large pinch of snuff,* and snuffed it up in
very bad humor. "Yes, it's true. I have seen
many Europeans at Canton. You are of the religion
of the Lord of heaven, are you not?"- -"Certainly;
we are even preachers of that religion."—"I know it,
I know it. No doubt you have come here to preach
that religion?"-"For that very purpose.
you already gone over many countries?""We have
gone through all China, all Tartary, and now you see
us in the capital of Thibet."-" With whom did you
"We do not an-
lodge when you were in China ?”.
swer questions of that nature."-" But if I command
you?". "We could not obey." (Here the displeased:

"Have

As soon as we were seated, the regent considered us a long time in silence, and with minute attention. He leaned his head sometimes to the right and sometimes to the left, and examined us in a manner half mocking and half good-natured. This sort of pantomime seemed to us at last so droll, that we could not help laughing. "Well," said we in French, in a low tone, "this gentleman seems a pretty good fellow; our business will go well."-"Ah!" said the regent, with a voice full of affability, "what language do you speak? I did not understand what you said."-"We The Chinese generally take snuff out of a small speak the language of our country."-"We shall see. bottle, but Ke-shen probably required larger supplies, Repeat aloud what you just said in a low voice." and had a silver box or vessel at his side-" vase en "We said, This gentleman seems a pretty good fel-argent."