failure, and did not warrant the large sums expended there. Those who
are unfriendly to the cause do not see that more than half the amount
there expended was for educating the people, for improving their social
condition, for translating valuable books into their various languages
and for establishing among them that mighty engine of civilization and
reform, the printing press.[100]
But it is not merely in the translation and distribution of these books,
that the missionaries have rendered so much service. In this labor it is
true they have contributed greatly towards disseminating Christian truth
and useful knowledge among a large class of people, and have improved
their religious, their moral and their social condition. But to Europe
and to the learned world they have also furnished a vast deal of
philological knowledge, elucidating and developing languages scarcely
known beyond the precincts of the several countries in which they were
spoken. Many of these languages, too, were previously unwritten; and
from this rude state the missionaries have trained and moulded them into
forms adapted to written speech.
While speaking of the labors of the missionaries in the East, I should
do great injustice to Catholics not to speak of their efforts to improve
the moral and religious condition of the people in these distant
countries. In the most barbarous and secluded portions of the earth do
we find these devoted men diligently laboring to elevate the condition
of the natives. In many do we see a zeal and devotedness, an endurance
of hardships, of the most severe privations, and often martyrdom itself,
which has never been surpassed in the annals of missionary enterprise.
Neither Francois Xavier, nor Ignatius Loyola, so famous among the
pioneers of the Eastern missions, ever exhibited a greater zeal or
devotedness than we now witness among the Catholic missionaries in
Thibet, China, Corea, the islands of the Eastern Archipelago and
Oceanica. They too have added much to our stock of knowledge of the
inhabitants, their manners and customs, and their languages. Their
narratives give us particular accounts of the productions of the
countries in which they reside, their trade, commerce, and all that
interests us.
SIAM. An interesting fact connected with the progress of European
civilization, and the extension of Christianity in the kingdom of Siam,
seems deserving of notice in this place. It was communicated by the
American Mission in that country.
"The king of Siam despatched one of his ships to Ceylon about the close
of last year, to carry back some Ceylonese Boodhists whom he had invited
to Siam, two or three years before, and also to send a fresh
ecclesiastical embassy to that island--regarded by all Boodhists as very
sacred--to make further religious researches in the primitive nursery of
their faith. That embassy fulfilled its mission, and returned to Siam in
June, bringing a letter to his Majesty from a high priest of Boodh in
Ceylon, written in English, and stating in substance, that the religion
of Boodh had become almost extinct in Ceylon, chiefly through the
influence of the Christian religion, and the schools and seminaries of
the missionaries and English residents in that part of the world; and
that, if some aid from abroad could not be obtained to prop up crumbling
Boodhism in that island, it must soon become utterly extinct. The
writer expressed much pain at the thought, that the very birth place of
his religion should not have some permanent witness of it; and requested
that his Majesty, in his pious zeal for Boodhism, would send him funds,
with which he might build a _Wat_ (Religious house) and support priests
in honor of his god. He suggested that this would be a noble work for a
great king, and one that would confer upon him the highest honors of
Boodhism."[101]
The following list embraces the recent works on India.
Travels in the Kashmir and the Punjab; containing a particular
account of the Sikhs. From the German of Baron Hugel, with
notes by Major Jervis, royal 8vo. London, 1846.
The Punjaub; being a brief account of the country of the Sikhs,
its extent, history, commerce, productions, religion, &c., to
the recent campaign of the Sutelege. By Lt. Col. Steinbach,
post, 8vo. London, 1846.
A Peep into Turkistan; by Capt. R. Burslem, 8vo. London, 1846.
Travels in the Punjab, Affghanistan and Turkistan, to Balk,
Bokhara and Herat, by Mohan Lal, 8vo. London, 1846.
History of the Punjab, and of the rise, progress and present
condition of the Sikhs, 2 vols. post, 8vo. London, 1846.
The history of the Sikhs, with a personal narrative of the war
between the British and the Sikhs. By W.L. McGregor, 2 vols.
8vo. London, 1847.
The Sikhs and Affghans, immediately before and after the death
of Runjeet Singh. By Shahamat Ali, post, 8vo. London, 1847.
The Hindoo Castes; or history, manners and customs of the 42
castes or sects of the Brahmins of British India, with highly
colored plates: By E.A. Rodriguez, 24 numbers.
COCHIN-CHINA, CHINA, MANCHURIA, COREA, AND JAPAN.
COCHIN-CHINA. M. Hedde has published a few notices of a visit to Turon
in Annam in 1844, on his passage from Singapore to Macao.[102] He
represents the country as altogether in a wretched, declining condition,
misgoverned and beggared by despotic officers, presenting a painful
contrast in its general prosperity with the Chinese empire. The present
monarch is named Thieufri (or Yuen-fuh-siuen in Chinese) and succeeded
his father Ming-ming or Minh-menh in 1841, but no improvement in the
domestic or foreign administration of the government has taken place.
Several Cochin-Chinese youth have been educated at Singapore, and the
king purchased two steamers several years ago from the Dutch, but the
natives probably were too little acquainted with the machinery and
motive power to make the least use of them, as nothing has since been
heard of them. The country is highly favored by its natural advantages
and navigable rivers for maintaining a large population, but oppression
on the part of the rulers and ignorance among the people, vitiate the
sources of national prosperity. The port of Turon alone, is open in
Annam for foreign trade, but no American vessels have been there for a
cargo since Lieut. White's unsuccessful voyage in the Franklin in 1804.
Capt. Percival of the U.S. ship Constitution anchored there in May,
1845, but no official account of his visit has been published, which if
the rumors of his firing upon the town are true, is not strange. The
Peacock and Enterprize also anchored there in 1836, but Mr. Roberts, the
American diplomatic agent, was too ill to have any communications with
the authorities.
CHINA. The late war between England and China has directed the attention
of other nations towards that empire in an unusual degree. Except the
immediate details of the contest and the personal incidents connected
with it, however, the works of those officers who have written upon that
war, have not contained so much information as was expected by some, but
quite as much as could be collected under the circumstances. The war was
almost wholly a maritime one, confined to attacks upon cities and forts
upon the coast and rivers, by both the army and navy, and few or none of
the officers were acquainted with the language of the people, so that
little information could be obtained from those natives whom suspicion
or terror did not drive away. The region around Ningpo, Chusan and the
mouth of the Yangtsz kiang, has been described with more minuteness than
any other part of the maritime provinces; and the careful survey of the
coast from Amoy to Shanghai, with the Chusan and Pescadore archipelagoes
by Captains Collinson, and Kellet and others, has left little to be done
for the navigator's benefit, in making known the hydrography of this
part of China. The general topography of China is, however, but little
better known now than it was at the close of the general survey of the
Jesuits in 1714, and their maps form the basis of the best extant.
The embassy sent by the French government in 1844, under M. Th. de
Lagrene, to form a commercial treaty with China, was furnished on a most
liberal scale with everything necessary to make the greatest improvement
of the opportunities offered to examine into the mechanical arts and
productions of the land. Four gentlemen were attached to the
ambassador's suite, to make inquiries into the various agricultural and
mechanical arts of the Chinese, one of whom, M. Isidore Hedde, was
especially designated to investigate everything relating to the growth
and preparation of silk. In pursuance of this object, he visited the
city of Tuchan fu, which lies a few miles northwest of Shanghai, and is
the capital of the province of Kiangsu. This place is probably the
second or third city in the empire, Canton or Hangchau fu being the only
ones which can compete with it for wealth and beautiful manufactures. It
lies in a highly cultivated region, and is connected with Peking and
other large places, through the Grand canal and the Yangtsz kiang. M.
Hedde went in a Chinese dress, and succeeded in visiting the principal
buildings in the city, such as the provincial mint, the hall of
examination, an establishment for the education of unhappy females
destined for sale for the amusement of the opulent, and some
manufactories. The suburbs of Suchau, as is the case with most Chinese
cities, exceed that part within the walls, and here he found most of the
craftsmen in iron, ivory, gold, silver, wood, bone, horn, glass, earth,
paper, cotton and silk. His errand being chiefly to examine the silken
fabrics, he noticed whatever was peculiar in spinning, dyeing and
weaving, in the shops he entered. The Chinese have no such immense
establishments as are found in this country, where large buildings
accommodate an immense quantity of machinery and numerous workmen, but
all their products are made by manual labor in small establishments. M.
Hedde was struck with the immense population of the city and its
environs, including a floating suburb of great extent, the whole
comprising a population of not far from two millions. The Chinese census
gives an average of over nine hundred souls to a square mile in the
province of Kiangsu, and every opportunity which has been offered for
examining it, has added new evidence to the truth of this statement,
though closer investigation and further travel is necessary before we
can give implicit reliance to the assertions made on this subject.
Two English missionaries have lately gone long journeys into the
interior, but as Protestants have no coadjutors among the people away
from the ports, who would be willing to receive and conceal them; and as
their system of operations aims rather to impart a true knowledge of
Christianity than to make many converts to a form of worship, these
excursions have not been frequently made. One of the two here referred
to, was across the country from Ningpo to Canton, by the same route Lord
Macartney came, and the other was up the Yangtsz kiang. Two American
missionaries visited the large city of Changchau fu near Amoy in 1844,
where they were received with civility though not with kindness.
Mr. Robert Fortune, sent out to China by the Horticultural Society, has
lately returned to England, with new plants of great beauty, and a large
collection of botanical and ornithological specimens, among which are
doubtless many not heretofore described. Mr. Fortune visited all the
ports, and made excursions in their neighborhoods, and his reception
among the people was generally kind. The people in the cities of Ningpo
and Shanghai, and their vicinities, compare favorably for their kindness
and general courtesy, with the coarse mannered natives of Canton.
The opening of this great empire to the commercial enterprise of western
nations, has given rise to anticipations of an extensive trade, and the
importation of cotton and woolen fabrics during the last few years has
been increasing; and if it was not for the abominable traffic in opium,
which is both impoverishing and destroying the Chinese, there would be
every reason for believing the commerce with China would soon be one of
the largest branches of trade. The principal articles in which it is
most likely to increase are tea and silk, but there is a great
assortment of other productions, which can be taken in exchange for the
cloths, metals and wares of the west. Mr. Montgomery Martin for a short
time colonial treasurer of Hongkong, has collected all the statistics
bearing on this subject in his work, which will aid in forming an
opinion on this point. Commercially, politically and religiously, the
Chinese empire now presents a most interesting spectacle, and the
experiment of regenerating it and introducing it into the family of
nations, without completely disorganizing its present form of government
and society, will constantly go on and attract still more and more the
notice of Christendom. The probabilities at present are in favor of a
successful issue, but it is impossible to contemplate the desolating
effects of the use of opium, brought to the people in such quantities,
without great apprehension as to the result. The lava like progress of
the power of Great Britain in Asia, has just commenced on the borders of
China, and when the country is drained of specie in payment for this
drug, there is reason to fear that the native government will be unable
to carry on its operations and maintain its authority.
COREA. Since the extermination of the Catholic priests from Corea in
1839, the most rigid measures have been adopted to exclude all
foreigners; in fact, the determination on the part of the government of
Corea to prevent all intercourse between its people and those of other
countries seems to have been adopted from its neighbor of Japan. These
measures are even extended to the Chinese, against whom a strong natural
antipathy exists, growing out of the persecutions formerly inflicted on
the Coreans by them. Accurate descriptions of Europeans are kept at the
various posts on the frontier, and from their well known characteristics
they are easily distinguished. The Coreans themselves on leaving their
country for China for purposes of trade, receive a passport, which on
returning must be given back or they are not permitted to enter. Many
Christians still remain in Corea, and though they are subject to
persecution, the minds of the people are well disposed towards the
Christian religion. The literary class hold it in the highest
estimation, and seem only to be waiting for the moment when they will be
free to declare in its favor.[103]
Farther accounts from this country have lately appeared in the Annals of
the Propaganda Society,[104] in a letter from Keemay Kim a native of
Corea, and a Christian, who had just completed his studies at Macao in
China. He was sent on a mission to the Christians in Corea, but owing to
the vigilance observed on the frontiers of that country, was unable to
enter it. Determined to persevere in the attempt, he posted on to
Hoong-tchoong, a small frontier town near the mouth of a river which
separates Corea from Manchuria, where he waited until the period arrived
when the great fair was to take place at Kee-eu-Wen, the nearest town in
Corea, four leagues distant. "They supply the Coreans with dogs, cats,
pipes, leather, stag's horns, copper, horses, mules and asses; and
receive in exchange, baskets, kitchen utensils, rice, corn, swine,
paper, mats, oxen, furs and small horses." A few officers are permitted
to trade every year, but they are closely guarded. All others who pass
the frontier are made slaves or massacred at once. Our traveller here
met a few Corean Christians in the immense crowd which had come to
traffic, and whom he recognised by a badge previously agreed upon; but
so great was the confusion and hurry on the occasion, added to the fear
of being recognized, that the interview does not seem to have been
productive of good, or increased our information of the people or
country. Since the great persecution a few years since, the church had
been at rest; and though a few converts had been made, the faithful had
retired to the southern provinces for better security. They still
entertained the idea of introducing a European missionary through the
north, though with the knowledge that if discovered by the authorities,
instant death would follow. Such is the zeal and perseverance with which
these men pursue their philanthropic and Christian labors.
The fair to which allusion has been made, is thus described by our
Corean. The traders cannot begin their operations until a signal is
given, by hoisting a flag and beating the gong, "when the immense and
densely packed crowd rush to the market place; Coreans, Chinese, and
Manchus, are all mingled together. Each speaks in his own tongue, and so
great is the uproar produced by this mass of people, that the echoes of
the neighboring mountains repeat their discordant shouts."
"Four or five hours is the whole time allowed for buying and selling;
consequently, the tumult which takes place, the quarrels which arise,
the blows which are exchanged, and the plundering which goes on, give
the place more the look of a city taken by storm and given up to
pillage, than that of a fair." At evening, when the signal is given,
the strangers are driven out by the soldiers with the points of their
lances.
MANCHURIA. The vast regions of Manchuria, lying north of Corea to the
Hing-an or Yablonoi mountains, and east of the Sialkoi to the ocean, are
inhabited by various tribes speaking different dialects and subsisting
principally by hunting and fishing. The Manchus are now the dominant
race, but some of the tribes near the sea and in Taraka island, bear no
tributary relations to them, if indeed they are much acquainted. Since
the conquest of China, the Manchus have gone on steadily improving this
part of their possessions by stationing agricultural troops at the
principal ports of observation, and collecting the hunters around these
points as much as possible. Criminals are also constantly banished
there, who carry with them their arts, and by their industry both
maintain themselves and set an example to the nomads. The southern part
called Shingking, has become well cultivated in many parts, and
considerable trade is carried on at Kinchau with other parts of China.
Manchuria produces pulse, maize, (Indian corn), millet, barley and
buckwheat; pulse, drugs and cattle, form the leading articles of trade.
The climate of this country is so inhospitable, as to prove a serious
obstacle in the way of its settlement and cultivation.
The Manchus have no national literature; all the books written in their
language are translations of Chinese works, made under the
superintendence of the Academies at Moukden and Peking. Their written
characters are derived from the Mongols, but have undergone many
changes. The emperors have taken great pains to elevate their countrymen
by providing them with the best books in Chinese literature, and
compelling them to go through the same examinations before they can
attain any office; but the numerical superiority of the Chinese and
their active habits, give them so much the advantage, that except in
their own country, the Manchus find it difficult to preserve their
native tongue to the second generation.
MONGOLIA. The last volume of the Annals of the Propaganda Society
contains an interesting narrative of a journey into Mongolia, by the
Rev. Mr. Huc.[105] This vast country, covering a million of square
miles, consists of barren deserts and boundless steppes. In the limits
allotted each corps, there is seldom more than one town, where the chief
resides. The people live in tents, without any permanent residence. They
move from place to place, with the changes of the seasons, or when their
immense herds of oxen, camels and horses have exhausted the grass around
their encampment. To-day presents an animated scene of hundreds of
tents, filled with an active population; the children playing as happy
and contented as though surrounded with every luxury a civilized life
affords; the women cooking their food and drawing water from a well just
dug; and the men, mounted on horseback, are galloping over the plain,
keeping their countless herds from straying away. To-morrow, this
picturesque and animated scene will be changed to a dreary and
forbidding desert. Men, flocks, and tents have vanished, and nought
remains to mark the visit of this wandering race, but the curling smoke
of their unquenched fires, or the birds of prey hovering over the
carcase of some dying camel, or feeding on the remains of their late
repast. The Mongols are irreclaimable nomads, though some tribes of
them, as the Tsakhars, Ortous, and Solous, cultivate the soil. The four
khanates of the Kalkas are called Outer Mongolia, and comprise within
their borders, several well built towns, though none of any size,
compared with the cities in China. Few Chinese have settled among the
Mongols, except near the Great Wall, nor will they allow them to do so,
as there is a deep antipathy between the two races. The Mongols of the
present day have probably made no advances in civilization over their
ancestors in the days of Genghis and Kublai.
The approaches of the British power up the valley of the Sutlej, into
the regions lying along the base of the western Himalayas, are such that
they will ere long come in contact with Tibet through Ladak, and with
Yarkand through Badakshan. But there is probably more geographical than
ethnological information to be gained by traversing these elevated
regions, where stupendous mountains and arid deserts offer nothing to
tempt man from the fertile plains of India and China. Two Romish
missionaries have lately arrived in Canton from H'lassa in Tibet, by the
overland route through Patang in Sz'chuen to the capital of Kwangsi, and
thence to Canton. This route has never been described by any traveller.
LEWCHEW ISLANDS. This group of islands, including the Madjico sima,
lying between it and Formosa, form a dependency of the principality of
Satzuma, in the southwest of Japan, though the rulers are allowed a
limited intercourse with China through Fuhchau fu. During the late war
between England and China, the transport Indian Oak was lost on
Lewchew,[106] August 14, 1840, and the crew were treated with great
kindness, and provided with a vessel, in which they returned to Chusan.
Every effort was made by the authorities to prevent the officers and men
from examining the island, but their kindness to the unfortunate people
thus cast on their shores, made such an impression, that a mission to
the islanders was determined upon in London, by some naval gentlemen
connected with the expedition, and a society formed. The Rev. B.J.
Bettelheim was appointed to the post, and had reached Canton in March,
1846. He afterwards proceeded on his voyage, and his journal received at
Hongkong, from Napa, contains a few details of interest, but shows
plainly that the authorities are decided in refusing to allow foreigners
to settle in their territories.