The Jesuit Mission at Sikkawci. 48 1 



soon became brisk, wliicli added to the singularity of the 

 scene, as the seeming ChinesCj sitting in a circle round tlio 

 table, and smoking perfumed tobacco out of small long- 

 stemmed pipes, began, in fluent French or liquid Italian, to 

 discuss Paris, Naples, Vienna, or politics and art. 



This Mission is supported by the Propaganda of Rome, as 

 also by voluntary contributions. About 80 pupils, chiefly 

 children of poor parents, are instructed in the Chinese 

 language and literature, in reading, writing, arithmetic, and 

 drawing, and in the tenets of the Roman Catholic faith ; on 

 the other hand, little anxiety is manifested for their instruc- 

 tion in French or English, or in providing them with any 

 practical mechanical instruction. In this mode of education 

 the main object seems to be to enable the students more readily 

 to reach the highest offices in the state by imj)arting to them 

 a thorough grounding in Chinese literature, and by these 

 naeans to ensure for them religious influence and protection. 

 Accordingly, strenuous efforts are made to increase the num- 

 ber of scholars, and in order to facilitate this aim, as in the 

 case of the Indians of Central and Southern America, their 

 observance of various heathen rites is connived at, as, for ex- 

 ample, the worship of their ancestors, the ceremonies at tlie 

 death of a relation, &c. &c. 



One branch of art, - in which some of the scholars have, 

 owing to their having naturally a turn for it, attained con- 

 siderable proficiency, is wood-engraving. In the church at- 

 tached to the Mission are shown a number of altar-ornaments, 

 VOL. n. 2 1 



