532, Voyage of the Novara. 



journey in 1837, the repeated miraculous interference of the 

 Father and the Son in his favour, as also the revelations 

 made to the Eastern King. He professes to have seen the 

 Father and Christ, the heavenly mother and the heavenly 

 sister. He is himself '' the Way, the Truth, and the Life," 

 just as Christ is. He warns Roberts repeatedly, that im- 

 plicit belief in this is of the highest importance, as otherwise 

 he can neither be useful in this world nor blest in the next. 

 After such an exposition, Christian missionaries will scarcely 

 be suffered in the insurgent's camp if they dare to preach 

 against such errors, not to say blasphemies. 



There are but few religious ceremonies. The Tai- 



thought and I think yet, to kill me, as well as my dear boy, whom I loved like a son. 

 He stormed at me, seized the bench on which I sat with the violence of a madman, 

 threw the di-egs of a cup of tea in my face, seized hold of me personally, and shook 

 me violently, struck me on my right cheek with his open hand ; then, according to 

 the instruction of my King for whom 1 am ambassador, I turned the other, and he 

 struck me quite a sounder blow on my left cheek with his right hand, making my ear 

 ring again ; and then perceiving that he could not provoke me to offend him in word 

 or deed, he seemed to get the more outrageous, and stormed at me like a dog, to be 

 gone out of his presence. ' If they will do these things in a green tree, what will 

 they do in the dry ?' — to a favourite of Teen Wang's, who can trust himself among 

 them, either as a missionary or a merchant ? . I then despaired of missionary success 

 among them, or any good coming out of the movement — religious, commercial, or 

 political — and determined to leave them, which I did on Monday, Jan. 20th, 1862.' 

 Mr. Roberts adds that Kan-Wang had refused to give up his clothes, books, and 

 journals, and that he had been left in a state of destitution. Most persons will agree 

 that he fully deserves any amount of suffering that may be inflicted on him. Mr. 

 Roberts has done his utmost to delude Europeans as to the true character of the 

 Tai-pings ; he has kept back some facts, has falsified others, and has acted through- 

 out in a manner utterly inconsistent with his assumed character of a Christian 

 missionary. On such conduct no comment can be too severe." 



