4C> 



INDIA BEYOND THE GANGES. 



fumcs the priefthood ; they ufually lead a monaftic life, and have 

 their convents ; thofe of each province are governed by a fort of 

 bifliop. Nuns or female monaftics are frequent. The pagodas 

 are of various forms, fome have a great refemblance to the Cbi- 

 nefe architedure. The idols are monftrous in their appear- 

 ance. 

 Missionaries. The firft knowledge of the Chriftian religion was received by 



the miffion of Jefuits, led here under the conduit oi Alexander of 

 Rhodes, fome time before the year 1658, when pope Alexander 

 VII. fent over a reinforcement of religious men, but thefe being 

 of other orders, were treated by the Jefuits with the utmoft in- 

 dignity, nor w^ould they condefcend to permit them to fliare 

 in their labors, which had been attended with prodigious fuc- 

 c€fs. As to the meflage Louis XIV. fent by his embaffador Mr. 

 Cbaumont, in 1684, modeftly requefting his Siamefe Majefty to 

 become a good Cathohc; he received this very proper reply, 

 " that he left it to his moil Chriftian Majefty to judge, whether 

 « a change of a religion that had been followed in his domi- 

 " nions, without interruption, during two thoufand two hun- 

 " dred and twenty-nine years, could be a matter of fmall im- 

 <* portance to him, or a demand v/ith which it was eafy to com- 

 « ply, and a matter which related entirely to God and not to 

 ** him." This well might check the zeal of the miflionaries ; 

 but in the next reign, on the difcovery of the treachery of the 

 French general, and the murder of Pbaulkon, the whole troop of 

 the religious were fent away, and all hopes of return entirely 

 overthrown. 



In many refpeds the Siamefe have an agreement with the 



Chineje ; 



