RELIGION. 99 



fuffice to fay, that the Jefuits, from the death of Kam-bi, expe- 

 rienced viciffitudes of fortune ; were either depreffed or exalted 

 according to the genius of his fuccelTors, or according to the iifes 

 to which they were found fubfervient. The diffolution of the 

 order probably jiut an end to the Chriftian church in this poli- 

 tical empire *. 



Another nation, eminent for extending their religion far and 

 wide, could never efFe(5t, by the power of the fword, what this 

 artful order did by infinuation, and by temporizing with the 

 cuftoms and manners of the people of whom they intended to 

 make their advantages. The Arabs, who in other places incul- Arabs, 

 cated the do6lrine of their famed impoflor by conqueft and vio- 

 lence, here never made the attempt ; long mafters of the fea, 

 they came from the coafts of Africa, or of Arabia and India, in 

 the form of traders, in the tenth century. The Cbinefe admitted 

 them into their ports in that charadl^er, but denied them permif- 

 fion to propagate their faith, as they had done in India. They 

 were ftridlly forbidden to make any converts, but were allowed 

 the free exercife of their own religion, as long as they did not in- 

 terfere with that of the empire. The Fortugueje, when they firft 

 arrived in Cbina, found the cities full of Arabs or Moors, and Fa- 

 ther Navarette, 2i Dominican miffionary in Cbina in 1665, informs 

 us, that in his time there were about five hundred thoufand, 

 which had greatly increafed by intermarriages with the natives ; 

 that many of them took their degrees among the Cbinefe literati; 



* For a ftatement of the prefent fituation of the MifTionaries, kc. of the Chriftian religion 

 in this empire, the reader is referred to vol. ii. p. 159, et feq. of Sir G. Staunton's account of 

 the embalTy. E, 



O 2 which 



