FROM TONKIN TO INDIA 



the panel. On the alarm being given his assailants fled, and, it is 

 needless to add, were still at large. 



Having bestowed our belongings in the consulate, we prepared 

 to remain there a few days. Mongtse was the last town of relative 

 civilisation which we were likely to see for a long time, and we 

 had to make final arrangements for both our own caravan and for 

 the forwarding of our reserve. Here I met an old acquaintance, a 

 missionary, known before in 1890 at Yiinnan-Sen, and his experience 

 and advice were of great value in our equipment. The Father at 

 this period was at loggerheads with the Chinese Government. 

 Having been charged by Monseigneur Fenouil to establish a mission 

 station at Mongtse, he had bought a house and signed the agree- 

 ment with the owner. This done, he sent the title-deeds to the 

 Taotai for registration. But the latter, instead of returning them, 

 passed them on to some notables, to whom the property was thus 

 made over. Our consul vainly demanded restitution. As for the 

 missionary, he adopted the only mode of retort to the knavery of 

 the Government, by refusing to budge from the house when once in 

 it, unless another, on which he had his eye, were offered in its place. 

 These tricks of the Chinese in the case of the missionaries did not 

 astonish me : I knew them of old. Our countrymen may deem 

 themselves fortunate when the vexation is confined to petty annoy- 

 ances. On the voyage from Aden to Indo-China we had on board 

 a missionary of Yunnan, who was again bound thither after a visit 

 to Paris to be healed. This Father Vial had received fourteen 

 knife stabs, several of his ribs had been broken, and he showed me 

 the scars of the wounds. I should have liked some sceptic Thomas 

 to have had the same privilege. When attacked by the myrmidons 

 of the mandarin. Father Vial owed his life to his single strength of 



will alone. He was returning bravely to his post, as if nothing had 



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