FRENCH MISSIONARIES 13r> 



Everything in their power was done, and as they spoke 

 both Tibetan and Chinese, and were well acquainted 

 with the peculiar ways and manners of the natives, it 

 may be easily understood that tlieii- assistance was in- 

 valuable. Bishop Biet, a man with a highly cultivated 

 mind and refined taste, has been here, or rather in the 

 district, for twenty-five years, and here he will in all pro- 

 bability end his days, for he told me that the missionary 

 bishops are rarely, if ever, recalled by the Pope. The 

 last European he saw before Mr, Eockhill, who, by the 

 way, is an American, and mj^self, was Mr. Baber in 1879, 

 and this is 1889. His brother, also a missionary, was 

 murdered in Manchuria, and here both he and the 

 Fathers have to be extremely cautious even now, for 

 the lamas bear them no goodwill. My collectors were 

 all Christians, brought up from childhood by the Bishop 

 and the Fathers, and were in a much more civilised state 

 than the Buddhist Tibetans and mixed Chinese, who 

 refused to work for me. All the Eoman Catholic mis- 

 sionaries had a very hard life, and I think that people 

 at home have very little idea of the sacrifices they make 

 for the sake of their religion. Beyond having cleaner, 

 and perhaps, in a trifling way, better houses than the 

 natives, there is no difference in their mode of life! 

 They seldom see civilised people, and yet have done- 

 much to civilise the almost savage races among whom 



