FRENCH MISSIONARIES 135 
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 their 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. Rockhill, who, by the 
way, is an American, and myself, 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 Roman 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 
