Cuar. X,] ROMAN CATHOLICS. 195 
the place where he lives he is surrounded by his 
converts; in fact it is a little Christian village, 
where he is perfectly safe, and I believe is seldom 
if ever annoyed in any way by the Chinese autho- 
rities. When new Roman Catholic missionaries 
arrive, they are met by some of their brethren or 
their converts at the port nearest their destination, 
and secretly conveyed into the interior; the 
Chinese dress is substituted for the European ; 
their heads are shaved, and in this state they are 
conducted to the scene of their future labours, 
where they commence the study of the language, if 
they have not learned it before, and in about two 
years are able to speak it sufficiently well to 
enable them to instruct the people. These poor 
men submit to many privations and dangers for 
the cause they have espoused, and although I do 
not approve of the doctrines which they teach, I 
must give them the highest praise for enthu- 
Siasm and devotion to their faith. European cus- 
toms, habits, and luxuries are all abandoned from 
the moment they put their feet on the shores of 
China; parents, friends, and home, in many in- 
Stances, are heard of no more; before them lies a 
heathen land of strangers, cold and unconcerned 
about the religion for which they themselves are 
sacrificing everything, and they know that their 
graves will be far away from the land of their birth 
and the home of their early years. They seem to 
have much of the spirit and enthusiasm of the first 
preachers of the Christian religion, when they were 
o 2 
