Chap. IX. 
CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 
159 
devotees, and, when the ceremonies of the day were 
drawing to a close, the whole was burned in honour 
of, or as an offering to, the gods. The sight was in- 
teresting, but it was one which no Christian could look 
upon without feelings of the deepest commiseration. 
In the course of my travels in China I often met 
with Christian missionaries, both Protestant and Roman 
Catholic, who have been labouring amongst the Chinese 
for many years. Until very lately the efforts of the 
Protestants had been chiefly confined to Macao and 
Canton. Since the war, however, they have had an 
opportunity of extending their operations, and some 
are now settled at all the new ports which have 
been opened for foreign trade, as well as on our island 
of Hong-kong, which will now become their head- 
quarters. 
The medical missionaries also act in conjunction with 
the others, and are of great use in curing many of the 
diseases which prevail in the country, while, at the same 
time, the truths of the Christian faith are presented to 
the minds of their patients. Dr. Lockhart, of the London 
Missionary Society, who has established himself in the 
town of Shanghae, had his hospital daily crowded with 
patients, many of whom had come from very distant 
parts of the country. All were attended to in the most 
skilful and careful manner, "without money and without 
price." The Rev. Mr. Medhurst, who has laboured long 
and zealously as a Christian missionary in the East, was 
also at Shanghae. This gentleman is well known as an 
eminent Chinese scholar, and, besides preaching to the 
people in their own tongue, he has a printing establish- 
