Chap. IX. 
ROMAN CATHOLIC MISSIONARIES. 
161 
safe, and I believe is seldom if ever annoyed in any way 
by the Chinese authorities. When new Roman Catholic 
missionaries arrive, they are met by some of their 
brethren or their converts at the port nearest their desti- 
nation, 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 enthusiasm and devotion to 
their faith. European customs, habits, and luxuries are 
all abandoned from the moment they put their feet on 
the shores of China ; parents, friends, and home, in 
many instances, 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 reli- 
gion, when they were sent out into the world by their 
Divine Master to "preach the Gospel to every creature," 
and " to obey God rather than man.'' 
According to the accounts of these missionaries, the 
number of converts to their faith is very considerable ; 
but I fear they, as well as the Protestants, are often led 
