CO CHIN CHINA. 255 
sure than that of success ; and where the consequence of a 
single reverse, Avhen once ascertained, is the bow-string, 
truth can hardly be expected to flow from the pen of the xery 
man who has to tell the tale of his own disasters. In vain 
have Kien-Limg and Kia-king issued their proclamations, 
from time to time, denouncing vengeance on those generals 
who should transmit reports of battles that were never fought, 
and of victories that were never gained ; the military tribunal 
of Pekin is, at this day, just as remote from receiving a true 
statement of facts as their predecessors were two thousand 
years ago. No wonder then that Foo-chang-fong, at the dis- 
tance of 2000 miles, and in a Avild and but little frequented 
country, should be tempted to impose on the court, and that 
the trick should remain undiscovered. 
At the time of the rebellion in Cochinchina, when the 
three brothers caused the King, and that part of the royal 
family and its adherents which fell into their hands, to be put to 
death, there happened to reside at Court a French missionary 
of the name of Adran, Avho, in his various communications 
which are published in the Lettres edifiantes et curieuses, 
calls himself the Apostolic Vicar of Cochinchina. This mis- 
sionary was strongly attached to the royal family which, on 
its part, seems to have held him in great consideration and 
esteem. Instead of persecuting the little colony of Christians 
which he had raised in the country, the King afforded them 
his protection ; and so little danger did he apprehend from a 
man who professed a different religion from that of his own, 
that he had no scruples in placing under his particular tuition 
his only son and heir to the throne. Adran, on the first burst 
