e who fear even to injure our
persecutors." Ki-Chan was pale and disconcerted. "Let us hear," said
he; "explain yourself--let your words be candid and clear; what would you
say?" "In your report, there is an inexactitude; you make me set out
from Macao with my brother Joseph Gabet, and yet I did not enter China
till four years after him." "Oh, if that is all, it is easy to correct
it." "Yes, very easy. This report, you say, is for your Emperor; is it
not so?" "Certainly." "In that case, it is your duty to tell the
Emperor the truth and nothing but the truth." "Oh, nothing but the
truth; let us correct the report. At what period did you enter China?"
"In the twentieth year of Tao-Kouang (1840)." Ki-Chan took his pencil
and wrote in the margin--twentieth year of Tao-Kouang. "What moon?"
"The second moon." Ki-Chan hearing us speak of the second moon, laid
down his pencil and looked at us with a fixed stare. "Yes, I entered the
Chinese empire in the twentieth year of Tao-Kouang, in the second moon; I
passed through the province of Canton, of which you were at that time
viceroy. Why do you not write? are you not to tell all the truth to the
Emperor?" The face of Ki-Chan contracted. "Do you see now why I wished
to talk to you in private?" "Yes, I know the Christians are good
people--does anyone here know of this matter?" "No, not anyone."
Ki-Chan took the report, tore it up; he wrote a fresh one, entirely
different from the first. The dates of our first entry into China were
not exactly set forth, and there was a pompous eulogium on our knowledge
and sanctity. The poor man had been simple enough to believe that we
attached a great importance to his Emperor's good opinion of us.

In accordance with the orders of Ki-Chan, we were to set out after the
festivals of the Thibetian new year. We had only been at Lha-Ssa two
months, and we had already passed the new year twice, first the European
new year, and then the Chinese; it was now the turn of the Thibetian.
Although at Lha-Ssa, they reckon the year as in China, according to the
lunar system, yet the calendars of these two countries do not agree: that
of Lha-Ssa is always a month behind that of Peking. It is known that the
Chinese, the Mongols, and most of the peoples of Eastern Asia, make use
in their chronological calculations of a sexagenary cycle, composed of
ten signs called trunks, and of twelve signs which bear the name of
branches. Among the Tarta