se
"Reminiscences of Travel," which we address to our European brethren,
whose charity will no doubt be interested in the trials and fatigues of
the missionaries.

Our entrance into China, for the purpose of returning to our mission in
Mongol-Tartary, compels us to leave unfinished the labour we had
undertaken. It remains for us to speak of our relations with the Chinese
tribunals and Mandarins, to give a sketch of the provinces we have
traversed, and to compare them with those which we had occasion to visit
in our former travels in the Celestial Empire. This omission we will
endeavour to supply in the leisure hours we may be able to snatch from
the labours of the sacred ministry. Perhaps we shall be in a position to
give some correct notions about a country, of which, at no time,
certainly, have men's ideas been so erroneous as they are at this day.
Not that we are without abundant books about China and the Chinese. On
the contrary, the number of works on these subjects that have appeared in
France, and particularly in England, within the last few years, is really
prodigious. But the zeal of a writer will not always suffice to describe
countries in which he has never set his foot. To write travels in China,
after a saunter or two through the factories of Canton and the environs
of Macao, involves the danger of speaking of things that one is not
thoroughly acquainted with. Although it has been the good fortune of the
learned orientalist, J. Klaproth, to discover the Potocki Archipelago
without quitting his closet, it is, generally speaking, rather difficult
to make discoveries in a country which one has not visited.

[Picture: Chinese Ornamental Ware]

NOTES.

{48} Oui, in Thibetian, means centre, middle; and hence the name was
given to the province which occupies the centre of Thibet, and the
capital of which is Lha-Ssa.

{76} Charmanas (in Sanscrit, S'raman'as) are monks in the Lamanesque
hierarchy.

{84} Goucho is a title of honour, given to the Lamas by the Thibetians.

{104} Tchanak is the Mongol name of Peking; Kampo means Pontiff.

{155} Dalae-Lama is altogether an erroneous form of this designation;
the words are Tale-Lama. Tale, in Thibetian, means sea, and the
appellation has been applied to the Grand Lama of Thibet, because this
personage is locally supposed to be a sea of wisdom and power.

{172} _Siao-ti_, an expression used by the Chinese when they speak