the Kingdom of _Gechekten_--Character of its
Inhabitants--Tragical working of a Mine--Two Mongols desire to have their
horoscope taken--Adventure of Samdadchiemba--Environs of the town of
_Tolon-Noor_.

[Picture: Missionaries at Peking]

The French mission of Peking, once so flourishing under the early
emperors of the Tartar-Mantchou dynasty, was almost extirpated by the
constant persecutions of Kia-King, the fifth monarch of that dynasty, who
ascended the throne in 1799. The missionaries were dispersed or put to
death, and at that time Europe was herself too deeply agitated to enable
her to send succour to this distant Christendom, which remained for a
time abandoned. Accordingly, when the French Lazarists re-appeared at
Peking, they found there scarce a vestige of the true faith. A great
number of Christians, to avoid the persecutions of the Chinese
authorities, had passed the Great Wall, and sought peace and liberty in
the deserts of Tartary, where they lived dispersed upon small patches of
land which the Mongols permitted them to cultivate. By dint of
perseverance the missionaries collected together these dispersed
Christians, placed themselves at their head, and hence superintended the
mission of Peking, the immediate administration of which was in the hands
of a few Chinese Lazarists. The French missionaries could not, with any
prudence, have resumed their former position in the capital of the
empire. Their presence would have compromised the prospects of the
scarcely reviving mission.

In visiting the Chinese Christians of Mongolia, we more than once had
occasion to make excursions into the Land of Grass, (_Isao-Ti_), as the
uncultivated portions of Tartary are designated, and to take up our
temporary abode beneath the tents of the Mongols. We were no sooner
acquainted with this nomadic people, than we loved them, and our hearts
were filled with a passionate desire to announce the gospel to them. Our
whole leisure was therefore devoted to acquiring the Tartar dialects, and
in 1842, the Holy See at length fulfilled our desires, by erecting
Mongolia into an Apostolical Vicariat.

Towards the commencement of the year 1844, couriers arrived at Si-wang, a
small Christian community, where the vicar apostolic of Mongolia had
fixed his episcopal residence. Si-wang itself is a village, north of the
Great Wall, one day's journey from Suen-hoa-Fou. The prelate sent us
instructions for an e