anch-Pope, when the Chinese Minister,
the noted Ke-Shen, interposed on political grounds, and had them deported
to China. M. Gabet was directed by his superiors to proceed to France,
and lay a complaint before his Government, of the arbitrary treatment
which he and his fellow Missionary had experienced. In the steamer which
conveyed him from Hong Kong to Ceylon, he found Mr. Alexander Johnstone,
secretary to Her Majesty's Plenipotentiary in China; and this gentleman
perceived so much, not merely of entertainment, but of important
information in the conversations he had with M. Gabet, that he committed
to paper the leading features of the Reverend Missionary's statements,
and on his return to his official post, gave his manuscripts to Sir John
Davis, who, in his turn, considered their contents so interesting, that
he embodied a copy of them in a dispatch to Lord Palmerston.
Subsequently the two volumes, here translated, were prepared by M. Huc,
and published in Paris. Thus it is, that to Papal aggression in the
East, the Western World is indebted for a work exhibiting, for the first
time, a complete representation of countries previously almost unknown to
Europeans, and indeed considered practically inaccessible; and of a
religion which, followed by no fewer than 170,000,000 persons, presents
the most singular analogies in its leading features with the Catholicism
of Rome.

CONTENTS OF VOLUME I.

PAGE
PREFACE
CONTENTS iii
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS vii
CHAPTER I.
French Mission of Peking--Glance at the Kingdom of 9
Ouniot--Preparations for Departure--Tartar-Chinese
Inn--Change of Costume--Portrait and Character of
Samdadchiemba--Sain-Oula (the Good Mountain)--The Frosts
on Sain-Oula, and its Robbers--First Encampment in the
Desert--Great Imperial Forest--Buddhist Monuments on the
summit of the Mountains--Topography of 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
CHAPTER II.
Inn at Tolon-Noor--Aspect of the City--Great Foundries of 33
Bells and Idols--Conversation with the Lamas of
Tolon-Noor--Encampment--Tea Br