Morning Calm v.3 no.26(1892 Aug.)

THE MORNING CALM. ________________________________________ No. 26, VOL. III.) AUGUST 1892. [PRICE Id. ________________________________________ The Bishop's Letter. NIU CH’WANG, MANCHURIA: April 1892.

 DEAR FRIENDS,

From the heading of this letter you will see that I have been able to carry out my design of beginning work in Niu Ch'wang at Easter. But, before giving you an account of the events of April, I must tell you that I am writing this on the 3rd of May. Absent from you, and even from my brethren in Corea, in the body, I am nevertheless present with you all in the spirit. At the time of my writing you are beginning to keep the first festival of the Mission. In many a church and in many a home and ship, prayers will to-day be offered up on behalf of Corea and the foreign missionary work of the Church throughout the world. I have just joined my intercessions and my thanksgivings to yours, and pray again that the result of to-day's services and remembrances may be an abundant outpouring of the Holy Ghost on all the varied agencies and diverse operations which own Him as the Giver of their life and the Source of their power. By the help of your prayers I am able to tell you, in this letter, of the new door which God has opened for us here. It is more than a year now since the Chinese province of Shing King was added to my diocese. During the past twelve months it has been quite impossible for me either to send anyone from Corea or even to visit Manchuria myself. My previous letters will suffice to explain (to those who need ex-planation) the various reasons for this unavoidable delay. The necessity of settling down to a steady, uninterrupted study of the Corean language has made it increasingly difficult for me to spare for Manchuria any members of the Mission staff now working in Corea. On the other hand, I was extremely loth to let a second year pass without carrying into effect some of the purposes for which I was appointed the Chief Pastor of the Church of England in this vast province. And after the Lent ordinations in Seoul, of which I told you in my last   98 THE MORNING CALM. ________________________________________ letter, there seemed no reason why I should not for a time leave our affairs in Corea in the competent hands of my dear brother the Rev. M. N. Trollope, and take advantage of the breaking up of the ice in the gulf of Liao Tung to visit Niu Ch'wang, which was opened by treaty to foreigners in 1862. Niu Ch'wang is only two days distant from Chemulpo by sea ; but as the journey involves a stay and sometimes a change of steamer at Chefoo, the time taken is usually longer. The steamer by which I left Corea left me in Chefoo and went on to Tien Tsin. Arriving just before Palm Sunday, I had to wait until the afternoon of Good Friday for a ship bound for Niu Ch'wang. This unavoidable delay enabled me to make new friends and to help old ones. At the request of Mr. Greenwood I became responsible for some of the Holy Week services at St. Andrew's, and enjoyed much quiet time with him and with my kind host and hostess, Mr. and Mrs. Clement Allen, at the English Consulate. The Taku left in the after-noon of Good Friday with 3 European and nearly 700 Chinese passengers on board. A fair wind brought us to the Niu Ch'wang bar at 11 o'clock on Saturday morning. The tide being high the Taku crossed the bar without difficulty, and in another hour we had passed the light-ship and were steaming into the mouth of the River Liao, which is just there about two miles broad. The coast and surrounding country is so flat and low that no land is visible until you come close up to it. A large fort protects the entrance of the south bank of the river. In less than an hour the ship was at anchor off the foreign settlement, having passed the large, straggling native town on its way. Imagine a few substantially built foreign houses on the south bank of a river running with a tremendous tide through a large plain, apparently of mud, with no hills nearer than 15 or 20 miles, and you have all that need be given by way of descript-tion of Niu Ch'wang. The members of the small community were dwelling in the delights of spring. What those delights are you may imagine when I tell you that the swift, strong current of the river had only a fortnight before regained its freedom after having been fast bound in frost for 130 days. During this long winter all communication is cut off by sea, though the mails come to them overland once a fortnight viâ Tien Tsin. But now all was bustling activity. The steamers, the junks, and sampans were all as busy as the swirling, muddy river, which, whether at ebb or flood tide, looks as if it would carry everything before it. Above Niu Ch'wang the river winds about through the plain   THE MORNING CALM. 99________________________________________ considerably, and it is a pleasant sight to watch the crowds of junks, laden with beans and peas, coming in long procession apparently over land, for, though the hulls are hidden by the intervening country, nearly the whole of the masts and sails can be seen for miles, looking as if they were springing out of the plain. The produce of the interior thus finds its way in spring, summer, and autumn to the steamers, and by means of them to the ports of China and Japan. My eyes were gladdened once more with the rare sight of an English man-of-war, and I re-joiced to think that, stranger though I was in Niu Chwang, I

THE GATE OF SEOUL. should find friends on H.M.S. Firebrand who would give me a warm welcome. But I was soon to be made to feel at home with everyone. The Consul and Mrs. Ayrton, with a kindness for which we can never be sufficiently grateful, extended me a generous hospitality, and in many ways which one cannot write about, showed their sympathy with me and the errand on which I had come. To find myself once more in an English home, with the voices of English children filling the house, was, as you may imagine, a delightful experience. Nor were the other   100 THE MORNING CALM. ________________________________________ members of the community behindhand in giving me as hearty a welcome. I am still busy in my endeavours to get to know everyone in the settlement, and to assure everyone of my desire to be of as much use as possible. But Easter Day was close at hand, and preparations had to be made immediately for such services as could be arranged at so short a notice. In the Consulate compound there is a large room known as the court-room, which has for many years been used as a church on Sunday forenoons. Here the English residents have been wont to assemble for a service, conducted either by one of the Presbyterian missionaries--who have worked long and well in this province--or, in his absence, by one of the English mer-chants. The one missionary residing here just now, who would in the natural order of things have taken this service on Easter Day, with great kindness desired me to take charge not only of that service but of all future services in the court-room for the members of the Church of England. This, with the Consul's permission and approval, I propose to do. But I was not too late to make arrangements for a celebration of the Holy Eucharist; a written notice was sent round, with the result that at 8 o'clock on Easter morning ten church-people assembled at God's Board to plead the one Sacrifice and to receive the Bread of Life. I had brought with me the po table altar presented me by the naval chaplains, who thus enabled me to begin the work in Manchuria, as they enabled me to begin it in Corea in 1891. I am told that this was the first time the office of the Holy Communion in the Prayer Book had ever been heard in Niu Ch'wang. The offertory, amounting to fifteen dollars, was given to the hospitals of the Presbyterian, missions in this province, in acknowledgment rather than in payment of the debt which church-people have long owed to the good missionaries in Niu Ch'wang; in recognition also of medical work, which, for its thoroughness, wisdom, and self-denying devotion, is attracting the appreciative attention of all classes of Chinese in the pro-vince of Shing King. At the eleven o'clock service, which consisted of morning prayer, litany, and address, the court-room was filled. The Firebrand sent a church party of about 35, who marched up to the accompaniment of bugle and drum, the members of the community mustering to the number of 40. After our small congregations in Corea it was strange to find myself ministering to such a multitude. The musical arrangements were safe in the hands of Miss L. Bush, a daughter of the oldest resident of Niu Ch'wang. She enabled us to have plenty of hymns and chants, and, to the delight of the seamen,   THE MORNING CALM. 101________________________________________ Jackson's Te Deum. In the afternoon I went on board the Firebrand to read prayers, and then to have a long talk with the bluejackets and marines. I could say a great deal more about my first Easter in Niu Ch'wang, but my letter is already too long, and I must remember that perhaps some of my friends in Corea will want a little room in this number of Morning Calm, and for two or three months now you must look to them for news of Corea. I hope to spend the spring and part of the summer here, and in my next to tell you something about the settlement, and how I propose to arrange for the work of the church in the future. But you will understand that for the present my intention is to confine my ministrations to the English and to those Europeans who desire them, leaving the question of Mission work amongst the 100,000 Chinese outside the settlement, and the million and odd Chinese in the province, to be solved as and when God gives me the opportunity. I will only add that I have taken a house for one year in a very convenient position. It is quite big enough for a married man, who would find plenty of occupation for himself and his wife in ministering to these good people and their children, and in visiting the steamers, mostly officered by Englishmen, which visit the river with great frequency and regularity during two-thirds of the year. The climate, if cold in the winter, is good, and, if one may judge from the appearance of those who have lived here longest, as healthy as any in the world. Concluding as I began, with an expression of devout thank-fulness for the blessings of the 3rd of May, 1892, I am, dear friends, always yours affectionately, * C. J. CORFE. ________________________________________ St. Peter's foreign Mission Association. WE think the members of St. Peter's Foreign Mission Asso-ciation may be interested to hear that the five Sisters of St. Peter's Community. and nurse Webster, a lay associate, hope to start in the Carthage on September 1st on their long voyage to Corea. Their heavy luggage has already gone. The Bishop is having a Mission-house prepared for them close to the Church of the Advent, and also to the British Consulate. It is a Corean house, which, under Mr. Trollope's supervision, has been thoroughly cleansed and is being enlarged. When finished it will have six small bedrooms, a refectory, and a common room. The house is to communicate by a covered way with a chapel at the   102 THE MORNING CALM. ________________________________________ east end of the Church of the Advent, which will serve as the Sisters' oratory, and is called St. Peter's Chapel. The first celebration was to be held in it on St. Peter's Day. We are all glad to think that the Association Fund, besides paying for the Sisters' hospital training, has paid for the greater part of their outfits and for most of the furniture for the Mission-house, so that the Mission itself will be at no expense for either outfit or furniture for the house. The ultimate object we have in view is to support the Sisters in Corea, and we are therefore anxious to increase the number of our regular subscribers, that we may be able to count on a definite yearly income. At present we have only a very small income of subscriptions to depend upon, for though our members must have seen with pleasure that a fair amount of money has been collected, most of it is the result of donations, work sales, &c. We wish to thank many kind members of St. Peter's Foreign Mission Association, and also members of the Association of Prayer and Work, for parcels of clothing and other saleable things, and also for some money towards the proceeds of the Corean Stall in the Associates' Bazaar, on June 22 and 23, in the Kensington Town Hall. We made exactly £30 for the Foreign Mission Fund. We are afraid that, owing to the inevitable pressure of work at the time of the bazaar, some parcels were not acknow-ledged, and we beg the senders to accept our grateful thanks now. Several parcels came without any name, so that it was impossible for us to express our thanks. During August and September the Secretary expects to be out of England, and Miss Hylda Bellairs, Apsley House, Ox-ford, will kindly answer letters and receive money for her. On October 1st the Secretary hopes to be home again, and she will be very grateful if all collecting cards, proceeds of boxes, and any subscriptions not yet paid could be sent to her before the 15th of October. ANNA GRAHAM. ________________________________________ Association of Prayer and Work for Corea. THE County and Local Secretaries will already have been informed that Miss Chambers Hodgetts intends to be away from home during the months of July, August, and September, and that she has appointed me General Secretary pro tem. I take this opportunity of repeating, for the benefit of all whom it may interest, that during the next three months I shall receive and answer to the best of my ability all letters connected with the   THE MORNING CALM. 103________________________________________ Association of Prayer and Work. Miss Chambers Hodgetts will receive the October quarterly reports as usual. There is not much to report this month. The Secretary for Stoke-upon-Trent sends the acceptable sum of ￡14. 7s. 3d., the proceeds of a very successful sale of work held by Lady Stamer and the members of her work party for Corea. I am unable to comment on the quarterly accounts and list of new members which appear on the fly-leaf of this month's Morning Calm. It would be a great kindness, and save much trouble, if Secretaries would make an effort to send in their reports before the 7th of the month in which they are due. This petition is especially directed to County Secretaries, as large reports arriving at the last minute involve so much extra labour. Two Local Secretaries have removed from their localities without letting the General Secretary know their new addresses. If this should come before the Secretary for Bolton and the original Secretary for Leamington, will they kindly communicate with me? Even if they no longer wish to act as Local Secre-taries, we should like to possess their addresses, as they by no means cease to be members of the Association. Whilst work-ing at the quarterly reports with Miss Chambers Hodgetts, it has come before me very forcibly how very important it is that the reports should be filled up in every particular. It is no first time I have seen the quarterly work, and I was surprised to find how much trouble it caused when Secretaries leave out their name and address at the foot, or the name of their locality at the head of their reports. I will only add that I will do my very best to fill Miss Chambers Hodgetts' place during her absence. LILIAS NAPIER TROLLOPE, General Secretary pro tem. for the Association of Prayer and Work for Corea. ________________________________________ The Corean Missionary Brotherhood. IT is a great thing that we should give of our substance to God's service, but it is a greater that we should give ourselves. In the "First Oblation" we offer "our alms and oblations" along with our prayers to the Father, so in the supreme moment we offer "ourselves, our souls and bodies," in reason, conscience, and life, along with the eternal sacrifice of praise, which is Christ alone. But because it is a greater thing, therefore it is more difficult;   104 THE MORNING CALM. ________________________________________ and because more difficult, therefore more rare; and yet it may be noted that, rare as the sacrifice is, the aspiration is not uncommon. Thence it is that we have a Mission-field, every part of which is parched and thirsting for more of the life blood of the Church, which is her children, while at home Societies and Secretaries are perplexed--and one must almost say pestered--with appeals from young men whom they cannot bear to refuse, and yet dare not accept. For the good of those who are so anxious to serve, it is really necessary to put plainly the reason for so strange a state of things. Such men have no real idea of the terrible difficulties of the work. The Divine service in any case implies a life of increased temptation. There are new spiritual gifts, spiritual responsibilities and opportunities, which, if a man cannot live up to, will suffice to ruin his soul. The temptations, on the other hand, of the foreign missionary, increased as they are by loneliness, by the hard-wearing nature alike of the work and of the life, by the irresponsiveness of minds so differently constituted, by the low moral standard around him, cannot be exaggerated. No experienced missionary will face the risk of sending out men untrained and untested. If there are conditions on which all this enthusiasm might yet be utilised, it is obvious that the work cannot be made a trade, and to be a vocation it must be tested by sacrifice. A young man who gives up a clerkship to become a salaried priest, is, generally speaking, giving up nothing. He gains probably a higher position, higher pay, and work more pleasant to him than that he resigned. He may indeed serve God by doing so, and very many such men have done noble service ; but the one certain thing is, he serves himself; and even if he begins quite free from any intention or thought of self-interest, yet the fact of it forms a temptation which it is not wise to run. It is better to measure the gain of life by what we have lost than by what we have received ; and there is room in the Mission-field for any number of men who come, not seeking money, dignity, or freedom, but are content with less of each than would have been their share in the shop, or at the bench. And yet this is not the simple thing it seems at firs sight. It is a great pleasure to be poor, or under obedience for Christ's sake, until there is a pleasure we really want which poverty or the superior forbid. In short, all see the beauty of the ideal, and many aspire to it; but to live in the reality without vexation or loss of temper needs practice. Most men seem naturally to think that if they could only acquire a little Latin and Greek, and a little (very little) Theology, they would be prepared for any post. The necessities of real preparation are three things, in this order: (1) complete humility; (2) thought, as   106 THE MORNING CALM. ________________________________________ nothing in return, will, whatever his intellectual energy, or his education, always be found of some use. The history of the perception of these principles is the history of our little Society. It would be of no general interest to tell exactly how the necessities were brought home to different minds; who contributed each stone to its realisation ;-suffice it to say the Society owes to Bishop Corfe, first, the conception through his love to men and desire to use them for God's service; secondly, the realisation through that far-sighted self-sacrifice so peculiarly his own in leaving behind one of his only two priests for what was a mere experiment. It seemed that to realise the principles given above, we needed something very like an "order" or brotherhood; and yet the “religious” life is so little understood, that to make that a necessity would be to deter the very men we wished to reach. Three things are a permanent necessity, and we prepared to take any man who was ready to give his whole life (1) without pay, receiving only the necessaries of life, (2) and consequently, to remain unmarried, and (3) without any personal ambition or self-seeking, taking just the work given him whether ordained or lay, dignified or menial, dangerous or safe, without seeking or troubling about anything else. And then, lastly, (4) it is necessary that he should be trained for a time in “religious" rule or obedience, that he may be, as we said, practised and also tested in submission of will, in devotional habit, in living with others (never an easy matter), all of which are forms of that difficult primary art of humility. This “religious” life is, how-ever, only a training. All who come to us must submit to it and learn it, but they are not bound when they go out to remain members of the Society, though we believe many who have felt the help and blessing of the rule will desire to continue in it. We opened accordingly with two men in January 1891, and were soon joined by a third. The rest of that year there were a few inquiries but no real offer till October, when we issued an appeal in the Church papers. There were close on sixty replies. After much correspondence eleven accepted for foreign work, three for home. At this moment the Central African Mission were enabled by a munificent offer to pay for the training of six men, and thus we offered to take the whole number in at once. Of those fourteen only three are with us now! Most never came, some left us in a few weeks! There is no need to be dis-couraged. It is only one fresh proof of how much easier the ideal of sacrifice is than the reality; and of the necessity of giving to the enthusiast an opportunity of trying the reality before he commits himself to it. Fortunately others of stronger   THE MORNING CALM. 107________________________________________ stuff were forthcoming, and we have now in the house four men for Corea, three for Africa, and one unassigned. Next came letters from Bishop Corse, asking us to receive one of his men (as described elsewhere) to prepare for Holy Orders. It was a great delight for us to receive a missionary of eight years' stand-ing, and one, too, who had been in Corea from the start. Not less momentous was the request that one of our own men might go out at once to take Mr. Peake's place. Unexpected as the call was, and anxious as the man had been, not unnaturally, to finish his studies, he assented without one tremor of hesitation, and it God will, will be at his post long before these lines are in print. More difficulty was found in getting the much-needed help in working the house, but at last, in God's time, a young Oxford layman has offered to join us in August for at least eighteen months. All are shown in the group printed here. Of the future it is not wise to say much. The kindly in-terest taken in us by the Bishop of Rochester may lead to great changes and developments. Ours is only a very small attempt to solve a very large question. We have ventured to embody a practical suggestion, looking forward to the time when to really devout children, even of the working classes, a career in the Divine service shall seem as natural and as open as any other, if they have the courage to prepare for and to face it. There are other aspects which we may touch on at another time, but by the side of this the success or failure of our little “Brotherhood” is of small moment. If we succeed, it will be to God's glory. If we fail, we discredit no one but ourselves. Either way, it will be God's Will which is done, and that is always His glory. Therewith we are content. HERBERT KELLY, Director. ________________________________________ A Walk through Corea—(continued). AS the date of our start drew near, we found ourselves face to face with three questions pressing for an answer :--(1) What was to be done about journey money? (2) What about food? (3) How were we to travel--to walk, ride, or be carried? MONEY. First, as to money. In Seoul and the treaty ports there is not much difficulty on this head. Each of these places boasts a Japanese Bank, and, as most of our business is with Chinese and Japanese, we find a handy medium of exchange in the Japanese dollar, or yen--a handsome silver coin worth about   108 THE MORNING CALM. ________________________________________ 3s. 4d.--together with its paper equivalents, and the smaller 5, 10, 20, and 50 cent pieces. But generally in doing business with Coreans, and of course always in the country districts, one has to fall back on "the current coin of the realm.” Now the current coin of the realm of Corea is of two kinds : there is the new coin, or tango, current in Seoul and the neighbourhood, and there is the old coin, or yep-tjyen, current everywhere else. They are much alike to look at--round, coppery coins, with a square hole through the middle which is used for the purpose of stringing them together. The tango is slightly the larger of the two (about the size of a thin penny), and, being supposed to be of better metal, one piece of tango is nominally worth five yep-tjyen. But in point of fact the tango currency has been so debased of recent years, and the hole in the middle of each coin has grown to such abnormal size, that it has practically sunk to the value of the old yep-tjyen, of which about 500 pieces go to the dollar (3s.4d.). One characteristic they have in common besides their inconvenient bulk, and that is that the tango is perfectly useless in districts where yep-tjyen is used, and vice versâ. So that not only has the traveller the annoyance of carrying a heavy burden of cash with him wherever he goes, but so soon as ever he gets a short distance from Seoul he has to go through the vexatious and by no means profitable business of exchanging it all at some road-side inn. And if by any chance he does run short of cash before his journey's end, it is easier to imagine than describe the straits in which he is likely to find himself, in a country innocent of all the modern con-veniences of cheques, bank notes, and postal orders, but pro-foundly alive to the value of "cash down" in payment for goods supplied to meet his daily needs. The inconvenience of living under such a cumbrous monetary system is perhaps hard for anyone who has not tried it to realise. Fancy if every time a lady went out shopping in England she had to hire a pony to carry her money for her. But a pony it would have to be if she wanted to take more than £1 or £2, which is quite as much cash as could be carried by any man, even a Corean coolie ; and they are reckoned to be able to carry heavier weights than anyone else in the world. And the awkwardness attaching to any large money transaction is obviously enormous. Strings of horses and men heavily laden with ropes of cash form one of the commonest sights in the streets of Seoul. And in Mr. Campbell's paper your readers will find an amusing account of the way in which the country folk in Corea, in default of banks, secure their personal estate in the winter by a process   THE MORNING CALM. 109________________________________________ of freezing. In our own case the question of money was simplified by the fact that we intended to visit Gensan, where there is a branch of the Japanese Bank, in the middle of our journey. So before starting I provided myself with a draft upon this bank, and, having prepaid as many travelling expenses as possible, and deferred as many more as I could till the date of my return, we started with only $10 worth of cash in hand for the first fortnight's travelling expenses, and by the aid of the Japanese draft were enabled to lay in a fresh store at Gensan. FOOD. Of course one starts with lofty ideas of living solely on native food, and scorns the sybaritic notion of carrying European eatables about with one; but one grows wiser on reflection. For “native food,” as supplied at any rate in road-side inns, practically amounts to rice and nothing more ; and, as Mr. Carles says, “it is astonishing how soon the monotony of eating perfectly plain rice begins to tell even on a fierce appetite. A teacupful is enough for most people." And I defy any European, without some previous training, to consume enough plain rice to sustain him during a day's work or walk. The Corean has no difficulties on this score, for, to quote Père Dallet's words, “dès l'enfance, on s'applique à donner a l'estomac toute l'élasticité possible." (For the methods employed to ensure this end, and for further information generally as to the Corean's capacity for food, I must refer your readers to the pages of the good father himself, for indeed everybody with any interest in Corea ought to read his book.) A Corean, moreover, has this further advantage over the ordinary European, that he is able to enjoy kimchi and the various other nauseous-looking dainties which complete his ordinary menu, and which serve to help the rice down. I dare say it is the same with Europeans too after a little time, but I think that the new-comer at any rate would infinitely prefer to satisfy his appetite even with plain rice unrelieved by any of these relishes. So we came down off our “tall horse" and humbly proceeded to pack a little box full of tinned meats, jams, tea, and a variety of other creature comforts, including even a certain amount of bread and biscuits. But of these last two articles we naturally could not take large quantities, and it was not long before we had to fall back on the rice of the country as our staple food; for in truth it is quite as hard to eat much meat or jam without bread or vegetables as it is to eat “neat” rice in large quantities. Experience proved that we   110 THE MORNING CALM. ________________________________________ were well advised in thus provisioning ourselves, for we found there was little enough to be got for the asking, or for money either, on the road. It seemed almost impossible to get fowls, or fish, or flesh, or even vegetables of any kind anywhere ; and even eggs were in many places only to be got with difficulty. METHOD OF TRAVELLING. There are three main ways of getting about the country in Corea, and three only, for, as I have said before, wheeled vehicles are practically out of the question, and driving im-possible. When a nyangban takes a journey into the country--which he does as seldom as he possibly can--he travels as a rule in a queer little box of a sedan chair carried by two or more bearers. These chairs have no space for the occupant's legs to hang down in; but this is no hardship to a Corean, who invariably sits cross-legged on the floor at home, and con-sequently is quite at ease in a like position in a sedan chair. But this method of travelling presents but few attractions to the European, and is likely to be expensive. A Corean merchant ordinarily rides on his journeys, and a very curious picture he presents. His diminutive pony (all Corean ponies are diminutive) is heavily laden-in a manner which looks as though it must be quite subversive of equilibrium--with packs which protrude from its sides at the point where the saddle ought to be ; and perched on the top of his packs squats the merchant, generally a sleek person, sprucely dressed in the ordinary clothes of a Corean gentleman, with eyes protected from the dust by a huge pair of heavy spectacles of darkened glass, and immensely proud of the possession of a European umbrella, which adds, however, neither to his picturesqueness nor to his dignity. The donkey, too, is a great favourite with Corean riders; but European travellers in the country, if they ride (as they almost invariably do), prefer ponies. The only other method of travelling is, after all, that which is commonest among Coreans-namely, walking; and being no mean walkers ourselves, we decided to "foot it" on our 600 miles journey, taking ponies only-in number three-to carry our beds, our food, and other baggage. Fearful was the wrangling, and exasperating the delay, caused by the difficulty of agreeing on a price with the purveyor of horses; but after a vast amount of haggling, which delayed our start by at least 24 hours, we got three sturdy-looking animals for 7,500 cash per day - that is, rather less than a dollar per horse per diem. And this included everything-even the food of the man and boy   THE MORNING CALM. 111 ________________________________________ in charge of the horses, who, as is customary in these parts, accompanied us all the way. And so, with all arrangements made, we laid us down to sleep for the last time for five weeks under our own roof on the night of October 2nd. (To be continued.) ________________________________________ The Spirit of Missions. "I. FRIAR JOHN, of Monte Corvino, of the Order of Friars Minors, departed from Thaurisius, a city of Persia, in 1291, and entered India, and I was in India at the Church of St. Thomas [Malabar] thirteen months, and there baptized about one hundred persons in different places; and my com-panion on the way was Friar Nicholas, of Pistorio, of the Order of Friars Preachers, who died there, and is buried in the same church. Afterwards setting out I came to Katag [Cathay?], in the kingdom of the Emperor on the Tartars, who is called Cham the Great. Him I invited, by means of the letters of the Lord Pope, to the Catholic Faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, and although hardened in his idolatry he showed much favour to Christians, and I remained with him alone until nearly two years ago. But there were certain Nestorians in those parts who did not permit us to have more than small oratory, or to preach any but Nestorian doctrine. For to these lands neither an Apostle, nor the disciple of an Apostle, had come at the first, and so the said Nestorians, both personally and by those in their pay, persecuted me, asserting that I was not sent by the Lord Pope, but was a great spy and perverter of men: and after a time they produced certain false witnesses which said that I had killed and robbed the Emperor's treasurer in India. And so I was brought into judgment and peril of death. At length, the will of God, one of them confessed, and my innocence was made clear to the Emperor, who sent these false witnesses and their children into exile. For eleven years I was alone here, till two years ago Friar Arnold, the German, came from the province of Cologne. I have built a chuch in the town of Cambaliech, which is near the Emperor's palace, with a bell-tower and three bells. And there up to the present I must have baptized, I sholud think, six thousand persons, and but for the above mentioned difficulty I might have baptized ten times as many. Moreover, I have pur-chased at different times 150 boys [slaves], sons of pagans, between seven and eleven years of age, whom I have baptized, and taught Latin and Greek after our manner. And for them I have copied out thirty psalters, with hymns and two breviaries, so that already eleven boys know our services and say their offices as in a convent. whether I am present or not. Many of them also can write and copy psalters or whatever else may be necessary; and the Emperor delights in their singing--we sing from ear, as we have no service books noted. “A certain King George of this region, a Nestorian, who is of the kindred of the great Emperor, and is known in India as Prester John, became a Catholic soon after my arrival, and I gave him lesser orders ; and now he ministers to me when I celebrate, arrayed in his royal vestments. He has brought over a large part of his people to the orthodox faith, and with kingly magnificence has built a beautiful church to the name of God, the Holy Trinity, calling it, in honour of the Lord Pope, Ecclesia Romana. He died six years ago, a true Christian, leaving an infant child, now nine years old. But his brethren, who are Nestorians, subverted many of his people, and as   112 THE MORNING CALM. ________________________________________ I was alone, I was not able to leave the Emperor Cham to go to that church, which is twenty days' journey away. Nevertheless, if good helpers and fellow-workers be sent me, I hope in God that all may be set right, for I have a privilege under the hand of the late king. I repeat, if I have no aid much good work must be cut off. But if I have two or three brethren as helpers, I trust that the Emperor Cham himself may be converted. “The shorter and safer way to this land is through the land of the Goths and of the Emperor of the Eastern Tartars--messengers can go thus in five or six months. The other way is long and very dangerous, having two sea journeys ; this takes two years. The former way has been closed for a long time by wars, whence it happens that for twelve years I have had no news either from the Roman Curia or from our Order. Two years ago a Lombard physician came, telling incredible blasphemies about you all, so that I greatly long to know the truth, I beseech the friars to whom this letter shall come to take good care that its contents are made known to the Pope and Cardinals and all our Order. And I ask the Minister-General of our Order for an Antiphon, Legenda Sanctorum, Gradual, and Psalter noted, as I have only a portative Breviary with the short lessons and a small Missal, and when once I have these the boys can make other copies. I am now building other churches, in order to spread my boys among different places. I am aged and grey-headed, more by labours and tribulations than by years, for I am but fifty-eight. I have learned thoroughly the speech and writing of Tartary, and have translated into that language and character the entire New Testament and the Psalter, which I have caused to be beautifully copied, and I write and teach and preach openly and manifestly the testimony of the law of Christ. I had arranged with the above-named King George, had he lived, to translate the entire Latin office, that it might be sung through-out his dominions; and while he lived I used to celebrate mass in his church according to the Latin rite, saying, however, the words of the Canon and of the Preface in this language. His son is called John after me, and I trust in God that he will tread in the footsteps of his father. . . . According as I have heard and seen, I believe that no king or prince in the world can com-pare with the lord Cham in breadth of territory, multitude of people, or magnitude of riches.” Given in the city of Cambaliech, in the kingdom of Catan, January 8, Anno Domini, mcccv.-JOHN OF MONTE CURVINO, after-wards Archbishop of Peking, to the Franciscan Order in Europe. [Wadding, Annales Minorum VI., p. 69.] The title of the letter is missing, and the end seems to be mutilated.