a hopeless task. The more intimate the terms upon which we stand with the mandarins, the more circumscribed is the sphere of our usefulness. They are, from their very calling, opposed to every thing good and laudable, and perfectly steeled against the truth.
"We returned the next evening late to the ship, and had to recount numerous acts of kindness which we had received on our journey. The following day I performed another tour; the country was equally unpromising, and the inhabitants poor, but not without their wonted cheerfulness. Having circulated all my tracts, I commenced the distribution of Scriptures, of which I had a great quantity. Whenever I entered a village all business was suspended, and old and young sped towards the distributor of books.
"We finally weighed anchor, and arrived at Tsin-kang district. Here it would be impossible to describe the joy with which the inhabitants, who knew me, received their old friend. After the first expressions of gladness had passed, they asked for books, which I was obliged to produce, and, whether I would or not, to part with the sacred volumes. Long before we reached the village, almost the whole stock taken on shore was expended; and new demands being made upon me, I had to refuse the applicants with a sad countenance.
"The next day we took a large boat-load of books, anxious to perform a long tour among ten or twelve villages. On landing, however, I was met by urgent applicants, who upbraided me with having been so long absent, and considered it a shame that I did not satisfy their demands immediately. Such arguments had peculiar force; I supplied them plentifully with
2m
