Through the Yang-tse Gorges

Friday, April 27th.—I called to make my adieux to the members of the China Inland Mission, who have a staff of five or six members in this city. The China Inland, or Taylor, Mission is the most active of all the Protestant societies in China, and the only one that has followed the example of the Catholics in adopting the native dress. They lead hard lives, and work on a most ungrateful soil, but as they believe themselves to be simply carrying out the commands of their Master, and leave the results to Him, the fact that there are few or no genuine Protestant converts in China does not appear to trouble them. In fact, seeing that the only bonâ fide convert to Protestantism, certainly made, devastated thirteen out of the eighteen provinces, in his endeavours to Christianize his fellow-countrymen a little more rapidly than the missionaries were doing, the Chinese may deem it fortunate that not more enthusiastic converts are made. “Hung shui shuen,” the Taiping king, accepted the example and teachings of the old Jewish captains, in all their literal ghastliness, and slew the idolators without mercy. Sixteen years of desperate fighting (1848-64) passed away before his bandit hordes were broken up, and his capital, Nanking, given to the flames, in which he and all his household perished. Nearly twenty years have now elapsed, and the still desolate appearance of this, the Southern capital, remains a witness and a warning.