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The Golden Chersonese and the Way Thither by Isabella L. (Isabella Lucy) Bird
page 56 of 382 (14%)
of martyrs." It is estimated that there are seven hundred and fifty
thousand Romish Christians in China, many of them of the third or
fourth generation of Christians, and in some places far in the interior
there are whole villages of them. The Portuguese and French missionary
priests who devote themselves for life to this work, dress, eat, and
live as Chinamen, and are credited with great devotion.

It is most interesting to be brought by the spectacle of these poor
refugees so near to the glory and the woe of martyrdom, and to hear
that the martyr spirit can still make men "obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross." A placard was posted up some time ago calling
for a general massacre of the native Christians on Christmas Day. It
attributes every vice to the "Foreign Devils," and says that, "to
preserve the peace and purity of Chinese Society, those whom they have
corrupted must be cut off." One phrase of this placard is, "The
wickedness of these foreign devils is so great that even pigs and dogs
would refuse to eat their flesh!"

Mr. and Mrs. Henry speak Chinese, and are both fearless, and familiar
with the phases of Canton life. Of all the places I have seen, Canton
is the most overwhelmingly interesting, fascinating, and startling.
"See Canton and die," I would almost say, and yet I can give no idea of
all that has taken such a strong hold of me. I should now be quite
content to see only the manifold street life, with its crowds,
processions, and din, and the strange and ever-shifting water life,
altogether distinct from the land life. The rice-paper pictures give a
very good idea of the forms and colors of the boats, but the thousands
of them, and the rate at which they are propelled, are altogether
indescribable, either by pen or pencil.

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