that, when she visits them, they ever talk of anything except where she got her dress, &c.; but on great occasions, when they assemble for ceremonies in the temples, they seem very devout.  In private they treat these matters with great indifference.  I had some of the missionaries to dinner.  They put the converts at a larger number than I understood Mr. Russell to do, but otherwise their report did not differ materially from his.

[Sidenote:  Chusan.] [Sidenote:  French missionary.]

Chusan.—­March 21st.—­This is a most charming island.  How any people, in their senses, could have preferred Hong-Kong to it, seems incredible.  The people too, that is to say, the lower orders, seem really to like us.  We walked through the town of Tinghae, and asked at the shop of a seller of perfumed sticks for the ‘Mosquito tobacco,’ but in vain.  We then passed through the further gate of the city into the country beyond, and seeing something like a chapel, made towards it.  A man, dressed as a Chinaman, came out to meet us.  He addressed us in French, and proved to be a Roman Catholic priest.  He was very civil, and asked us into his house, where he gave us some tea, grown on his own farm.  He has been here two years quite alone, and he was ten years before in the province of Kiangsu.  He says that he has some 200 converts.  Some twenty boys, deserted children, he brings up, and works on his farm.  I saw them, and I must say I never beheld a more happy and well-conditioned set of boys.  In the town was an establishment for younger children, chiefly girls, under the charge of a Chinese female convert.  After he had given us tea, the missionary accompanied us in our walk.  He first took us to a sort of cottage- villa, belonging to one of the rich inhabitants, consisting of about a couple of acres of ground, covered by kiosks and grottos and dwarf- trees, and ups and downs and zigzags,—­all in the most approved Chinese fashion.  From thence we clambered up a mountain of, I should think, some 1,200 feet in height, from which we had a very extensive view, and beheld ranges of hills, separated by cosy valleys, on one side; on the other, the walled city of Tinghae, surrounded by rice- fields; beyond, the sea studded with islands of the Chusan group.  It was a beautiful view, and we returned to the ship very much pleased with our scramble.

[Sidenote:  Scenery.]

March 22nd.—­I have just returned from a walk to the top of a hill, on the opposite side of the flat on which the town is situated from that which we mounted yesterday.  The day is charming, clear, with a fanning, bracing air.  We had a finer view almost than yesterday.  The same character of scenery all round the island.  Spacious flats on the sea-board under irrigation; about one-half of the fields covered (now) with water, and the other half in crop, chiefly beans, wheat, and rape, which, with its yellow flower, gives warmth to the colouring of the landscape; these