Page:A history of Chinese literature - Giles.djvu/413

 of the date at which they were written, namely, in 1732. The following is one of these notices :

" To allow the barbarians to settle at Canton was a mistake. Ever since Macao was given over, in the reign of Chia Ching (1522-1567) of the Ming dynasty, to the red-haired barbarians, all manner of nations have con- tinued without ceasing to flock thither. They build forts and fortifications and dense settlements of houses. Their descendants will overshadow the land, and all the country beyond Hsiang-shan will become a kingdom of devils. ' Red-haired ' is a general term for the bar- barians of the western islands. Amongst them there are the Dutch, French, Spaniards, Portuguese, English, and Yii-su-la [? Islam], all of which nations are horribly fierce. Wherever they go they spy around with a view to seize on other people's territory. There was Singa- pore, which was originally a Malay country ; the red- haired barbarians went there to trade, and by and by seized it for an emporium of their own. So with the Philippines, which were colonised by the Malays ; because the Roman Catholic religion was practised there, the Western foreigners appropriated it in like manner for their own. The Catholic religion is now spreading over China. In Hupeh, Hunan, Honan, Kiangsi, Fuhkien, and Kuangsi, there are very few places whither it has not reached. In the first year of the Emperor Yung Cheng [1736], the Viceroy of Fuhkien, Man Pao, complained that the Western foreigners were preaching their religion and tamper- ing with the people, to the great detriment of the localities in question ; and he petitioned that the Roman Catholic chapels in the various provinces might be turned into lecture-rooms and schools, and

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