Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/57

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1625, some Chinese workmen, engaged in digging a foundation for a house, outside the walls of the city of Si-gnan-Fou, the capital of the province of Chen-Si, found, buried in the earth, a large monumental stone, resembling those which the Chinese are in the habit of raising to preserve to posterity the remembrance of remarkable events and illustrious men. It was a dark-coloured marble tablet, ten feet high and five broad, and bearing on one side an inscription in ancient Chinese, and also some other characters quite unknown in China. The discovery excited much attention among the mandarins and the population of the country. The stone was publicly exhibited, and visited by crowds of curious persons; and amongst others, some Jesuit missionaries, who were at that time scattered about China, in various missions, went to examine it. The first who saw it was Father Alvares Semedo; then