Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume II.djvu/59



day, when the missionaries were conversing with delight on their future propagation of the faith in China, they were visited by an officer of the chief tribunal of the town. Overwhelmed with sorrow, he announced to them that the viceroy had just been deposed, and that he desired them to quit the town immediately, lest their residence, being distasteful to his successor, should sink him in yet deeper disgrace.

As may be imagined, this was a thunderbolt to the monks; but, to console them, the viceroy gave them a letter, enjoining the magistrates of Canton to allow them a residence in that city. But of what value would the letter of a displaced governor be in the eyes of the