Page:Journal of three voyages along the coast of China in 1881, 1832, & 1833 with notices of Siam, Corea, and the Loo-Choo islands (1834).djvu/11

 BRIEF NOTICE OF

AND THE LABOURS OF PROTESTANT MISSIONARIES IN

THESE AND THE ADJACENT COUNTRIES.

Between five and six hundred years have elapsed since the publication of the travels of Marco Polo made the nations of Europe acquainted with the northern portion of the empire of China. Two hundred years afterwards, the Portuguese, impelled by the spirit of maritime enterprise, for which they were then so distinguished, pushing their adventurous way along the African shore, passed the Cape of Good Hope, and discovered the highway by sea to the East Indies. Under the direction of the celebrated Albuquerque, they visited Malacca, Siam, Pegu, and Canton, and made the countties b