Page:The Chinese Empire. A General & Missionary Survey.djvu/90

 devastating tempests of these tropical waters. Many of these find employment on foreign steamers, the Swatow men having a high reputation as deck hands and carpenters, and the Cantonese as engineers.

The literary annals of the province are perhaps less glorious than those of some other portions of the Empire, but it can claim by right of residence, if not of birth, the illustrious names of Han Yü, the brilliant statesman and essayist, and of Su Tung-p'o, the hardly less famous poet. In recent times the province has produced the well-known "Modern Sage" and apostle of reform, K'ang Yu-wei, the adviser of the Emperor in his memorable and epoch-making efforts to regenerate his country. On the other hand, popular rumour, rightly or wrongly, claims for this province also the birth of the notorious head of the opposite party, the Empress-Dowager, who has presented to the astonished world the spectacle of a Chinese woman defying at once the most enlightened opinion of her own people and the allied fleets and armies of nine civilised powers.

Taken as a whole, the people of this province have few rivals, either in physique or in mental capacity. They form an important element of the national strength, and are well worth winning for the Kingdom of God.

The first Christian missionaries in the Kwangtung province were the Jesuits. François Xavier had only reached the island of San-siang to die there in the year 1552. In 1579 the Jesuit Michel Eogger was sent to Macao, and succeeded in effecting an entrance into Canton; and he was joined soon after by the more famous Matthew Ricci. Their literary attainments greatly impressed the Chinese, but one of their own colleagues has frankly admitted that they gained more applause than spiritual fruit. Chaoking, to the west of Canton City, and Shaochow, to the north, seem to have been the centres at which they