Enterprise and Adventure/A Wandering Bishop
A WANDERING BISHOP.
Bruguieres, a French priest, having been appointed vicar-apostolic, and head of the mission in Corea, traversed the most important parts of the Chinese Empire to reach his destination, and the journal of these travels,
published by him some years since, remains a remarkable memorial of his enterprise and perseverance. Though appointed bishop of Capsa, this fine title was the only profit he derived from his bishopric, which was of a somewhat shadowy character. Unable even to pay for the comforts of a European vessel, he was compelled to become a passenger on board the Chinese junks; and he gave some curious details of the system of navigation practised on board these vessels. The archbishop of Manilla, where Bruguières stayed some time, lent him a sum sufficient to pay his passage to Macao. Soon after his arrival at this port, he embarked on board a Chinese junk for Tongan, the residence of the vicar-apostolic for the province of Tokien. This voyage, of scarcely two hundred leagues in length, was more than two months in duration. The ignorance and timidity of the Chinese sailors, were the cause of this delay. They remained at anchor for more than a fortnight, and like delays happened frequently. The captain declared that the wind was contrary; they wanted a southerly wind, and the monsoon had just commenced. The Chinese did not know how to beat up against a contrary wind. The clumsy build of their ships, and the fear that they had of loosing their reckoning, never allowed them to take a bold offing. They always kept the land in sight, and this made their navigation long and dangerous. They had a compass on board, but it is a singular circumstance, that these people, the inventors of that instrument, and familiar with its use many ages before the Western nations, avail themselves but little of its guidance.
When at length they proceeded on this tedious voyage, the captain, after a few hours' sail, would order the men to cast anchor, as the weather was very cold, although they had not passed the twenty-second degree of latitude. Similar reasons detained them for two months and a half on their voyage. The wind, the rain, the tide, the fear of pirates—all interrupted their course. Every night they sought shelter in some creek under the cannon of a fort, if such a name could be given to a ruinous building defended only by an old mandarin and his domestics. Under most of these forts an armed barque was stationed, to protect the junks from the assaults of the pirates who infested these seas in the eleventh and twelfth moons.
One day several pirate barques, well armed, attacked them. The pirates commenced by seizing two small junks which were a little in advance of the squadron. As the sailors made no resistance, the buccaneers only stripped them stark naked, offering no violence to their persons. The turn of the vessel in which the bishop was sailing came next; their captain hung out a signal of distress, and hailed the neighbouring barques. Six of them united and formed a line; the crews only supplied a contingent of one hundred and forty men without arms; the pirates were more than three hundred in number, well armed; for in China it is forbidden to have weapons on board merchant ships, under severe penalties; and pirates alone dispense with this law. But "God," says the poor bishop, "had pity on us, the pirates retired without venturing an attack."
Escaped from all the dangers and harassments of this tedious journey, Bruguières at length reached Fougan, a country covered with hills and mountains of moderate size, some of which were clothed with dwarf pines and the tea-shrub. Hence he proceeded to Nanking, passing through the fertile and beautiful province of Kiang-nan. Here he found Europeans objects of hatred and suspicion not only to the government, but to the people. He was in consequence compelled to assume the disguise of a native; and he gives a touching account of the difficulties which he had to encounter in adapting himself to Chinese usages, and the dangers of detection arising from the slightest deviation. Even the native Christians dreaded that his presence might be made a pretext for persecution, and endeavoured to compel him to return. Though his health was broken, his money almost gone, and his guides dispirited, the bishop still persevered, and pursued his route towards Tartary, sometimes in one of the rude vehicles of the country, but most frequently on foot. He passed the barriers of the province of Chang-Si in a chariot, and disguised as a mandarin. Thus, after wandering about for some months in perpetual fear of detection, the bishop was informed that he might obtain a safe asylum in Chinese Tartary until the Coreans were ready for his reception.
On the 7th of October, 1834, the poor bishop arrived at the famous great wall of China, and passed through the gate through which the Russians go on their road to Pekin. No one paid the least attention to him. The guards appeared to turn their backs, as if to encourage him and his followers. In fact the great wall, popularly supposed to be so powerful in keeping out invaders, might as well have been built of pasteboard; and did not even serve its chief object in those days—that of keeping out smugglers; for the bishop perceived that if the most rigorous watch had been kept at the great gates it would be easy to cross the wall in the mountains, or through the numerous breaches which time had made. Thus arrived, after long wanderings in Tartary, Bruguières chose for his residence the village of Sivang, which he found chiefly inhabited by native Christians. Though the latitude was not more than forty-two degrees north, he found the climate more cold than that of Poland. Chafing dishes had to be kept beside the altars, and the wine at the communion-table was kept in a vessel of warm water; but despite all those precautions, it would frequently be found frozen. His long fatigues and privations, had brought him to a poor bishopric indeed. The soil was poor, the harvests frequently failed, and famines were common. Nor were the manners of his flock calculated to please the senses of the poor bishop, accustomed to the civilised life of his own country. The greater part of the two castes of Tartars he found professing Lamism. The first of these, the Manchews, were a filthy race, who wiped their hands, dripping with grease, in their cloaks, to show that they could afford to eat meat. When one of his Manchew friends wished to compliment a host or guest, he took a huge bone and gnawed it all round, and then handed it to his friend, who gnawed it in turn. At the end of the repast the Tartar guest wiped his fingers in his host's robe, drawing a streak of grease from his head to his heel; and the rules of politeness established in the country required the host to reciprocate his delicate attention. Such was the kind of society to which the poor bishop voluntarily condemned himself for the remainder of his days. Indeed, he would have been well contented if he had experienced no greater trouble than resulted from a total privation of the refinements in which a cultivated mind finds pleasure. Unfortunately, while he was at Sivang, the governor of the country, alarmed by the excesses of the Chinese sectaries and secret societies which have since become so dangerous to the Chinese rule, ordered a severe inquiry to be made into the habits of persons suspected of professing Christianity, imagining, probably with justice, that there was some connection between that religion and the societies. The poor bishop was in consequence exposed to many dangers, but was preserved by the kindness of some mandarins, whose friendship had been gained by his pious life and simple manners. Escaped from the dangers of persecution, he now began his perilous journey to Corea; but he was destined never to reach the land which was the final object of his wanderings. He had scarcely reached the frontiers when the hunger and fatigue which he had so often encountered finally overcame him. News of his death was brought to the little Christian settlement at Sivang, who piously preserved and sent to Europe the bishop's interesting journals of his wanderings to that spot.