most ready to receive instruction.

'It was quite late in the afternoon before he left, and I had just
time to take a walk at sunset and be back in time for dinner.
Immediately after that the people began to assemble for evening
service. This is held every Sabbath evening in Mr. Edkins's
parlour. Upwards of twenty usually compose the congregation. The
missionaries take the service in turn. After service the mass of
the congregation separated, but one man came with me to my room,
and there we sat talking till midnight, when my visitor rose to
depart.

'There, you see, I have given you the history of one Sabbath in
Peking. It is a pretty fair sample of what goes on here very
frequently. However, when I find myself free on the afternoon I
accompany Mr. Edkins to some one of the two chapels, which are in
distant parts of the city. I do not go so much to hear him preach
as to have his conversation on the way there and back, and, as you
may suppose, we sometimes stumble upon an argument, and this makes
it quite lively.'

The self-denying and arduous labours of his first sojourn in Mongolia
had given to James Gilmour a knowledge of the language and an
acquaintance with the nomadic Mongols of the Plain far in excess of that
possessed by any other European. But even then, as also at a later date,
the question was raised whether more fruitful work might not be done
among the agricultural Mongols inhabiting the country to the north-east
of Peking. Hence, on April 16, 1872, he started on his first journey
through the district in which in later years the closing labours of his
life were to be accomplished. He spent thirty-seven days in this
preliminary tour, and travelled about 1,000 miles.

Gilmour's first estimate of this region as a field of missionary
enterprise, expressed on April 25, 1872, remained true to the end, even
though in later years the exceptional difficulties of work among the
nomads induced him at last, as we shall see, to settle among the
agricultural Mongols:--

'Though I saw a good many Mongol houses, yet I must say, I do not
feel much drawn to them in preference to the nomad Mongols. The
only possible recommendation I can think of is that, coming among
them, I might go and put up for some days at a time in a Chinese
inn. This would save me from great trouble in getting
introductions, and it