icion; and their
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acts of violence kindled resentment. Under these combined motives
a massacre of the foreign traders was perpetrated, and Andrade, a
sort of envoy at Peking, was thrown into prison and beheaded. The
trading-posts were abolished except at Macao, where the Portuguese
obtained a footing by paying an annual rent.

After the Portuguese came the Spaniards, who appear to have been
satisfied with the Philippine archipelago, rather than provoke a
conflict with the Portuguese. The Chinese they had little reason
to dread, as the superiority of their arms would have enabled them
to seize portions of the seacoast, though not to conquer the Empire
as easily as they did the Mexicans and Peruvians. Perhaps, too,
they were debarred by the same authority which divided the Western
continent between the two Iberian powers. The Chinese becoming too
numerous at Manila, the Spaniards slaughtered them without mercy,
as if in retaliation for the blood of their cousins, or taking a
hint from the policy of China.

In 1622 the Dutch endeavoured to open trade with China, but their
advances being rejected, doubtless through secret opposition from
the Portuguese, they seized the Pescadores, and later established
themselves on Formosa, whence they were eventually expelled by
Koxinga, a Chinese freebooter.

The church founded by Corvino at Peking perished in the overthrow
of the Mongols. The Portuguese traders disapproved of missions,
as tending to impose restraint on their profligacy and to impart
to China the strength that comes from knowledge. The narrow
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policy of the Mings, moreover, closed the door against the introduction
of a foreign creed. Yet it is strange that half a century elapsed
before any serious attempt was made to give the Gospel to China.
In 1552 St. Francis Xavier, the apostle of the Indies, arrived
at Macao. He and his fellow Jesuits were indirect fruits of the
Protestant Reformation--belonging to an order organised for the
purpose of upholding and extending the power of the Holy See. After
wonderful success in India, the Straits, and Japan, Xavier appeared
in Chinese waters, but he was not allowed to land. He expired on
the island of Shang-chuen or St. John's, exclaiming "O rock, rock,
when wilt thou open?"

Ricci, who came in 1580, met with better success: but it cost him
twenty years of unceasing effort to effect an entrance to Peking.
Careful to avoid giving offence, and courtly in m