g that the political commotions of which Portugal, his native
country, was at that time the theatre, would preclude the Portuguese
church from sending an adequate number of labourers to cultivate the vast
field which had been confided to him, communicated his apprehensions to
the Sacred College de Propaganda Fide, and earnestly entreated its
members to take under their especial attention a harvest, already ripe,
but which was under peril of destruction, for want of husbandmen to
gather it in. The sacred congregation, touched with the anxiety of this
venerable and zealous old man, among its other arrangements for meeting
the requirements of these unfortunate missions, dismembered Mantchouria
from the diocese of Peking, and erected it into an Apostolic Vicariat,
which was confided to the charge of the Foreign Missionary Society. M.
Verolles, Bishop of Colombia, was made the new Vicar Apostolic. Nothing
less than the patience, the devotion, the every virtue of an apostle, was
essential for the due administration of this Christendom. The prejudices
of the neophytes, not as yet brought within the rules of ecclesiastical
discipline, were, for M. Verolles, obstacles more difficult to overcome
than even the ruggedness of heart of the pagans; but his experience and
his wisdom soon triumphed over all impediments. The mission has assumed
a new form; the number of Christians is annually augmenting; and there is
now every hope that the Apostolic Vicariat of Mantchouria will become one
of the most flourishing missions in Asia.

Mantchouria is bounded on the north by Siberia, on the south by the Gulf
Phou-Hai and Corea, on the east by the sea of Japan, and on the west by
Russian Dauria and Mongolia.

Moukden, in Chinese Chen-Yan, is the chief town of Mantchouria, and may
be considered the second capital of the Chinese empire. The Emperor has
a palace and courts of justice there on the model of those at Peking.
Moukden is a large and fine city, surrounded by thick and lofty ramparts;
the streets are broad and regular, and less dirty and tumultuous than
those of Peking. One entire quarter is appropriated to the princes of
the Yellow Girdle; that is, to the members of the Imperial family. They
are all under the direction of a grand Mandarin, who is entrusted with
the inspection of their conduct, and empowered summarily to punish any
offences they may commit.

After Moukden, the most remarkable towns are Ghirin, surrounded by hig