did not really begin until after the signing of the treaties of 1858. Some work had been done previously by the Roman Catholics, but without security and protection, and by the Protestants in the vicinity of the treaty ports, but the country had been practically closed to Christianity since the earliest intercourse with Europeans. Francis Xavier, returning from his successful labors in Japan, landed on the coast of China in 1552 and found it hermetically sealed against him. His noble soul could not brook the restraint, and there he died, exclaiming, "Oh! rock, rock, when wilt thou open?" By the American and British treaties of 1858 religious liberty was for the first time guaranteed, and by the French treaty the missionaries were permitted to acquire land and erect buildings in all the provinces. Since that date Christianity has been extended throughout almost all parts of the empire. There are now in the field about eighteen hundred Catholic and twenty-eight hundred Protestant foreign missionaries, and the converts are variously estimated at from five hundred thousand to over one million.
The testimony of the best observers is that the Chinese are not inclined to religious persecution, and that their antipathy to the missionaries is not so much on account of their religion as because they are foreigners and their presence leads to the introduction of foreign methods. Nevertheless the propagation of Christianity has been attended by serious opposition and bloody riots. That of Tientsin in 1870 has already been noticed. The years 1883–84 and 1891 were marked by violent attacks upon the missions, and that
