45.--In attributing the outbreak to Chinese hatred of the foreigner, two observations appear in this instance to claim consideration. The first is by Mr. Consul Gardner, in his despatch of June 9:--
"The mob was composed of many hostile from mere ignorance, many from the force of contagion, some from fear of others, a few really friendly, who, like the soldiers, led a lady to a place of safety under pretence of robbing her of a ring, and others who sheltered them from blows, while very few deliberately meant mischief."
The other is by the Rev. David Hill, a Wesleyan missionary of much experience, who was officially employed to inquire into the facts. Under date June 12th. 1891, he writes:--
"One thing which the sight of the house impressed on me was the evidence which it gave of the hold on the people's mind which the rumours as to the destruction of infant life have gained. On the upper story, the ceiling had been inspected by means of a ladder, which evidently had been brought up for the purpose. On the ground floor the boards of one of the rooms had been fired, and a large aperture made. Below the ground floor the ventilators outside had been torn open, as though search had been made for missing infants, and, of course, the lath and plaster walls in all the rooms where they might be found were pierced."
This latter view is confirmed by the Rev. Father de Quellec, who, writing in the _Missions Catholiques_, describes how, at another place, on the night of May 23rd, a dead child, from whom the eyes had been removed, was placed on vacant land near the Mission. A crowd assembling next morning, cried out, "It is the European devil who has torn out the eyes and heart of this child!" The house was stormed, but fortunately a magistrate arrived with troops more under command than is usual in China, and the mob was dispersed. "But," adds the Father, "eight out of ten believe that we take out the eyes and store them in the cellars of the Mission."
It is contended that, under such antagonistic circumstances, rescue work should be guided by the greatest care, for otherwise its use, to the prejudice of both missionary efforts and European trade, by reactionaries, is _inevitable_. Their sinister influence, once asserted, may at any moment call into fatally destructive play, as indeed recently, the anti-foreign feeling entertained by a large proportion of the Chinese.