sleep. He walked on air, and he worshipped God. It was sixteen years after his return to China and twenty years after he set out for this goal that heaven had at last granted his prayer. To him the organization of the enterprise was principally committed. The feature of the long term of fifteen years resolved upon for the course of study and training to be pursued, is particularly due to him and reflects the size of the man, the type of his mind and character.
A school of candidates was at once opened at Shanghai from which the pupils were to be selected by competitive examination, and, as has been already stated, the first detachment of thirty arrived in the United States in 1872.
The location of the Mission was also for him to determine. He might have procured its establishment in England, or France, or Germany; but as he himself had expressed it, the light that had enlightened him shone from America and from New England, and to America and New England he was resolved from the first this Mission should repair.
He was appointed Chief Commissioner of the Mission, receiving with the appointment his second promotion in rank, viz. —to the Third or Blue Button grade. With him was associated, as co-commissioner, a venerable scholar and dignitary—Chin Lan Pin by name—who, however, remained in this country less than two years, yielding his place to a younger man, Ngau Ngoh Liang, wellborn, distinguished for learning, and a most agreeable gentleman.
The students of the Mission have thus far, with very few exceptions, exhibited excellent ability as scholars, and in many instances extraordinary ability, and with fewer exceptions still have been marked by their exemplary conduct.