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to the essential tenets of the imported faith. On the whole the welcome given by the Chinese to Buddhism at its second advent cannot be cited with strict propriety as evidence of a tolerant disposition towards alien faiths, for the Indian religion came among them by invitation of their sovereign and remained among them under his protection.

Islamism (called by the Chinese Hwei-hwei-chiao) first arrived in China in 628 A.D. (the year of the Mission), when Wahb-Abi-Kabcha, a maternal uncle of Mohammed, was despatched to the court of the great Tang dynasty, a bearer of presents and an expounder of the Arabian creed. Long before that time, as shown above, tradal routes had been established between China and the Indian and Arabian colonies. Wahb-Abi-Kabcha reached Canton by sea, and proceeded thence overland to the capital, which was then at Hsiang in Shensi, a long and arduous journey. He appears to have been hospitably received, and that no obstacles were placed in the way of his propagandism may be confidently inferred from the fact that a mosque was soon afterwards built in Canton, where it still stands. It is called the "Plain Pagoda," and its height is estimated at 165 cubits. Evidently such a monument could not have been erected except in the presence of official tolerance. It would seem, however, that trade occupied the attention of the early Mohammedan settlers rather than religious propagan-