| OCR Text |
Show HOftW.W.EOCKHLLL. WHO HAS GONE TO CHINA ON AN IMPORTANT MISSION. lie la Well Qualified for the Task, I7av-tajf I7av-tajf Passed Many Yean in tbe Land ' Boxer Serred Ones as A.ssjstaut Secretary or State. ' William Woodville Rockhill, ap-rainted ap-rainted by the pres.dent to go to Chlaa to advise the government here of the condition of things in the celestial em-I em-I pire, is probably better qualified for that task than any other man in America. Amer-ica. Mr. Rockhill has spent many years as a student, explorer and traveler in the far east, especially in the Chinese empire, and has won world-wide fame by his work on China and the Chinese. Chi-nese. Although he is as yet in the meridian merid-ian of his life. Mr. Ropkhill hao ... WW WILLIAM W. ROCKHILL. complished vast results in his specialty special-ty of orientalism. He is the son of Thomas Cadwalader Rockhill, a lawcS-of lawcS-of Philadelphia, and he was educated in France. He entered, s a lad of 11, the Lycee Bonaparte in Paris, and for several years he was a student of the Chinese, Sanskrit and Thibetan languages lan-guages and of comparative philology in the College of France. In this science the French are most excellent masters. In 1871 he was enrolled as a student at the Ecole Militaire of St. Cyr. When he was graduated in 1873 he was given a commission as a lieutenant lieu-tenant of the French army in Algeria, and served in that country until 187t! j wca he resigned and returned to America. .. After a short stay at home Mr. Rockhill Rock-hill returned to Paris to resume his oriental ori-ental studies. In 1884 he was well prepared pre-pared for the post of second secretary to the American legation at Pekin, to which he was appointed by President Arthur. One year later President Cleveland raised him to the post of secretary of legation, in which capacity capac-ity he served until 1888. It was in the last named year that Mr. Rockhill began the work which was to make him famous. Resigning his diplomatic .post, he started out upon up-on a journey through mysterious Mongolia Mon-golia and Thibet. For this he had prepared pre-pared himself by a thorough study of tile spoken languages of -China and Thibet. He reached the eastern region of the latter country and surveyed more than 1,700 miles of these un- Known lands. On his return he published pub-lished the results of his investigations under the title of Land of the Lamas, which book is now an authority in this' line. The volume was yet in the review stage when the daring and accomplished accom-plished author set out for a second journey over the same territory. He was gone one ' year, traveled 30,000 miles and published his observations in bis book, Diary of a Journey in Mongolia and Thibet. He was rewarded re-warded with the Victoria gold medal of the Royal Geographical society and was elected honorary member of j several learned institutions and societies socie-ties in America and abroad. In 1893 Mr. Rockhill was appointed head clerk of the department of state, in 1894 third assistant secretary of state, and in 189G assistant secretary of state. More recently he was assigned to his present position of director of the bureau of American republics His translations from the Chinese sacred books rank with the products of the best oriental scholars in Europe, and he is without a superior as an expert in sinology. |
