Biographical Notice of P. Prímare.
DEC.
mer.
ART. V. Biographical notice of Père Joseph Prémare. Tran-
slated from Rémusat's Nouveaux Mélanges Asiatiques, by S. R. AMONG the host of learned men whose labors have rendered the mission to China illustrious, there are two who deserve to occupy an eminent rank in the memory of the lovers of learning; one as a grammarian and philologist and the other as a historian and astrono- The first is Prémare-the second is Gaubil. Couplet, Noel, and Parrenin, among the early missionaries, Amiot and Cibot, among those of a more modern period, did not equal Prémare in pro- found knowledge of the Chinese language, and in reading authors who owe their celebrity to their literary merit. Schall, Verbiest, Grimaldi, have not rendered to astronomy greater services than Gau- bil, and his researches into history and antiquity are even above those of Martini, of Visdelou, and Mailla. Unquestionably, these two learned missionaries had acquired the one and the other, an ability in point of Chinese literature, which no one of their order, much less of other Europeans, has ever surpassed, or perhaps ever equalled. It would be difficult to decide which of these two men had the better knowledge of Chinese. Perhaps Prémare had more fully acquainted himself with certain niceties of the language, and more deeply pene- trated into its genius; but Gaubil, drawn towards graver objects, threw the light he had acquired upon points the most important. Both were of the number of men of letters, of whom France ought to be proud.
The place and period of the birth of Joseph Henry Prémare are unknown; we only know that he was one of the Jesuits who set out from Rochelle, on the 7th of March, 1698, to go and preach the gos- pel in China. He made the passage in seven months, in the Amphi- trite, in company with PP. Bouvet, Domenge, and Baborier. There were in all on board that vessel, eleven Jesuit missionaries, several of whom have shed great lustre on the mission to China. Premare aṛ- rived on the 6th of October at Sanshan (or St. John's); and oy the 17th of February of the following year, he wrote to P. De la Chaise an account* of his passage, with some particulars that he had ga- thered respecting the Cape of Good Hope, Batavia, Acheen, and Ma- lacca. The first year of his residence in China, he was obliged to occupy himself solely in studying the language, so as to put himself in
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See Lettres Edifiantes, vol. XVI, page 338.
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