History of the Pirates Who Infested the China Sea From 1807 to 1810

These are names of different sorts of Chinese vessels or junks.

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In the original Kin (6369). Kin cannot be the common cash (Tung pao) for then the sum would be too trifling – 8 to 900 are to be got in Canton for a Spanish dollar. If Kin were used for dollar, or tael, which is very probable, the sum is enormous. Richard Glasspoole states that the pirates demanded indeed ten thousand dollars! – See the Appendix.

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Hoo mun. The following notice on the Chinese tiger is taken from the geography of Mookden, and translated by Father Amiot. Eloge de la ville de Moukden par Kien long, p. 249. "Au-delà de nos frontières (Mookden), il y a une espèce de tigre, dont la peau est un fort beau blanc, sur lequel il y a, par intervalles, des taches noires. Ces espèces de tigres sont plus méchants et plus féroces que les autres." Father Amoit adds, that these tigers are called Hoo by the Chinese, and Tasha by the Manchow.

67

The Chinese geographers and historians are very well acquainted with Siam; there is an interesting description of this empire in the Hae kwo hëen këen, p. 21, and in the 57th book, p. 13, of the memoirs concerning the south of the Mei ling mountains. That Siam acknowledges the supremacy of China, was known to the most early European travellers. Cluver says (in his Introductio in omnem Geographiam Wolfenbuttelæ, 1694, 4to., p. 473), that "Rex Siamensis irruptione crebriori Tartarica pressus, Chano denique Chinensi sese beneficiarium aut vasallum submisit." Mendez Pinto, who was in that country in the year 1540, states that the king of Siam acknowledged the supremacy of China; Bernhardi Vareni Descriptio regni Japoniæ et Siam; Cantabrigiæ 1673-8, p. 128.

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It is impossible to translate the names of vessels of different descriptions. The large are the Chang lung, or great dragon vessels which by the Chinese law are forbidden to be used by any private person; these are the Mandarin, or government vessels. The pirates nevertheless had such vessels, as likewise the daring smugglers, who bring the opium from Lintin, or Linting, to Canton. The amount of the opium trade in the port of Canton was, in the year 1829-30, equal to 12,057,157 Sp. dollars.

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One of the English sailors, who had been taken prisoner. "The pirates frequently obliged my men to go on shore and fight with the muskets, which did great execution; the Chinese principally using bows and arrows. They have match-locks, but use them very unskilfully." – See Appendix.

70

A shih, or stone, contains four keun: a keun thirty kin or catty, the well known Chinese weight: a catty is equal to one pound and a third English.

71

Nan hae hëen. Its area amounts to 278 le, and it pays 63,731 leang. The European factories in Canton lie in this district, and the monastery opposite to the factories is usually from the name of the district called the Hae nan sze, the temple of Hae nan. The district of every place is called by the name of the the place, and we must therefore speak of the town and district Nan hae.

72

This simple note of the Chinese author better illustrates the religion of China than many learned dissertations. All the deities, those of Greece and Rome, of China and India, are derived from two sources; both the powers of nature and highly gifted human beings were deified. These powers of nature, and the virtues and vices of men being in every community nearly similar, the same gods and goddesses are found everywhere; only their external form and shape is different. Every province, every town, and every village of China has its particular tutulary saint, or god, and on the day of his festival his effigy is carried in public. There is no essential difference in this respect between China and those countries where Roman Catholicism is yet in its highest vigour. The effigies of the Chinese gods and goddesses are all of the human shape; they have no monsters like India and Egypt, under which it was once the fashion to seek for extraordinary wisdom and astonishing science. Lucian has already taken the liberty of laughing at these deities, and at the writers, the prophets, and sophists, who try to find some sense in all this vulgar display of nonsense, by which the people are deluded. Lucian de Sacreficiis s. f. where he laughs at the Jupiter with a ram's head, at the good fellow Mercurius with the countenance of a dog, etc. [Greek: Krioprosôpon men ton Dia, chynoprosôpon de ton beltison Ermên chai ton Pana holon tragon], etc. See the pleasant story of Jupiter with the ram's head in Herodotus, II. 42.

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The strong winds (Tay fung) in the Chinese sea begin about the middle of September, or just before the equinox.

74

It is not stated in the Chinese text, whose father rushed forward, whether it was the father of the lady, or of Wei tang chow.

75

I must again remark that there is a false character in our text: it should be Nëĕ, 7974 in the Tonical Dictionary of Dr. M.

76

I am compelled to give a free translation of this verse, and confess myself not quite certain of the signification of the poetical figures used by our author. Fūng signifies a hollow pyramid filled with combustibles; yĕn signifies the smoke caused by combustion; tseāng signifies the spar or yard in a boat or ship, to which the sail is attached, and ying is shadow. It seems that the author alludes to the spar or yard-arm, at which Mei ying was fastened by the pirate; but what he means by shadow I do not really know, perhaps ying is in the place of Mei ying.

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The Chinese characters are printed like the other portion of the work. I have divided them according to the verses. Only the first eight lines have a regular metre of five feet, or words, and as the author himself says, his song is then at an end; but the language still remains poetical, and for that reason it was thought proper to divide also the remaining lines like verses. Every word must be considered as consisting of one syllable or sound, even if we write it with three or four vowels. Poetry is perhaps more esteemed in China, than in any other country in the world. The late governor-general of Kwang tung and Kwang se, his Excellency Yuen, published the poems of his daughter, who died when only nineteen years of age. Most of the emperors of China wrote verses, and I have, if I remember rightly, an imperial collection printed at the command of Këa king of many volumes, containing the poetry of the crowned heads of China. The reader may easily imagine that the Chinese have many works on poetry; I am also in possession of a Chinese Gradus ad Parnassum in ten large volumes, in which are to be found, divided under different heads, all the fine expression and poetical images of the classical poets. Mr. Davis has given some excellent specimens of Chinese poetry in his elegant dissertation on that subject.

78

Verbally "monkeys and birds," a sort of birds which according to Dr. Morrison are something similar to our crows.

79

In the memoirs concerning the south of the Mei ling mountains, three books (from 9-11 incl.) are filled up with a description of the seas, rivers, and lakes, of the province of Canton. Book ninth begins with a general description of the Chinese seas, and of the different entrances from the sea-side; then follows a particular description of the sea near Canton and Hainan, and of the different Tides at various places. The mariner would certainly be gratified by a translation of this part of the work. The translator has often remarked the extraordinary phenomenon of the fiery appearance of the sea, during his residence in China. In the before-mentioned work, b. ix. p. 5 v, we read the following notice concerning this phenomenon:

"The fire in the sea: It happens sometimes that sea waves have such a luminous appearance, as if the whole sea were full of fire. If you cast any thing into the sea, it becomes luminous like a star; but you do not see this during moonlight. Wood having in itself no fire, receives a fiery appearance, after having been passed through the water."

In b. x. p. 10 r. Whampo is said to be seventy le from the sea custom-house of Canton. In this extract foreigners are in general very unfavourably spoken of. Amongst other things we are told, "that foreigners or barbarians drink so much strong liquor that they are not able to stand on their feet; they fall down intoxicated, and before having had a sound sleep, they cannot rise again." It is also remarked in the same article that many people assemble together at Whampo, to attend the trade with the foreigners; the reason probably why our author calls it "the Great." The reader will remember what has been said on Hëang shan in a former note; I will only here add the remark of Martini, "that in his time the principal and most wealthy merchants lived in that place." (Thévenot, Rélations de divers voyages, iii. 167.)

80

It is well known that a great part of the population of China live on the water, and they are generally called Tan (9832) people; – a word which in the Canton dialect is pronounced Tanka. They are quite a separate race, and harshly dealt with by the Chinese government. There exist particular works concerning the history, the customs and laws of these boat-people. They more than once opposed the despotic regulation of their masters, and government was always afraid they might join the pirates. The history of the southern barbarians in the often quoted Memoirs, &c. begins with a description of the Tan jin, or Tanka people, and it is there said that they are divided into three different classes. The description of their customs and manners is very interesting, and I hope soon to lay it before the English reader. It has been supposed that the name Tanka people is derived from the form of their boats, which is similar to an egg; but Shwŏ wăn, as quoted in Kang he, explains the word only by Nan fang e yay, Barbarians of the southern region. There exist different forms of this character, but I think we should not presume to make an etymology of a Chinese character without being authorized by the Shwŏ wăn, the oldest and most genuine source of Chinese lexicography.

81

In the Chinese text is King king (the character is composed out of radical fire and ear), on which is to be found an interesting critical observation in Kang he, s. v. b. viii. p. 119r. In no other oriental language has there been so much done by the natives for the foreign student as by the Chinese.

82

The most common denomination for Portugal is now Se yang kwŏ, or more correctly Siao se yang kwŏ. "The small realm in the western ocean; Europe is called Ta se yang." (See Preface.) I thought it here more proper to translate E by foreigner, than by barbarian. In a Chinese history of Macao, we find various particulars regarding the Portuguese. The description of the Portuguese clergy and the Roman Catholic religion is the most interesting part of this curious publication. It consists of two parts, or volumes.

83

It would be interesting to read the Portuguese version of these skirmishes. A history of these skirmishes was printed at Lisbon, but I could not procure this publication. The reader may compare the statements of Richard Glasspoole in the Appendix.

84

The Chinese are very much accustomed to consult the Păh, or sort. There exists various ways, according to the ideas of the Chinese, of asking the divinity whether any undertaking shall prove either fortunate or not. The translator has seen different modes of casting lots in the temples of the suburbs of Canton. The reader may find an interesting description of casting lots in the "Histoire du grand Royaume de la Chine;" à Rouen 1614-8, p. 30. There is much useful information to be found in this work; but it would be curious to learn in what Armenian works ("escritures des Armeniens") it is stated, that "St. Thomas came through China in his voyage to the East-Indies" (l. c. p. 25)!

85

Woo (11753) how; Woo is the time between eleven and one o'clock of the day. The Chinese divide the day into twelve she shin, or great hours; the European twenty-four hours of the day are called seaou she shin, little hours. We learn by a passage of Herodotus (Euterpe 109), that the Greeks in his time also divided the day into twelve parts; Herodotus also adds that the Greeks received this division of time from the Babylonians. – See Visdelou in the Supplement to the "Bibliothèque Orientale," by Herbelot, under the word Fenek.

86

Me teng is a particular sort of junk.

87

These speeches seem to be rhetorical exercises of the Chinese historian; the antithesis is a figure very much used in Chinese rhetoric and poetry, and a great part of their poetry consists merely of such antitheses.

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