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

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

A certain Hae kang and another person Hwang ho, were employed as spies. O po tai, who afterwards changed his name to Lustre of instruction,31 was(3 v.) the commander of the black flag, and Ping yung ta, Chang jih këaou, and O tsew he, were his deputies. Lëang paou, nicknamed Tsung ping paou, The jewel of the whole crew, was the commander of the white flag. Le shang tsing, nicknamed The frog's meal, was the commander of the green; and Ching yĭh of the red flag. Every flag was appointed to cruise in a particular channel. There was at this time a gang of robbers in the province Fo këen, known by the name of Kwei këen (6760, 5822); they also joined the pirates, who became so numerous that it was impossible to master them. We must in particular mention a certain Chang paou, a notorious character in after-times. Under Chang paou were other smaller squadrons, commanded by Suh ke lan (nicknamed Both odour and mountain) Lëang po paou, Suh puh gow, and others. Chang paou himself belonged to the squadron of Ching yĭh saou, or the wife of Ching yĭh,32 so that the red flag alone was stronger than all the others united together.

(4 r.)

There are three water passages or channels along the sea-shore, south of the Mei ling mountains;33 one goes eastward to Hwy and Chaou34; the other westward to Kao, Lëen, Luy, Këung, Kin, Tan, Yae and Wan;35 and a third between these two, to Kwang and Chow.36 The ocean surrounds these passages, and here trading vessels from all the world meet together, wherefore this track is called "The great meeting from the east and the south." The piratical squadrons dividing between them the water passages and the adjoining coasts, robbed and carried away all that fell into their hands. Both the eastern and the middle passage have been retained by the three piratical squadrons, Ching yĭh saou, O po tae, and Leang paou; the western passage was under the three others, nicknamed Bird and stone, Frog's meal, and the Scourge of the(4 v.) eastern sea. Peace and quietness was not known by the inhabitants of the sea-coast for a period of ten years. On the side from Wei chow and Neaou chow37 farther on to the sea, the passage was totally cut off; scarcely any man came hither. In this direction is a small island, surrounded on all sides by high mountains, where in stormy weather a hundred vessels find a safe anchorage; here the pirates retired when they could not commit any robberies. This land contains fine paddy fields, and abounds in all kinds of animals, flowers, and fruits. This island was the lurking-place of the robbers, where they stayed and prepared all the stores for their shipping.

1807. (5 r.)

Chang paou was a native of Sin hwy, near the mouth of the river,38 and the son of a fisherman. Being fifteen years of age, he went with his father a fishing in the sea, and they were consequently taken prisoners by Ching yĭh, who roamed about the mouth of the river, ravaging and plundering. Ching yĭh saw Paou, and liked him so much, that he could not depart from him. Paou was indeed a clever fellow – he managed all business very well; being also a fine young man, he became a favourite of Ching yĭh,39 and was made a head-man or captain. It happened, that on the seventeenth day of the tenth moon, in the twentieth year of Këa king (about the end of 1807), Ching yĭh perished in a heavy gale, and his legitimate wife Shĭh placed the whole crew under the sway of Paou; but so that she herself should be considered the Commander of all the squadrons together, – for this reason the division Ching yĭh was then (5 v.) called Ching yĭh saou, or the wife of Ching yĭh.40 Being chief captain, Paou robbed and plundered incessantly, and daily increased his men and his vessels. He made the three following regulations: —

First:

If any man goes privately on shore, or what is called transgressing the bars, he shall be taken and his ears be perforated in the presence of the whole fleet; repeating the same act, he shall suffer death.

Second:

1807.

Not the least thing shall be taken privately from the stolen and plundered goods. All shall be registered, and the pirate receive for himself, out of[Pg 14] ten parts, only two; eight parts belong to the storehouse, called the general fund; taking any thing out of this general fund, without permission, shall be death.

Third:

(6 r.)

No person shall debauch at his pleasure captive women taken in the villages and open places, and brought on board a ship; he must first request the ship's purser for permission, and then go aside in the ship's hold. To use violence against any woman, or to wed her without permission, shall be punished with death. 41

1807.

That the pirates might never feel want of provisions, Chang paou gained the country people to their interest. It was ordered, that wine, rice, and all other goods, should be paid for to the villagers; it was made capital punishment to take any thing of this kind by force or without paying for it. For this reason the pirates were never in want of gunpowder, provisions, and all other necessaries. By this strong discipline the whole crew of the fleet was kept in order.

The wife of Ching yĭh was very strict in every transaction; nothing could be done without a written application. Anything which had been taken, or plundered, was regularly entered on the register of the storehouse. The pirates received out of this common fund what they were in need of, and nobody dared to have private(6 v.) possessions. If on a piratical expedition any man left the line of battle, whether by advancing or receding, every pirate might accuse him at a general meeting, and on being found guilty, he was beheaded. Knowing how watchful Chang paou was on every side, the pirates took great care to behave themselves well.

The pirates used to call the purser, or secretary of the storehouse, Ink and writing master; and they called their piratical plunder only a transhipping of goods.

1807.

There was a temple in Hwy chow dedicated to the spirits of the three mothers,42 near the sea-coast, and many came thither to worship. The pirates visited this place whenever they passed it with their vessels, pretending to worship; but this was not the case – they thought of mischief, and had only their business to attend. Once they came with the commander at their head, as if to worship, but they laid hold on the image or statue to take it away. They tried in vain from morning to the evening, – they were all together not able to move it. Chang paou(7 r.) alone43 was able to raise the image, and being a fair wind, he gave order to bring it on board a ship. All who were concerned in this transaction feared to find, from the wrath of the spirit, their death in the piratical expeditions. They all prayed to escape the vengeance of heaven.

1808.

On the seventh moon of the thirteenth year, the naval officer of the garrison at the Bocca Tigris,44 Kwŏ lang lin, sailed into the sea to fight the pirates.45 Chang paou was informed by his spies of this officer's arrival, and prepared an ambush in a sequestered bay. He met Kwŏ lang on a false attack, with a few vessels only; but twenty-five vessels came from behind, and the pirates surrounded Kwŏ lang's squadron in three(7 v.) lines near Ma chow yang.46 There followed a fierce battle, which lasted from the morning to the evening; it was impossible for Kwŏ lang to break through the enemy's lines, and he determined to die fighting. Paou advanced; but Lang fought exceedingly hard against him. He loaded a gun and fired it at Paou, who perceiving the gun directed against him, gave way. Seeing this, the people thought he was wounded and dying; but as soon as the

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31

He called himself Hëo hëen (3728, 3676,) after having received a recompense from government for his robberies. See p. 75.

32

Our author anticipates here a little; this will be clear by a subsequent paragraph, p. 13.

33

Shan is a mountain in Chinese; Ling is a chain of mountains or sierra. The Chinese geographers say, the Mei ling mountain branches out like a tree; and they describe in particular two, the south-east and the south-west branches from Canton. They speak likewise of Woo Ling, or five sierras, in reference to five different passes by which these mountains are divided; but there are now more passes. See a compilation, already quoted, regarding Canton, made by order of the former governor Yuen, and printed at Canton last year, 1830, in eighty books, under the title Ling nan y ung shuh: i. e. Memoirs regarding the South of the Sierra, book 5. vol. ii, p. 1.

34

The Chinese possess itineraries and directories for the whole empire, for every province, and for every large town or place; I shall therefore always extract the notices which are to be found in the Itinerary of the Province Kwang tung (Kwang tung tsuen too,) referring to the places mentioned in our text.

Hwy is Hwy chow foo, from Pekin 6365 le, and easterly from Canton 400 le; one town of the second, and ten towns of the third rank are appended to this district-metropolis. The whole district pays 14,321 leang, or tael. Here is the celebrated Lo fow mountain. Lo fow consists really of two united mountains, of which one is called Lo and the other Fow, said to be three thousand six hundred chang in height, or 36,000 feet (?). The circumference is about 500 le. Here are the sixteen caverns where the dragon dwells, spoken of in the books of the Tao sect. You meet on these mountains with bamboo from seventy to eighty feet in circumference. Kwang tung tsuen too, p. 5v.

Chaou is Chaou chow foo, from Pekin 8,540 and easterly from Canton 1,740 le; eleven towns of the third rank belong to it. The whole district pays 65,593 leang, or tael. A tael is equal to 5.798 decimal, troy weight; and in the East-India Company's accounts the tael of silver is reckoned at six shillings and eightpence sterling. Foo is the Chinese name for the first class of towns; Chow for the second, Hëen for the third. I sometimes have translated Chow by district-town, and Hëen by borough, or market-town.

35

Kaou is Kaou chow foo, from Pekin 7,767, north-west from Canton 930 le; the district, and five towns of the third class, paying together 62,566 leang, are dependent on the district-metropolis.

Lëen is Lëen chow foo, from Pekin 9,065, from Canton 1,515 le; the district and two towns, paying together 1,681 leang, are dependent on the district-metropolis.

Luy is Luy chow foo, from Pekin 8,210, westerly from Canton 1,380 le; the district and its towns, paying together 13,706 leang, are dependent on the district-metropolis.

Këung is Këung chow foo, the capital of the island Hae nan or Hainan, from Pekin 9,690, south-west from Canton 1,680 le; three district towns, and ten towns of the third class, paying together 89,447 leang, are dependent on this capital. There is a town also called Këung shan hëen, and both town and capital take their name from the mountain Këung.

Kin is Kin chow, dependent on Lëen chow foo, and far from it 140 le.

Tan is Tan chow, a town of Hainan, south-west from the capital 370 le; the area of the town is 31 le.

Yae is Yae chow, a town of Hainan, southerly from the capital of the island 1,114 le. About this town many pirates have their lurking-place. This circumstance may have caused the mistake of Captain Krusenstern, stating that in A.D. 1805, the pirates who infest the coast of China had obtained possession of the whole island of Hainan.

Wan is Wan chow, a town of Hainan, in a south-easterly direction from the capital of the island 470 le.

36

Kwang is Kwang tung săng, or the metropolis of the province Kwang tung (Canton). Ten departments (foo), nine districts (chow), and seventy-eight towns of the third class (hëen), are dependent on the provincial city, and pay together in land-tax 1,272,696 leang, excise 47,510 leang, and in other miscellaneous taxes 5,990 leang. The import duties from the sea-side with measurement of foreign vessels is said in the Kwang tung tsuen too, p. 3v, to amount to 43,750 leang. All duties together of the province of Canton amount to 1,369,946 taels, about £450,000. The lists of population gave last October (1830) 23,000,000 (?) for the whole province, and we now see that the Chinese pay less duties (every inhabitant about fourpence halfpenny) than the population of any country of Europe. I received the population lists from Ahong, an intelligent Chinese, well known to the English residents at Canton. Distance from Pekin about 6,835 le.

The subject concerning the population of China, and the amount of the land-rent, the poll-tax, and other miscellaneous taxes, is surrounded by so many difficulties, that the writer of this dares not to affirm any thing about these matters until he has perused the new edition of Tay tsing hwy tëen. For the present he will merely remark, that in book 141, p. 38, of the said work, the population of China Proper for the year 1793 is reckoned at 307,467,200. If we add to this number the population of Chinese Tartary, it will certainly amount to the round number of 333,000,000, as reported by Lord Macartney.

Chow is chow king foo, from Pekin about 4,720, north-west from Canton 360 le. There is certainly some mistake in the Chinese Itinerary; how could Canton be only 6,835, and Chow king foo 7420 le? The imperial edition of the Tay tsing hwy tëen (book 122, p. 6 v.) only gives 5,494 le as the distance from Canton to Pekin; there seems to be a different sort of le. The district and eleven towns of the third class, paying together 162,392 leang depend on the district metropolis.

With the aid of the Chinese Itineraries and the new edition of the Tay tsing hwy tëen (printed 1797, in 360 large volumes) it would be an easy task to compile a "Chinese Gazetteer."

37

I found no particulars concerning these two small islands (Chow signifies island) in the Canton Itinerary; and I looked in vain on the great map of the Chinese sea-coast in the Hae kwŏ hëen këen for their position.

38

The town Sin hwy is south-west from Canton 230 le; its area is 138 le (?) and the taxes amount to 28,607 leang. This place suffered much from the pirates. I find no proper name for the river on which Sin hwy lies in the Chinese maps, it is merely called Këang, river. Near this place is the island where the last emperor of the Sung cast himself into the sea (1280).

39

The word pe (8335) cannot be translated in any European language. It means a vice common in Asia.

40

The pirates probably made use of the term saou (8833) and not of tse (10575), because saou written with a different character (8834), is the general term for boats and ships. Paou must be considered as the lieutenant or first minister of Mistress Ching, she being herself of the family Shĭh.

41

It will be very interesting to compare the regulations of Paou with those of the Buccaneers. When these pirates had got a considerable booty, each person, holding up his hand, solemnly protested that he had secreted nothing of what he had taken. – Voyage, l. c. p. 95.

42

The San po (8788, 8608) are national spirits, and, as it seems, not connected with Buddhism; there is a great variety in the number of these good old mothers, who by the different emperors have been declared saints, or spirits, for the Emperor of China is likewise the pope in his empire. Dr. Morrison has an interesting article on these old women in his Canton Vocabulary. Kang he mentions only two Po (s. v.), who may be considered as spirits. This is a character of which the Buddhists are very fond; perhaps the translator may be wrong, and that San po is merely the Sanscrit word Swayam-bhú.

43

Our author shews every where his partiality for Chang paou.

44

The author said just before that the dominion of the pirates in the Chinese sea lasted about ten years; but he only describes the transactions of the last three years, when their power and strength was at the highest point. He begins to give particulars from the 7th moon of the 13th year of Këa king, which corresponds nearly to the beginning of September 1808.

45

There are three wretched forts at the Hoo mun, the mouth of the Canton river, which could scarcely hinder any European vessel from passing through.

46

One of the islands marked upon European maps is called The Ladrones: these Ladrones, so called from the pirates, have all particular names on Chinese maps.