History of the Pirates Who Infested the China Sea From 1807 to 1810
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History of the Pirates Who Infested the China Sea From 1807 to 1810
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE
Conquerors are deemed successful robbers, while robbers are unsuccessful conquerors. If the founder of the dynasty of the Ming had failed in his rebellion against the Moguls, history would have called him a robber; and if any one of the various robber-chiefs, who in the course of the two last centuries made war against the reigning Manchow, had overthrown the government of the foreigners, the official historiographers of the "Middle empire" would have called him the far-famed, illustrious elder father of the new dynasty.
Robbers or pirates are usually ignorant of the principles concerning human society. They are not aware that power is derived from the people for the general advantage, and that when it is abused to a certain extent, all means of redress resorted to are legitimate. But they feel most violently the abuse of power. The fruit of labour is too often taken out of their hands, justice sold for money, and nothing is safe from their rapacious and luxurious masters. People arise to oppose, and act according to the philosophical principles of human society, without having any clear idea about them. Robbers and pirates are, in fact, the opposition party in the despotical empires of the East; and their history is far more interesting than that of the reigning despot.[1 - The Chinese have particular histories of the robbers and pirates who existed in the middle empire from the most ancient times; these histories form a portion of every provincial history. The three last books (the 58th, 59th, and 60th) of the Memoirsconcerning the South of the Meihling Mountains (see the Catechism of the Shahmans, p. 44) are inscribed Tsing fun (10,987, 2,651), and contain the Robber history from the beginning of Woo wang, of the dynasty Chow. The Memoirs only give extracts of former works; the extracts to the three last books are taken from the Great History of YuД•, or Province of Kwang tang (YuД• ta ke), from the Old Transactions of the Five Realms (Woo kwЕЏ koo sse), the Old Records of Yang ching, a name of the ancient city of Kwang tung (Yang ching koo chaou), the Official Robber History (KwЕЏ she yДh shin chuen), &c.] The sameness which is to be observed in the history of all Asiatic governments, presents a great difficulty to any historian who wishes to write a history of any nation in Asia for the general reader.
The history of the transactions between Europeans and the Chinese is intimately connected with that of the pirate chiefs who appeared from time to time in the Chinese Sea, or Southern Ocean. The Europeans themselves, at their first appearance in the middle empire, only became known as pirates. Simon de Andrada, the first Portuguese who (1521) tried to establish any regular trade with China, committed violence against the merchants, and bought young Chinese to use them as slaves; and it is known that it was the policy of the civilized foreigners from the "Great Western Ocean" (which is the Chinese name for Europe) to decry their competitors in trade as pirates and outlaws.
The footing which Europeans and Americans now enjoy in China, originated from the assistance given by the Portuguese to the Manchow against the Patriots, otherwise called pirates, who would not submit to the sway of foreigners. Macao, the only residence (or large prison) in which foreigners are shut up, is not considered by the Chinese Government as belonging exclusively to the Portuguese. The Dutch, on not being allowed to remain in Macao, complained to the Chinese Government, and the authorities of the middle empire commanded the Portuguese to grant houses to the newly arrived Holan or Hollander, "since Macao was to be considered as the abode of all foreigners trading with China." The edicts concerning this transaction are stated to be now in the archives of the Dutch factory at Macao.
It is one of the most interesting facts in the history of the Chinese empire, that the vario