Transcriber's note: Inconsistency in hyphenation and spelling is as in the original. In this etext a 'breve' is represented with:- a - [)a] i - [)i] o - [)o] u - [)u] Chapter Sidenotes are placed at head of chapter. Inline Sidenotes are placed as close as possible, and marked [sn: (2 v.)] .... [Illustration: frontispeiece] HISTORY OF THE PIRATES WHO INFESTED THE CHINA SEA, FROM 1807 TO 1810. TRANSLATED FROM THE CHINESE ORIGINAL, WITH NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS, BY CHARLES FRIED. NEUMANN. LONDON: PRINTED FOR THE ORIENTAL TRANSLATION FUND, And Sold by J. MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET; PARBURY, ALLEN, & CO., LEADENHALL STREET; THACKER & CO., CALCUTTA; TREUTTEL & WÜRTZ, PARIS; AND E. FLEISCHER, LEIPSIG. 1831. LONDON Printed by J. L. Cox, Great Queen Street, Lincoln's-Inn Fields 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 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.