History of the Pirates Who Infested the China Sea From 1807 to 1810Yüan, Yung-lun
History
History of the Pirates Who Infested the China Sea From 1807 to 1810
Yüan, Yung-lun
Pirates -- China Sea
On the eighteenth day of the eighth moon the wife of Ching y[)i]h came
with about five hundred vessels from Tung kwan and Sin hwy, and caused
great commotion in the town Shun tih, Hëang shan, and the neighbouring
places. The squadron stopped at Tan chow, and on the twentieth Chang pao
was ordered to attack Shaou ting with three hundred vessels. He carried
away about four hundred people, both male and female; he came also to
the palisades of our village, but could not penetrate inside. [sd: (19
v.)] The twenty-first he came to Lin tow, and the twenty-second to Kan
shin; he made an attack, but could not overpower the place; he then
returned to Pwan pëen jow, and lay before its fence. The inhabitants of
Chow po chin, knowing that the pirates would make an attack, assembled
behind the wall to oppose them. The pirates fired their guns and wounded
some, when the villagers ran away. The pirates then went on shore, but
the villagers crowded together and fired on them; the pirates cast
themselves on the ground, and the shots passed over their heads without
doing any harm. Before the gunners could again load, the pirates sprang
up and put them to death. Out of the three thousand men who were in the
battle, five hundred were carried away by the pirates. One of the most
daring pirates, bearing the flag, was killed by the musket of a
villager; a second pirate then took the flag, and he also was killed.
The pirates now pressed against the wall and advanced. [sd: (20 r.)]
There was also a foreign pirate[69] engaged in the battle with a
fowling-piece. The pirates assembled in great numbers to cut the wall
with their halberts, but they were disappointed on seeing they could not
attain their object in such a manner. The pirates lost their hold, fell
down, and were killed. The engagement now became general, and great
numbers were killed and wounded on both sides. The villagers at last
were driven from their fortifications, and the pirates pursued them to
_Mih ke_, or _the rocks about Mih_, where they were hindered from going
farther by foggy weather; they retired and burned about twenty houses,
with all they contained. On the following day the pirates appeared again
on the shore, but the inhabitants made a vigorous resistance, and being
driven back, they retired to the citadel _Chih hwa_, where a thousand of
them fought so hard that the pirates withdrew. [sd: (20 v.)] It was
reported that ten of them were killed, and that the villagers lost eight
men. On the twenty-third the wife of Ching y[)i]h ordered O po tae to go
up the river with about eighty vessels: he stopped at Show ke and Kung
shih. On the twenty-fourth Chang paou and Po tae divided this district
between themselves, and robbed and burned all. Pao had to plunder the
north part to Fo shin; he carried away about ten thousand stones of
rice,[70] and burned down about thirty houses; on the twenty-fifth he
went to Se shin. O po tae came and burnt San heung keih; he then
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