[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 _Sh[)i]h_. [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. [47] In the first preface of the Hae kw[)o] hëen këen it is particularly stated, that the map of the sea-coast of China became first known to its editor by the expeditions against the pirates. [48] There are, as is stated in my preface, some vulgar or provincial characters in this history; here (p. 1.) occurs a character not to be found in Kanghe, composed out of the fifty-sixth radical and the group Leaou or Lew (7061, 7203). My whole library being locked up in the Custom-house, I am not able to consult a dictionary of the Canton dialect, therefore the meaning of these characters can only be guessed at by etymology. The etymology of the characters gives sometimes a better meaning than any dictionary, and sometimes it may entirely mislead us; there is no reliance on etymology. Usage is the only master of the Chinese, as of all other languages.