"Hist!" replied the chief by way of caution; then adding, "He but waits the opportunity to rise and exterminate the Tartars." "Thank Heaven!" exclaimed Nicholas; adding, "Yet surely these double ways are neither honest nor successful." Then, taking farewell of his parent, he left the palace, and making his way to a portion of the city unfrequented by the Tartars, exchanged his rich clothes for the attire of a small merchant, went to the river, and after some hard bargaining, took a passage on board a trading junk, and left Pekin for ever. CHAPTER XLII. THE RIVAL SEA CHIEFS.--RE-APPEARANCE OF AN OLD FRIEND.--A COMICAL BATTLE WITH THE TARTARS. Once masters of Pekin, which being so near their native wilds, enabled them to introduce hordes of their fellow-countrymen, the Tartars conquered province by province, till they obtained possession of the whole empire. The most difficult, however, to subdue, were the southern districts, which edged the sea, and chiefly for this reason: that not long after they succeeded in entrapping Chin-Chi-Loong, to their surprise, there appeared another and a greater sea chief, whose fleet was so large, and his successes so great in destroying the Tartar settlements upon the coasts, and even the great towns up the Yang-tse-Kiang, that the greater part of the Chinese, who had any spirit or patriotism remaining, flocked to his standard, and swelled his fleet and army to such a size, that the Tartar government, trembling with fear for the capital itself, offered immense rewards for his head; and finding that of no use, offered to give him the command of the seas, and even a kingdom, if he would acknowledge their rule; but all this was of no use: the terrible patriot TCHING-TCHING-KONG, (or Koshinga, as the Portuguese did, and I shall for the future, name him,) would listen to no other terms but their departure from the country, to which, but for the sudden appearance on the coast of another formidable sea-chief, named Yuen, they would in all probability have been compelled to yield.