"To the full, my son, for like the greedy wolves they have purchased the whole of my merchandise, and I have more than sufficient wealth to destroy the vermin enemies who are turning the children of the Son of Heaven from those habits of peace which have so long rendered them the greatest and most prosperous of the world's people." "Of what enemies does my honorable father speak? Surely there are none but the savage Tartars." "Of three, my son,--the Tartars, who are now within a few leagues of the palace of Ten Thousand Years himself; the European savages, who under pretence of commerce have obtained a footing, that, if not soon rooted out, will last forever; and worse, by far worse,--for internal rebellion is as destructive to an empire as to an household,--the rebel mandarins who are now at open war with their holy sovereign." "Is this treble sore fresh, that it should now so rankle the heart and cloud the brow of my venerable parent?" "Truly so, my son, for although long festering it has but now reached a head," replied the chief, adding, "To the days of my great-grandsire the empire had been free from the profane feet of barbarians. "Then the different governments passed into the hands of cowardly mandarins, whose weakness became the advantage of the pirate Li-Lao, who ravaged the whole coast with fire and sword, and to get rid of whom the puny officials sought the aid of the Portugals, who traded at one of the outer ports. These barbarians, however, were brave; they sought, fought, and killed the pirate, and destroyed his ships and, as a reward, were permitted to settle at Macao." "Surely, my father should be grateful to these Portugals, whose priests first shed upon his eyes and heart the light of Christianity," said the boy bowing reverently. "They taught me for their own ends, and I would not trust the rats." "But the red-haired barbarians of Formosa, from whom my father has just returned, are they of the same race?" "Not so, my son, these Dutch dogs are from a distant country called Holland, where the people are so miserably poor they cannot afford even a king." "Then why, O my father, were such pauper barbarians permitted to place the soles of their feet on the land of Formosa?" "By fraud and artifice the rogues obtained their hold. During a tempest one of their vessels was driven upon the coast: the crew finding the island to be well situated to their wants, partly by presents, partly by force, persuaded the simple inhabitants to give them only as much land as could be encompassed by the hide of an ox, when the rogues cut the hide into thousands of narrow slips, tied them end to end and therewith measured the earth, to the great surprise and indignation of the inhabitants, who, however, were too powerless to offer resistance. In a short time they were joined by multitudes of their country men and erected yonder fort, which they call the Castle of Zealand."