Chapter V: Part 5

_H[)o] poo_ is a town of the third rank, and dependant on the district metropolis Lëen chow foo. This town is near to the district metropolis, has an area of thirty le, and pays 7,458 leang in taxes. _Kwang tung tsuen too_, p. 6 r. p. 9 v.

[107] _Junk_ is the Canton pronunciation of _chuen_, ship.

[108] The pirates had many other intimate acquaintances on shore, like Doctor _Chow_ of Macao.

[109] The pirates were always afraid of this. We find the following statement concerning the Chinese pirates, taken from the records in the East-India House, and printed in Appendix C. to the _Report relative to the trade with the East-Indies and China_, in the sessions 1820 and 1821 (reprinted 1829), p 387.

"In the year 1808, 1809, and 1810, the Canton river was so
infested with pirates, who were also in such force, that the
Chinese government made an attempt to subdue them, but failed.
The pirates totally destroyed the Chinese force; ravaged the
river in every direction; threatened to attack the city of
Canton, and destroyed many towns and villages on the banks of
the river; and killed or carried off, to serve as Ladrones,
several thousands of inhabitants.

"These events created an alarm extremely prejudicial to the
commerce of Canton, and compelled the Company's supercargoes to
fit out a small country ship to cruize for a short time against
the pirates."

[110] That the whole family must suffer for the crime of one individual, seems to be the most cruel and foolish law of the whole Chinese criminal code.

[111] The Hoo mun, or Bocca Tigris.

[112] We know by the "History of the Chinese Pirates," that these "wasps of the ocean," to speak with _Yuen tsze yung lun_, were originally divided into six squadrons.

[113] In the barbarous Chinese-English spoken at Canton, all things are indiscriminately called _chop_. You hear of a chop-house, chop-boat, tea-chop, Chaou-chaou-chop, etc. To give a bill or agreement on making a bargain is in Chinese called _ch[)a] tan_; ch[)a] in the pronunciation of Canton is _chop_, which is then applied to any writing whatever. See Dr. Morrison's English and Chinese Dictionary under the word _chop_.

[114] The following is the _Character of the Chinese of Canton, as given in ancient Chinese books_: "People of Canton are silly, light, weak in body, and weak in mind, without any ability to fight on land." The Indo-Chinese Gleaner, No. 19.

[115] _Joss_ is a Chinese corruption of the Portuguese _Dios_, _God_. The Joss, or idol, of which Mr. Glasspoole speaks in the _San po shin_, which is spoken of in the work of Yuen tsze.

[116] Yuen tsze reported the memorable deed of the beautiful _Mei ying_ at the end of the first book of his history.

[117] The _Chang lung_ vessels.

[118] Probably the wife of Ching y[)i]h, whose family name was Sh[)i]h, or stone.

[119] The Chinese in Canton only eat a particular sort of rat, which is very large and of a whitish colour.

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Transcriber's note:

Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling is as in the original.

In this etext a 'breve' is represented with [)i] and the same for