TRANSLATED FROM THE CHINESE ORIGINAL, WITH NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS, BY CHARLES FRIED. NEUMANN. LONDON: PRINTED FOR THE ORIENTAL TRANSLATION FUND, And Sold by J. MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET; PARBURY, ALLEN, & CO., LEADENHALL STREET; THACKER & CO., CALCUTTA; TREUTTEL & WÜRTZ, PARIS; AND E. FLEISCHER, LEIPSIG. 1831. LONDON Printed by J. L. Cox, Great Queen Street, Lincoln's-Inn Fields...

Conquerors are deemed successful robbers, while robbers are unsuccessful conquerors. If the founder of the dynasty of the Ming had failed in his rebellion against the Moguls, history would have called him a robber; and if any one of the various robber-chiefs, who in the course of the two last centuries made war against the reigning Manchow, had overthrown the government of the foreigners, the official historiographers of the " Middle empire " would have called him the far-famed, illustrious elde

In the summer of the year Ke sze (1809), [16] I returned from the capital, and having passed the chain of mountains, [17] I learned the extraordinary disturbances caused by the Pirates . When I came home I saw with mine own eyes all the calamities; four villages were totally destroyed; the inhabitants collected together and made preparations for resistance. Fighting at last ceased on seas and rivers: families and villages rejoiced, and peace was every where restored. Hearing of our naval transac

My house being near the sea, we were, during the year Ke sze of Këa king (1809), disturbed by the Pirates. The whole coast adjoining to our town was in confusion, and the inhabitants dispersed; this lasting for a long time, every man felt annoyed at it. In the year Kăng yin (1830) I met with Yuen tsze yung lun at a public inn within the walls of the provincial metropolis (Canton). He showed me his History of the Pacification of the Pirates , and asked me to write a Preface to the work; having be

There have been pirates from the oldest (1 r.) times in the eastern sea of Canton; they arose and disappeared alternately, but never were they so formidable as in the years of Këa king, [26] at which time, being closely united together, it was indeed very difficult to destroy them. Their origin must be sought for in Annam. [27] In the year fifty-six of Këen lung (1792), a certain Kwang ping yuen, joined by his two brothers, Kwang e and Kwang kwŏ, took Annam by force, (1 v.) and expelled its legi

On the thirteenth day of the ninth moon our Admiral Tsuen mow sun mustered about eighty vessels to go to Shaou wan, and obstruct the passage. The pirates heard of these preparations, and on the night of the fourteenth every vessel of the different flags was ordered to go to Shaou wan. Their order was, that being within ten le from the place, they should stop and prepare themselves to begin the battle when it was dark. From the first night watch the cannon began to fire, and only ceased with (1 v