History of the Pirates Who Infested the China Sea From 1807 to 1810

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 elder father of the new dynasty.

The history of the transactions between Europeans and the Chinese is intimately connected with that of the pirate chiefs who appeared from time to time in the Chinese Sea, or Southern Ocean. The Europeans themselves, at their first appearance in the middle empire , only became known as pirates. Simon de Andrada, the first Portuguese who (1521) tried to establish any regular trade with China, committed violence against the merchants, and bought young Chinese to use them as slaves; and it is known that it was the policy of the civilized foreigners from the Great Western Ocean (which is the Chinese name for Europe) to decry their competitors in trade as pirates and outlaws.
The footing which Europeans and Americans now enjoy in China, originated from the assistance given by the Portuguese to the Manchow against the Patriots, otherwise called pirates, who would not submit to the sway of foreigners. Macao, the only residence (or large prison) in which foreigners are shut up, is not considered by the Chinese Government as belonging exclusively to the Portuguese. The Dutch, on not being allowed to remain in Macao, complained to the Chinese Government, and the authorities of the middle empire commanded the Portuguese to grant houses to the newly arrived Holan or Hollander, since Macao was to be considered as the abode of all foreigners trading with China. The edicts concerning this transaction are stated to be now in the archives of the Dutch factory at Macao.