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This man was surprised at anchor by the ever vigilant Paou, to whom many fishermen and other people on the coast, must have acted as friendly spies.
On perceiving this through the smoke, Paou mounted on a sudden the vessel of the pirate, and cried out: 'I Chang Paou am come, and at the same moment he cut some pirates to pieces; the remainder were then hardly dealt with.
The Great Mandarin was soon after taken with fifteen junks; three were sunk. The pirate lieutenant would have dealt mercifully with him, but the fierce old man suddenly seized him by the hair on the crown of his head, and grinned at him, so that he might provoke him to slay him. But even then Paou spoke kindly to him. Upon this he committed suicide, being seventy years of age.
"Would you then separate from us!" cried Paou, more enraged than ever. O-po-tae answered: "I will not separate myself." Paou: "Why then do you not obey the orders of the wife of Ching-yih and my own? What is this else than separation, that you do not come to assist me, when I am surrounded by the enemy?
But the pirates, full of confidence, now resolved to attack the harbors themselves, and to ascend the rivers, which are navigable for many miles up the country, and rob the villages. The consternation was great when the Chinese saw them venturing above the government forts. The pirates separated: Mistress Ching plundering in one place, Paou in another, and O-po-tae in another, &c.
I have already noticed the marked intention of the Chinese historian, to paint the character of Paou in a poetical or epic manner. When describing the battle with Shih-Url, he says: "They fought from seven o'clock in the morning till one at noon, burnt ten vessels, and killed an immense number of the pirates. Shih-Url was so weakened that he could scarcely make any opposition.
Under these philosophical institutions, and the guidance of a woman, the robbers continued to scour the China sea, plundering every vessel they came near. The Great War Mandarin, Kwolang-lin sailed from the Bocca Tigris into the sea to fight the pirates. Paou gave him a tremendous drubbing, and gained a splendid victory.
After two visits had been paid to the pirate-fleets by two inferior Mandarins, who carried the Imperial proclamation of free pardon, and who, at the order of Ching-yih's widow, were treated to a sumptuous banquet by Paou, the Governor-general of the province went himself in one vessel to the pirates' ships, that occupied a line of ten le off the mouth of the river.
Paou, though at the moment far inferior in force, first began the fight, and ultimately sustained a sanguinary defeat, and the loss of sixteen vessels. Our loathing for this cruel, detestable race, must be increased by the fact, that the victors massacred all their prisoners or three hundred men!
But if he continued to resist, not only a general arming of all the coast and the rivers, but O-po-tae was to proceed against him. At this part of his narrative our Chinese historian is again so curious, that I shall quote his words at length. "When Fei-heung-Chow came to Paou, he said: 'Friend Paou, do you know why I come to you?" "Paou.
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