NOTES AND QUERIES
145
September 1834 stated: "The English barbarians have always been very cunning. Hitherto they have squatted in Macao and have coveted Ta Yu Shan.1 Towards the end of this memorandum he wrote: "Moreover your minister has dispatched three hundred picked troops from [his] Regiment and appointed the tu-ssu2 (? 'Captain') Hung Fa-k'e to go to Macao to reinforce the garrison. As to the fort[s] on Ta Yü Shan we have sent an officer there to take measures for defence and secretly to make dispositions at every place, without arousing suspicion. As soon as it is ascertained that the barbarians are peaceful we will withdraw them."
These precautions were confirmed by an edict issued to the members of the Grand Council dated the 28th day of the 8th month of the 14th year of Tao-kuang's reign (30 September 1834) which contained the following words: "Junior officers and men must be dispatched to the places both inside and outside the provincial capital and to the neighbourhood of Macao and to the forts of Ta Yü Shan, and patrolling must be increased without arousing suspicion, and precautions taken unostentatiously.
Inside the walls of the old fort there is now a flourishing Government-subsidised school and it all looks very neat and peaceful; very different from the time when active preparations were made there to repel a possible attack from the British.
It would be interesting to know more about this fort and also the one at Fan Lau. Can anyone add any further information?
J. L. CRANMER-BYNG.
1 The Chinese name of the island called by foreigners Lantao. Text in Shih-liao hsün-k'an, #21, 765b, column 6.
2 Ibid., 766, columns 11-12.
3 There was another fort on Lantao at Fan Lau on the Southwest corner of the island,
4 Tung-hua hsü-lu. Reprinted in Chiang T'ing-fu, Chin-tai Chung-kuo wai-chiao shih tzu-liao chi-yao, Vol. I, p. 10, columns 12-13.