JOHN J. NOLDE
larger prefecture of Kwangchou, whose administrative center was at Canton. Kwangchou itself was one of the fifteen prefectures which made up the province of Kwangtung, the latter being linked with the neighboring province of Kwanghsi to form the Viceroyalty of Liang-Kwang. Kwangchou prefecture was about 25,000 square miles in size and was occupied by a population of about five to ten million people.
Now, when this area appears in the standard histories of nineteenth century China it is usually as the stage-setting for the activity of the foreigner and the conflict between the Western barbarians and Chinese officialdom. There are long accounts of the nature and organization of the Canton trade. H.B. Morse wrote six volumes on the East India Company. The diplomatic historian is concerned with the Amherst mission of 1816 and the Napier mission of 1834. There are detailed accounts of the effect of the dissolution of the Company on the Canton trade. And, of course, there are numerous descriptions of the Opium War and its causes and consequences.4
It would seem, somehow, that the history, if not the day to day living, of the people of the Hong Kong-Macao-Canton axis (if not all China) was inseparably linked with the foreigner, his exploits, the Canton system, and the opium traffic,
But what was really "going on"? What was life really like?
The most striking fact about the area during those times was not the foreigner and his trade but the deplorable state of civil administration. It was in chaos. Official authority did not extend much beyond Canton. Banditry and brigandage were the order of the day inland. Secret societies harassed government officials and private individuals at will,
Piracy, especially, was a problem.
In the early years of the century a large pirate fleet under the leadership of one Cheng I had been organized. While his theatre of operations extended from Swatow to the Philippines, and perhaps as far as Borneo, most of his activity was centered in these waters. Commanding a fleet of hundreds of junks and thousands of men, Cheng I virtually terrorized the coast.