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or jumping with great agility from one mast to another cutting down rigging and sails, managed to defeat the rebels.25 This must have happened just after the turmoil of civil war under the last Sung Emperor. During the Ming dynasty (1368 to 1644) the problem of local disturbance was still present. The Tanka were always predatory and for the first time an attempt was made to control their anchorages. Tai O and the islands stretching southwest into the sea continued to be a centre of piracy. The famous pirate Man, who gave his name to Lo Man Shan island group known to the Portuguese as the Ladrones, arose in Tai O during the Ming dynasty.
This local problem was resolved by placing garrisons along the coast. In the very first year of the Ming dynasty, as soon as Kwangtung was pacified, they began to be organised. In our region forts were built at Tai O and Fat T'ong Mun, and the foundation of Kowloon City as a small administrative centre also dates from the beginning of the Ming dynasty. It was then called Kun Fu Cheung and had little population and no fortifications; its main use was as one of the stations used to enforce the salt monopoly. More important was the military garrison at Po On which had been for generations the site of the Tung Kun commandery, under which the garrison at T'un Mun had controlled the entrance and exit of ships to the Canton estuary.*
In 1386 instructions were given to the garrisons of Kwangtung as follows: "Walls and forts are to be built, waste land must be reclaimed, and cultivated land must be protected from the inroads of the Dwarf Robbers (Wo K'ou)."26 This was the name given to the Japanese and Formosan pirates who were active along the entire South China coasts, making forays inland for plunder, during the entire Ming dynasty, and who made an additional problem of coast defence.
Foreign traders continued to live in Canton, the city still had its Mohammedan quarter and T'un Mun in our region remained an important anchorage and a place from which foreigners conducted their trading negotiations. These foreigners had been Indians, Persians, and Arabs until the beginning of the 16th century when
25 讀史方語
26 倭寇
* See plate 20 for the local forts. Ed.