NOTES AND QUERIES
207
Kwong Tung To Shuet ✯✯ Tung Ch'ih Period (1862-1874) edition
Kwong Tung Hoi To Shuet ✯✯ ✯ 1889 edition
Kwong Tung Yu Ti To Shuet ★★★★ 1889 edition
Kwong Tung Yu Ti Chuen To ★★★LAN 1909 edition
Of course, we cannot be certain that all these troops were actually in post.
Hong Kong. 1979.
ANTHONY K. K. SIU
THE CANNONS ON THE WALL OF THE TUNG CHUNG FORT, LANTAU ISLAND, HONG KONG*
Six old muzzle-loading cannons, each fixed to a cemented base, can be seen on the wall of the Tung Chung Fort: two on the west and four on the east. They all carry inscriptions, of which only four are still legible.
The inscription of the eastermost cannon is illegible, due to severe weathering. The second has an inscription which shows that it was cast in the eighth moon of the 14th year of the reign of Chia Ching (1809), serial number Ching 80, weighing 1,000 catties, and cast by the Master of the Man Shing Furnace (£+0‡^^÷ 日鑄造,靖字第八十號,一千斤砲一位,匠頭萬盛爐鑄造).
As far as we know, during this 14th year of the reign of Chia Ching, the famous pirate Cheung Po-tsai had a very strong influence on Lantau. At that time, Pak Ling, Viceroy of Kwangtung and Kwangsi, was responsible for suppressing him and his gang. He ordered the casting of cannons and mounted them along the coastal regions, such that the area became strongly fortified. The cannons that he ordered to be cast bore the serial number of 'Ching, and were cast by the Man Shing Furnace of Fat Shan.2 It may be surmized that because of this strengthening of the forts and guard-stations in this region, Cheung Po-tsai finally surrendered in the 15th year of the reign of Chia Ching (1810),3 Thus, one can see that the cannon had played an important part in the suppression of the pirate Cheung Po-tsai.
* This note is illustrated by the author's photographs at Plates 33-40.