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Thieving was common. Even the coolies who unloaded the cargoes into custom-house boats for weighing, and the boatmen who took them in covered and locked boats up to Canton, had a bad reputation, one witness even affirming that 'the Chinese exceed greatly the watermen upon the Thames in filching and chicanery,' which, Parkinson has observed, was of course saying a great deal.57
Naval and military personnel of the Delta
We come now to another class of involved person, the commanders and personnel of war junks of the provincial navy, and of the many military forts and guard-posts in the Delta and up the rivers. Despite being natives of the province, they were not noted for their good behaviour towards the local land and boat populations. Indeed, the recital of exactions, inducements and "squeezes" that we have seen to be routine in the old China Trade is merely a reflection of what passed on the wider scene for much of the time. This culture of corrupt and bad practices is corroborated by recorded local history.
Old persons in Hong Kong's outlying island communities interviewed in the 1960s recalled several instances of the petty corruption practised upon local people by soldiers from the military posts there before 1898. The Peng Chau post made an unlawful levy on boat people at their regular monthly "burn offs" of marine growth from the hulls of their craft, whilst their brethren on Cheung Chau extracted cash from vendors at the local market-place.5
More serious breaches against the boat people are mentioned in surviving commemorative tablets in some of the temples in the Delta area, erected for the public record by the wearied local communities with the consent of the responsible senior officials.
One such (1834) at a temple on Peng Chau near Hong Kong forbade the practice of commandeering two fishing craft each month and putting soldiers on board them, for cruises to entrap pirates whilst posing as innocuous traders, to the great inconvenience of the family members and temporary loss of their livelihood. Another (1826), placed outside a temple near the Barrier Gate at Macau, prohibited the unlawful charges and exactions being levied by the crews of salt gabelle patrol boats and the personnel of no fewer than 28 military posts along one stretch of
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