64.
193
"make distinction between foreign nations, but that to them all those who are not Chinese are barbarians, as foreigners were to a Greek; and their expulsion of all barbarians, often asserted, is the fond dream of Chinese patriots. The wildest rumours as to the immediate arrival of Truk troops are credited by all the people, and the excitement has no doubt been much increased by the recent arrival of numbers of soldiers, who are popularly supposed to have come here to kill all foreigners. I must do these men the justice of bearing witness to their perfect quietness and good behaviour. I have not heard a complaint against them. But the men furnished by householders in the city, and who are being drilled outside, are very ill-disposed. Of course, the people fully believe that their own troops are invincible. A proclamation lately widely sold in the streets, and the authenticity of which has been distinctly denied by the Viceroy, but which I believe was drawn up by Fung (Pan), has also had a mischievous effect, as the populace consider it to authorize attacks on foreigners. Still