329
north.
In contrast to the northern and eastern por- ·
tions of the Province the western and southern por-
tions including the Lungchow, Pose, and Nanning dis-
tricts and the country along the main stream of the
West River are in an unusually peaceful state.
This is due to a series of excellent rice harvests.
The first case that I was called upon to deal
with on my arrival here was one of piracy. The
'Kwong On a launch flying the British flag plying
between Wuchow and Nanning was pursued boarded and
robbed of specie to the value of over 7,000 dollars
by a gang of pirates who used for the purpose the
Tai Heng a Chinese launch which they had previously
The affair occurred in broad daylight on
held up.
the main river about 50 miles above Wuchow while
the "Kuang On was on her way to Nanning. The two
launches were tied together and made to stean back
in the direction of Wuchow while the pirates went
Piracy.
carefully through passengers.
When about ten miles
from this city the pirates landed and made good their
escape. As the launches during the time that the
pirates were in possession passed two likin stations
at both of which they were bound by the regulations
to stop and at which they had both called the same
morning, I arranged with the Captain of His Majesty's
Ship Moorhen" to visit the scene of the outrage and
to find out from the officials en route why under such
suspicious circumstances they had not attempted to de-
tain the vessels. At my invitation Huang Taotai un-
der whose control the likin stations were, accompanied
The result of the journey was to convince me of
the absolute helplessness of the officials either to
prevent such outrages or to deal with them when they
us.
occur; and my subsequent discussions with the agents
of the launch companies proved to me that no assis-
tance could be expected of them. In almost every
case of Piracy on the West River the procedure has
been for the pirates to board the launch, which they
carefully
proposed
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