Directory_and_Chronicle_1850 — Page 441

1850

Journal of Occurrences.

403

the extremity of misery, and in the town of Nánchuen, armed robbers came in open day through the streets, and entering the shops seized all they could carry. The magistrates and police in vain exerted them- selves to arrest them, seizing only a few, upon whom unusual punish- ments were inflicted; for as the prisons were full, the wretches were first starved, then their joints broken, and finally burnt alive. Swarms of people prowled through the fields, striving to find a little to appease their hunger, feeding on green fruits, leaves, carrion, and even each other. One family was arrested, living in a secluded spot near Chung- king fú, which had decoyed more than thirty persons into the house, and devoured them all.

The condition, number, and tribes of the aborigines still remaining in Sz'chuen offer many interesting subjects of inquiry, upon which our authentic information is scanty. M. Imbert speaks of those he calls Miáutsz' as a simple, timid and unpolished race, whose chieftains are subject to the Chinese authorities, and who maintain their partial independence only by secluding themselves in the mountains. Those in the west he calls Sifún, and describes their country as exceedingly rough. These mountaineers are probably the descendants of the people formerly called Tangouts, for this region was once mostly included in the kingdom of that name, which was subjugated by Gengis khan in A.D. 1227. It is more than probable, however, that these hardy mountaineers have always submitted to foreign rule only so far and so willingly as suited their interests; and have thereby kept themselves even more degraded and wretched than their lowland neighbors. The religious control of the Tibetan lamas probably assimilates these people much more to H'lassa than to Peking.

ART. V. Journal of Occurrences: rcturn of the Str. Reynard and Gov. Bonham; death of Gov. Da Cunha; meeting in relation to the Exhibition of Industry in 1851; licensing of tea-brokers at Canton.

THE late visit of H. M. screw-propeller Reynard, to the mouth of the Pei ho, has given rise to considerable speculation as to its object and results. She returned to Hongkong on the 17th inst.; while absent she visited the termination of the Great Wall between Chihli and Liautung, the same place reached in 1840 by the Str. Madagascar (see Vols. IX. p. 421, and X. p. 579). The Reynard was found to draw too much water to be able to proceed up to Tientsin, and her dispatches were received on shore by Chinese officers. Eurther discussion on their subject matter was precluded by the assertion on.