REGIONAL APPROACH TO CHINESE HISTORY
21
would "take advantage of the situation to create suspicion and burn down the buildings of the barbarians and loot and plunder foreign goods. All this they have been wanting to do for a long time, [and] if each robber should rise up at the same time both Canton and Hong Kong will be destroyed." "Danger from without (the foreigner)," he continued, "was troublesome enough and must be guarded against, but internal troubles were even more important.”
37
Along the coast piracy had again become well-organized. In 1844 a pirate fleet of 150 boats exacted blackmail from all passing native craft and attacked Imperial military outposts. At one point they actually captured the official in charge of the Bogue, cut off his ears, and demanded $60,000 ransom,
38 A modern historian described the scene thus: "Pirates swarmed in Hong Kong waters. Lawless European seamen joined the outlaws. Native marine storekeepers on the island (of Hong Kong) not only supplied them with arms and ammunition and disposed of their booty but furnished them also, through well-paid spies in mercantile offices and government departments, with information as to the shipment of valuable cargo and particularly as to the movements of the police and British gunboats. Chests of opium and other valuables were carried off. Men, ships, mail, and cargo disappeared forever."
39
As in the early days of the century, the Imperial navy was powerless in the face of this piratical power, and it was not until the British navy went into action in 1849 and the pirate fleets were partially destroyed that a semblance of order was restored.
40
This, then, was what was "going on" in the 1840's.
To the "average" Chinese villager, as to the "average" Chinese official, the real problem was the lack of internal peace and order. It is true that the foreigner was being attacked and his property stolen... of this there can be no doubt. But Chinese were being attacked and Chinese property was being stolen too.
For every barbarian assaulted there must have been hundreds, if not thousands, of Chinese victims as well. The dominant theme of the '40s was not anti-foreignism, or even an over-riding concern with the foreigner and his doings. It was, rather, the alarming spectacle of a large and populous area of south China slipping deeper into
REGIONAL APPROACH TO CHINESE HISTORY
21
would "take advantage of the situation to create suspicion and burn down the buildings of the barbarians and loot and plunder foreign goods. All this they have been wanting to do for a long time, [and] if each robber should rise up at the same time both Canton and Hong Kong will be destroyed." "Danger from with- out (the foreigner)," he continued, "was troublesome enough and must be guarded against, but internal troubles were even more important.”37
Along the coast piracy had again become well-organized. In 1844 a pirate fleet of 150 boats exacted blackmail from all passing native craft and attacked Imperial military outposts. At one point they actually captured the official in charge of the Bogue, cut off his ears, and demanded $60,000 ransom,38 A modern historian described the scene thus: "Pirates swarmed in Hong Kong waters. Lawless European seamen joined the outlaws. Native marine storekeepers on the island (of Hong Kong) not only supplied them with arms and ammunition and disposed of their booty but furnished them also, through well-paid spies in mercantile offices and government departments, with information as to the shipment of valuable cargo and particularly as to the movements of the police and British gunboats Chests of opium and other valuables were carried off. Men, ships, mail, and cargo disappeared forever."39
T TT
As in the early days of the century, the Imperial navy was powerless in the face of this piratical power, and it was not until the British navy went into action in 1849 and the pirate fleets were partially destroyed that a semblance of order was restored.40
This, then, was what was "going on" in the 1840's.
To the "average" Chinese villager, as to the "average" Chinese official, the real problem was the lack of internal peace and order. It is true that the foreigner was being attacked and his property stolen... of this there can be no doubt. But Chinese were being attacked and Chinese property was being stolen too.
For every barbarian assaulted there must have been hundreds, if not thou- sands, of Chinese victims as well. The dominant theme of the *40's was not anti-foreignism, or even an over-riding concern with the foreigner and his doings. It was, rather, the alarming spectacle of a large and populous area of south China slipping deeper into
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