ry empire to escape from
punishment. In such a way those who in the beginning were only three or
five, were in the course of time increased to a thousand or ten
thousand, and so it went on increasing every year. Would it not have
been wonderful if such a multitude, being in want of their daily bread,
had not resorted to plunder and robbery to gain their subsistence, since
they could not in any other manner be saved from famine? It was from
necessity that the laws of the empire were violated, and the merchants
robbed of their goods. Being deprived of our land and of our native
places, having no house or home to resort to, and relying only on the
chances of wind and water, even could we for a moment forget our griefs,
we might fall in with a man-of-war, who with stones, darts, and guns,
would knock out our brains! Even if we dared to sail up a stream and
boldly go on with anxiety of mind under wind, rain, and stormy weather,
we must everywhere prepare for fighting. Whether we went to the east, or
to the west, and after having felt all the hardships of the sea, the
night dew was our only dwelling, and the rude wind our meal. But now we
will avoid these perils, leave our connexions, and desert our comrades;
we will make our submission. The power of Government knows no bounds; it
reaches to the islands in the sea, and every man is afraid, and sighs.
Oh we must be destroyed by our crimes, none can escape who opposeth the
laws of Government. May you then feel compassion for those who are
deserving of death; may you sustain us by your humanity!"

The Government that had made so many lamentable displays of its
weakness, was glad to make an unreal parade of its mercy. It was but too
happy to grant all the conditions instantly, and, in the fulsome
language of its historians, "feeling that compassion is the way of
heaven--that it is the right way to govern by righteousness--it
therefore redeemed these pirates from destruction, and pardoned their
former crimes."

O-po-tae, however, had hardly struck his free flag, and the pirates were
hardly in the power of the Chinese, when it was proposed by many that
they should all be treacherously murdered. The governor happened to be
more honorable and humane, or probably, only more politic than those who
made this foul proposal--he knew that such a bloody breach of faith
would for ever prevent the pirates still in arms from voluntary
submitting; he knew equally well, even weakened as they we