000 and many of them carried forty pieces
of artillery. So arrogant was the corsair with his power, that he
aspired to gain the kingdom from the Tartar king (who is also ruler
of Great China) and be crowned at Nanquin, assured that, as Fortune
showed herself friendly to him, the entire empire would follow him as
the man who maintained the authority of it all--not only as he was
captain-general for the dead king but because he had been confirmed
in this office by the king now living, who is called Ens-lec. [54] He
also intended to maintain the superstitions, dress, rites, and customs
of his ancestors--especially the garments and [mode of wearing] the
hair, to which the Chinese are excessively attached. This purpose
had caused them to endure his cruelty, which had been so great
that more than three millions of men had died for his satisfaction
alone. This fierce captain would have succeeded in that enterprise,
if he had not been drawn off from it to gain the neighboring cities,
nine in number (the smallest one containing 200,000 souls), thus
giving the Tartar king time for better preparation. Nevertheless,
he had the courage to invest Nanquin, the court city of Great China,
which is defended by three walls two leguas distant from one another,
the circuit of the first being thirty leguas. [55] He gained the first
wall and brought affairs to such a crisis that the king, fearing his
fierce determination, talked of fleeing from his court of Pequin. The
mandarins warned him that by such a course he would lose the entire
kingdom; for the inhabitants of the city, dispirited by such tokens
of weakness, would instantly surrender in order not to experience
the corsair's ferocity. They said that this victory would give him so
much reputation that he would easily subdue the entire kingdom; that
it was most important to make all the rest of their power effective,
withdrawing all the troops from other strongholds to increase the
royal forces with a multitude of veterans and well-disciplined
soldiers. The king did so and attacked the enemy with 400,000
horsemen; and as Cot-sen on account of having left his islands had
no cavalry worth mention, he was compelled to yield to a power so
formidable. With the loss of 80,000 men and most of his champans,
he left the river on which the court city stands, and returned to his
own town, Vi-chen. But this blow left him so little inclined to profit
by experience and his strength so little diminished