214 VOYAGE TO THE 



head of his troops, and disputed the ground with the 

 Chinese ; but unfortunately he was killed ; his troops 

 gave way ; and the victorious invaders, after pillaging 

 and setting fire to the royal abode, and making five 

 thousand slaves, returned to China. 



It is said that at this time the inhabitants of Loo 

 Choo had neither letters nor characters, and that all 

 classes of society, even the king himself, lived in the 

 most simple manner. It does not, however, appear 

 that the people were entitled to the appellation of bar- 

 barians, which was given to them by the ambassador 

 of Japan in China, nor that they merited the title of 

 poor devils, which the word lieu-kieu implies in Ja- 

 panese ; as they had fixed laws for marriages and in- 

 terments, and paid great respect to their ancestors 

 and other departed friends ; and they had other well 

 regulated institutions which fully relieved them from 

 the charge of barbarism. Their country was not so 

 poor nor so destitute of valuable productions, or even 

 of manufactures, but that Chinese merchants were 

 glad to open a trade with it, and to continue it through 

 five dynasties which successively ruled in China after 

 ihe conquest of Loo Choo, notwithstanding the in- 

 difl\;rence of the emperors who, during that period, 

 ceased to exact the tribute that had been made to 

 their predecessors. It is not improbable, therefore, 

 that this stigma, which ought properly to belong to 

 Formosa — which, though a much larger island, was 

 then called Little Loo Choo — may have been attached 

 to the island we visited from the similarity of names. 



Chun-tien was said to be descended from the kings 

 of Japan, but it is not known at what period his 

 family settled in Loo Choo. Before he came to the 

 throne, he was governor of the town of Potien. On 



