402- Mr. Davids Extracts from the Peking Gazette. 



purpose. We borrowed an empty chamber in the San-shing-nieaou * (Tem- 

 ple of the Three Holy Ones), in the immediate neighbourliood of where we 

 lived, and coined upwards of seven thousand tcJicn. Having begun to put 

 them in circulation, we were seized, togetlier with all our instruments.' 

 Tang-shih, the other criminal, deposed : ' that he was a native of Ta-hing- 

 Keen, in Shun-teen-foo, aged thirty-eight years, and that he came to live in 

 the same lane with the first prisoner.' The rest of his confession agreed 

 with the preceding. 



" We have found that counterfeiting the current coin is an offence of 

 high degree. Chow-urh and Tang-sliih having, on account of their poverty, 

 combined for the purpose of casting this counterfeit coin with lead, are 

 serious offenders, and we apprehend that they have coined a greater quan- 

 tity than has been admitted in their confession. We humbly present this 

 address, and request your Majesty's pleasure as to sending the two criminals, 

 together with the different articles found in their possession, before the 

 criminal board for trial." 



XXII. Distress at Peking. 



Introduction. There is every reason to be certain that Peking has suffered 

 severely from an epidemic during the latter part of the late summer and the 

 commencement of the autumn, though the circumstance is, of course, not 

 directly mentioned in the Gazette. The private letters of Pere L'Amiot, at 

 Macao, from his friends at the capital, state the fact unequivocally ; and 

 the acknowledged severity of the famine during the summer occasioning a 

 vast resort of the starving population to Peking (to procure food gratui- 

 tously, or at least at a very low price), affords a sufficient explanation of 

 the causes of the pestilence. The following extracts from the Gazettes 

 will prove the pressure of the distress. 



Imperial Edict. 



" On account of the droughtt in the neighbourhood of the capital, and 



* For the Chinese characters see Plate xiii. No. 2. 



t In the preceding year (1823) there were inundations not less severe than the present 

 drought. 



