268 OUR HERITAGE THE SEA 



the unresisting crew, then transferring the cargo to 

 their own keeping. Note well the Chinese pirate 

 never took any risks, never attempted to rob a ship 

 when there was a possibility of resistance. True, 

 there were so-called Chinese pirates who accomplished 

 bold but horrible deeds, but it will invariably be 

 found that they were commanded by a European, 

 usually a Portuguese ; and their crews were a mixed 

 medley of Eastern races, the fierce, ruthless, and essen- 

 tially warlike Malays predominating. 



What I wish to point out, however, with regard 

 to the immemorial navigation of the Chinese is that 

 we have no record at all of their undertaking an 

 expedition whose main object was warfare. The very 

 idea would be foreign to them ; for while the Chinese 

 are first of all traders, then scholars, the man of war is 

 to them a blackguard, a hooligan, one whose existence 

 is a menace to the public peace a condition of things 

 worth any sacrifice to maintain. As an instance of 

 this, and also of the average amenability to law and 

 order universally obtaining among the Chinese, the 

 celebrated marine edict of the Emperor K'ang Hsi, 

 reigning from 1662 until 1723, may fairly be quoted. 

 Great and splendid as were his achievements on land, 

 his authority stopped with the shore. The peaceful 

 coast-dwellers were made painfully aware of this by 

 reason of the enterprise of Koxinga, a notorious pirate, 

 who had established a regular co-operation among the 

 pirates, and might, had he lived later, have termed 

 the enterprise, " The Perfectly Practicable and Secure 

 Piracy Company, Unlimited ; Koxinga, managing 

 director." This business-like pirate, having garnered 

 the Chinese mercantile marine, turned his attention 



