THE OCEAN AS A BATTLE-FIELD 267 



not a whit better than pirates, although their deeds 

 bore a colour of legality, from the fact that they were 

 ostensibly fighting the battles of their country by 

 plundering and slaying, whenever and wherever they 

 found them, all those whom they chose to regard as 

 her enemies. It is a feeble excuse, because precisely 

 the same argument may be justly used on behalf of 

 the bloodthirsty seafarers of the Mediterranean during 

 all the dark days I have passed over so rapidly, except 

 in the few isolated cases where small bands of bontl- 

 fide pirates, without a country, fought and stole for 

 their own pleasure. 



It is, however, time to turn for a little while to 

 the other side of the world, and see how in those far 

 Eastern lands navigation began, as far as we know, 

 with sea warfare with probably one notable excep- 

 tion, China. It is only fair to suppose, knowing what 

 we do of the essentially peaceful character of the 

 Chinese, and the low repute in which the fighting 

 caste has always been held among them, that their 

 undoubtedly ancient seafaring enterprises were estab- 

 lished and maintained as purely trading purposes. 

 True, there were pirates among them, and of a 

 peculiarly diabolical type, pirates who persisted in 

 their evil calling until suppressed by our strong hand 

 not so many years ago. Nay, there are pirates among 

 them still, in a small way, and there is no doubt that 

 if it were not for the careful policing of those seas, 

 mostly by our ships, piracy would soon flourish again. 

 But that was only a phase of the Chinese character. 

 Piracy would specially appeal to them as being an easy 

 method of amassing wealth by pursuing the peaceful 

 trading-junks, running alongside and slaughtering all 



