334 MORE CRUISIKG AFTER PIRATES. 



This western part of the Quang-tung province, the 

 coast of which I have so often referred to, is to this day 

 a terra incognita to Europeans. 



The part I chiefly had occasion to visit appeared in- 

 habited by two tribes, the Hacka's and Punti's, who by 

 no means lived at peace with one another, — quite the 

 contrary. They were always fighting or cutting each 

 other's throats on a small scale, as well as by more 

 wholesale operations. I had on one occasion to follow 

 a lorcha and a couple of junks up a sluggish river which 

 ran through this country, and the amount of fighting 

 we passed through was absurd. Neither party molested 

 us in any way, although, if so disposed, they might have 

 made it very disagreeable, the width of the river being 

 only at most sixty yards, and the banks here and there 

 well bushed over. Dead bodies in scores floated down, 

 or were grounded on the banks. The hills on either 

 side of the river were quite decorated with the flags 

 of the contending parties ; but it must be understood 

 that these emblems of warfare in a Chinese army, or in 

 a tribal squabble, invariably are almost as plentiful as 

 the men themselves. The three pirate crafts were cap- 

 tured and destroyed. 



It was not always plain sailing amongst these islands, 

 which studded the coast for at least 100 miles west of 



