398 



COAST INFESTED BY PIRATES. 



Chap. XX. 



with the Chinese in various parts of the tea dis- 

 tricts, and to inform them that I would not require 

 their assistance any longer in making collections 

 of seeds and plants. On our way up the coast, 

 when a few miles south of the Chusan islands, we 

 fell in with Her Majesty's brig " Bittern," Captain 

 Yansittart, at this time busily employed in putting 

 down the hordes of pirates that infested the whole 

 line of coast from Hongkong to the Grulf of Pee- 

 che-lee. A stoppage had almost been put to the 

 native coasting trade by these marauders, and 

 foreign vessels had also been attacked on various 

 occasions^ A few weeks before the Rev. Mr. Rus- 

 sell, of the Church Missionary Society at Ningpo, 

 and some other friends, were plundered on their 

 way from that place to the island of Poo-to. 

 While at anchor at a place called Sing-kei-mun, 

 on the south-east end of Chusan, waiting for the 

 tide, their boat was attacked by a number of 

 armed men, and stripped of everything of the 

 slightest value ; some of their clothes even were 

 taken away from them. It was useless to resist a 

 force of this kind, and no resistance was offered. 



These Chinese pirates when unresisted are not 

 generally cruel or bloodthirsty. In some in- 

 stances they are extremely polite, and even kind, 

 and quite rival our highwaymen of Hampstead 

 Heath and Hounslow in bygone times. In the 

 present instance they expressed great delight with 

 Mr. Russell's watch, which, they said, would be 

 highly appreciated by their commodore. In the 



