lower orders of Chinese labored under, had the effect of augmenting
their bands with astonishing rapidity. Fishermen and other destitute
classes flocked by hundreds to their standard, and their audacity
growing with their numbers, they not merely swept the coast, but
blockaded all the rivers and attacked and took several large government
war junks, mounting from ten to fifteen guns each.--These junks being
added to their shoals of boats, the pirates formed a tremendous fleet,
which was always along shore, so that no small vessel could safely trade
on the coast. When they lacked prey on the sea, they laid the land under
tribute. They were at first accustomed to go on shore and attack the
maritime villages, but becoming bolder, like the Buccaneers, made long
inland journeys, and surprised and plundered even large towns.

An energetic attempt made by the Chinese government to destroy them,
only increased their strength; for in their first encounter with the
pirates, twenty-eight of the Imperial junks struck, and the remaining
twelve saved themselves, by a precipitate retreat.

The captured junks, fully equipped for war, were a great acquisition to
the robbers, whose numbers now increased more rapidly than ever. They
were in their plenitude of power in the year 1809, when Mr. Glasspoole
had the misfortune to fall into their hands, at which time that
gentleman supposed their force to consist of 70,000 men, navigating
eight hundred large vessels, and one thousand small ones, including row
boats. They were divided into six large squadrons, under different
flags;--the red, the yellow, the green, the blue, the black and the
white. "These wasps of the Ocean," as a Chinese historian calls them,
were further distinguished by the names of their respective commanders:
by these commanders a certain _Ching-yih_ had been the most
distinguished by his valor and conduct. By degrees, Ching obtained