almost a supremacy of command over the whole united fleet; and so
confident was this robber in his strength and daily augmenting means,
that he aspired to the dignity of a king, and went so far as openly to
declare his patriotic intention of hurling the present Tartar family
from the throne of China, and of restoring the ancient Chinese dynasty.
But unfortunately for the ambitious pirate, he perished in a heavy gale,
and instead of placing a sovereign on the Chinese throne, he and his
lofty aspirations were buried in the yellow sea. And now comes the most
remarkable passage in the history of these pirates--remarkable with any
class of men, but doubly so among the Chinese, who entertain more than
the general oriental opinion of the inferiority of the fair sex. On the
death of _Ching-yih,_ his legitimate wife had sufficient influence over
the freebooters to induce them to recognize her authority in the place
of her deceased husband's, and she appointed one _Paou_ as her
lieutenant and prime minister, and provided that she should be
considered the mistress or commander-in-chief of the united squadrons.

This _Paou_ had been a poor fisher-boy, picked up with his father at
sea, while fishing, by _Ching-yih,_ whose good will and favor he had the
fortune to captivate, and by whom, before that pirate's death, he had
been made a captain. Instead of declining under the rule of a woman, the
pirates became more enterprising than ever. Ching's widow was clever as
well as brave, and so was her lieutenant Paou. Between them they drew up
a code of law for the better regulation of the freebooters.

In this it was decreed, that if any man went privately on shore, or did
what they called "transgressing the bars," he should have his ears slit
in the presence of the whole fleet; a repetition of the same unlawful
act, was death! No one article, however trifling in value, was to be
privately subtracted from the booty or plundered goods. Every thing they