[17] The _Mei ling_ mountains, which divide the province Kwang tung from the province Këang se. See Note in the beginning of the History of the Pirates.
[18] The place where European ships lie at anchor in the river of Canton, and one of the few spots which foreigners are allowed to visit.
[19] I translate the Chinese words _Wae she_, by _non-official historian_, in opposition to the _Kw[)o] she_, or _She kwan_, the official historiographers of the empire. Both _Yuen tsze_, author of the following History of the Pirates, and _Lan e_, author of the work which is referred to in the preface, are such _Public historians_, who write--like most of the historians of Europe--the history of their own times, without being appointed to or paid for by government.
_Lan e_ gives the history of the civil commotions under Këa king, which continued from the year 1814 to 1817, in six books; the work is printed in two small volumes, in the first year of Tao kwang (1820), and the following contains the greater part of the preface:
"In the spring of the year _Kea su_ (1814), I went with other people to Peking; reaching the left side of the (Mei ling) mountains we met with fellow travellers, who joined the army, and with many military preparations. In the capital I learned that the robber _Lin_ caused many disturbances; I took great care to ascertain what was said by the people of the court, and by the officers of government, and I wrote down what I heard. But being apprehensive that I might publish truth and falsehood mixed together, I went in the year _Ting chow_ (1817) again to the metropolis, and read attentively the imperial account of the _Pacification of the Robber-bands_, planned the occurrences according to the time in which they happened, joined to it what I heard from other sources, and composed out of these various matters a work in six books, on the truth of which you may rely."
_Lan e_ begins his work with the history of those rebels called _T[.e]en le keaou_ (_the Doctrine of Nature_). They were divided into eight divisions, according to the eight Kwas, and placed under three captains, or chiefs, of whom the first was called _Lin tsing_--the same _Lin_ who is mentioned in the preface of _Soo_. These followers of the doctrine of Nature believed implicitly in an absurd book written by a robber, in which it was stated, that the Buddha who should come after Shakia (in Chinese called _Me l[)i]h_, in Sanscrit _Maëtreya_) is in possession of three seas, the _blue_, the _red_, and the _white_. These seas are the three Kalpas; we now live in the _white_ Kalpa. These robbers, therefore, carried _white_ banners. _Tsing y[)i]h ke_, B. i., p. i.