the most distinguished by his valor and conduct.  By degrees, Ching obtained 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 took was regularly entered on the register of their stores.  The following clause of Mistress Ching’s code is still more delicate.  No person shall debauch at his pleasure captive women, taken in the villages and open places, and brought on board a ship; he must first request the ship’s purser for permission, and then go aside in the ship’s hold.  To use violence, against any woman, or to wed her, without permission, shall be punished with death.

By these means an admirable discipline was maintained on board the ships, and the peasantry on shore never let the pirates want for gunpowder, provisions, or any other necessary.  On a piratical expedition, either to advance or retreat without orders, was a capital offence.  Under these philosophical institutions, and the guidance of a woman, the robbers continued to scour the China sea, plundering every vessel they came near.  The Great War Mandarin, Kwolang-lin