272  THE  CHINESE  EMPIRE
population  of  Manila  increased  so  fast,  became  so  influential,
and  showed  so  much  independence,  that  in  1602  the
Spaniards  instituted  a  general  massacre,  and  killed  most
of'  the  20,000  Chinese  immigrants.  Thus,  up  to  the  beginning ­
  of  the  seventeenth  century,  the  Chinese  could  only
judge  that  European  traders  based  their  trade  on  cannon
and  the  sword.
The  Dutch  first  arrived  in  1622,  when  a  fleet  of  seventeen
vessels  appeared  off  Macao.  Portugal  was  then  a  part  of
the  Spanish  dominion,  and  Macao  was  fair  spoil  of  war  and
was  attacked  ;  the  Dutch  were,  however,  driven  off  and
proceeded  to  the  Pescadores,  from  which  they  were  driven
by  the  Chinese,  partly  by  force  of  arms,  partly  by  negotiation ­
  ;  they  then  settled  in  Formosa,  over  which  at  that
time  China  had  no  right  of  government.  Here  they  built
two  massive  brick  blockhouses,  (tradition  says  they  brought
the  bricks  from  Holland!)  with  walls  six  to  eight  feet  thick  and
thirty  feet  high,  one  in  1624,  Fort  Zealandia,  at  Taiwanfu
in  the  south,  one  at  Tamsui  in  the  north.  Their  first  embassy ­
  to  Peking  was  in  1655,  where  it  was  received  and  had
the  distinction  of  being,  except  its  own  successor,  the  only
European  embassy,  from  first  to  last,  to  perform  the  kotow.
In  1662,  after  a  siege  in  Fort  Zealandia  of  nine  months,  the
Dutch  were  driven  from  Formosa  by  Koshinga,  an  independent ­
  partisan.  In  1663  they  occupied  Amoy,  and  in
1664  sent  a  trading  expedition  to  Foochow  ;  but  after  that
were  content  to  trade  at  Canton  on  the  same  footing  as
othets.  A  special  embassy  went  to  Peking  in  1665,  and
their  last  was  in  1795.  Their  treaty,  on  the  same  terms
as  those  of  other  nations,  was  made  in  1863.
I  he  English  made  several  attempts  to  reach  China
after  the  date,  1596,  when  Elizabeth  wrote  a  letter  to  the
Emperor,  which  was  not  delivered  ;  but  the  first  to  arrive
in  China  was  Weddell,  who  reached  Macao  in  July  1635-The
  policy  of  every  nation  in  that  day  was  to  restrict  the
trade  of  others,  in  the  belief  that  trade  was  a  stagnant
reservoir,  the  abstraction  of  a  portion  of  the  contents  of
which  by  others  would  leave  so  much  the  less  for  them-