42Ó

APPENDIX  D

The  Mandarins  afterwards  examined  the  titles  of  ownership
in  the  possession  of  the  Catholic  Mission,  which  are  incontestable,
and  all  were  unanimous  in  acknowledging  our  rights,  adding  th a
we  could  build  the  wall.  This  decision  being  given,  the  workmen
returned  on  November  9  to  continue  work  on  the  wall  ;  bn
Ko  Siao-tsen,  the  Protestant  master,  the  evening  before,  ha
already  assembled  eighty  armed  men  in  the  church  for  the  purpose
of  opposing  the  work.  They  rushed  at  the  workmen  ana
threatened  to  shoot  them  if  they  would  not  quit.  The  workmen
retired.  .
It  was  market  day  ;  the  news  soon  spread  to  the  outskirts
of  Haimen,  and  a  great  number  of  Catholics  assembled,  being
exasperated  by  the  incessant  provocations  of  Protestants  and  by
former  insult  and  injustice.
The  next  day,  Saturday,  November  10,  the  workme
returned  to  their  labor  with  a  guard  of  Christians  to  de  fen
them.  Two  hours  after  the  Mandarins  asked  that  the  work  b^
stopped,  promising  to  settle  the  question  immediately.  Abop
four  o’clock  that  evening  a  delegate  paid  our  missionaries  a  visi
and  offered  the  following  conditions  of  peace  :—
1.  That  the  Protestant  master  Ko  would  be  sent  away  fr 0 #
Haimen  and  forbidden  to  return.
2.  The  wall  would  be  built  the  next  day  and  the  lines  drawn
without  any  change.
3.  If  Protestants  thereafter  wished  to  take  revenge,
delegate  and  Colonel  Tsao  would  take  upon  themselves
responsibility  and  would  answer  for  all.  .
The  missionaries  accepted  these  conditions  and  immediate  y
ordered  the  Christians  to  disperse.  The  latter  were  still  in  y 1
port  in  the  act  of  eating  when  they  perceived  two  vessels  coming
towards  them  from  the  other  side  of  the  river.  They  were  fun  ^
pirates  and  armed  Protestants,  who  as  soon  as  they  landed  °P en *L
fire  on  the  Christians.  The  latter  were  obliged  to  defend  the#
selves,  and  put  to  flight  their  assailants.  Then  there  took  p* aC , s
a  deplorable  encounter  between  the  Christians  and  Colonel  Tsao
soldiers,  caused  by  the  bad  will  of  an  under-leader  common  j
called  Siao  Lao-yi.  He  was  formerly  a  pirate,  who,  having
made  his  submission,  is  now  in  command  of  some  soldiers  w  ^
themselves  are  more  or  less  second-hand  pirates.  He  had  been  sen
to  the  port  with  fifty  soldiers  to  separate  the  combatants.  Wn e ^
he  saw  his  former  companions  of  brigandage  fleeing,  he  or ^ el  jf
his  men  to  charge  the  Christians  and  disarm  them,  and  he  hims
fired.  Ten  were  wounded,  of  whom  one  died.  .
Shortly  after  this  bloody  fight  Colonel  Tsao  paid  the  miss#
aries  a  visit,  saying  that  if  any  had  been  killed,  the  guilty  p al  1  s
would  be  executed  ;  if  depredation  had  taken  place,  the  dam a &amp;

the
the