The Ningpo Massacre

The Ningpo Massacre was a massacre of Portuguese pirates by Cantonese pirates led by Ah Pak around the city of Ningbo. During the Qing dynasty, in the 1800s, the Ningbo authorities contracted Cantonese pirates to exterminate and massacre Portuguese pirates who raided Cantonese shipping around Ningbo. The massacre was "successful", with 40 Portuguese dead and only 2 Chinese dead, being dubbed "THE NINGPO MASSACRE" by an English correspondent, who noted that the Portuguese pirates had behaved savagely towards the Chinese, and that the Portuguese authorities at Macau should have reigned in the pirates.

Battle and Massacre

Portuguese pirates who raided Cantonesee shipping in the early 1800s were exterminated by Cantonese forces around Ningbo.^[1]

The Ningbonese people supported the Cantonese massacre of the Portuguese pirates and the attack on the Portuguese consul. The Cantonese did not see the Portuguese as the same as other Europeans, not being afraid of them and fighting them man to man. The Ningbo authorities had made an agreement with a Cantonese pirate named A'Pak to exterminate the Portuguese pirates. The Portuguese did not even try to fight when the Cantonese pirates sacked their consulate, trying to flee and hide among the tombs, the Cantonese butchered around 40 Portuguese while sacking the consulate. Only two Chinese and one Englishman who sided with the Cantonese died.

CHAPTER XIII. THE NINGPO MASSACRE. Commercial Character of Ningpo—Piracy—Massacre of the Portuguese Pirates by Cantonese Pirates—Political Occurrences. Ningpo, Aug. 24. This great city, with its 350,000 inhabitants, its beautiful river, and its excellent water-connection with the interior, is the least valuable of all our commercial stations. Neither tea nor silk is brought down in any quantities, and the little tea that is prepared here is sent to Shanghai to be shipped. The importation of British and Straits' produce was last year but £136,359. 9s., and not two-thirds of this was British manufactures. The greater security of European shipping, and its comparative immunity from the pirates outside (whom I saw the other day send a whole fleet of junks back into the river), have given it some importance as a shipping-port for Amoy, Formosa, Swatow, and the Straits. In 1856, 198 British ships, with an aggregate of 25,506 tons, loaded here. This carrying trade is likely to increase, for the Chinese are becoming quite alive to the advantage of a stout ship and an English flag. " Can insure?" is a question now very often in a Chinaman's mouth, and Chinamen are rich at Ningpo. Ningpo is still in the after-throb of great excitement. The European settlement is on the side of the river opposite to the walled city. The hongs are not numerous nor very large, and they are mixed up with Chinese residences and large timber yards (timber is the staple of Ningpo); and they form a rectangle, the area behind which is occupied by graves and paddy-fields, but chiefly by graves. On the 26th of June a naval battle was fought in the river, and a massacre took place among the tombs. The story is somewhat out of date, but I must deal with it here, where alone I could do so upon a proper knowledge of the facts, because it is illustrative of the state of affairs we have to deal with in China. To understand this transaction we must recollect, what it is so difficult for people in England to believe, that the whole coast of China is so infested with pirates that even a fleet of fishing-boats cannot venture out without armed vessels as a convoy. The fishing-boats which ply off the mouth of the river Yung pay convoy duties to the extent of 50,000 dollars a year; and the wood-junks that ply between Ningpo and Foochow, and the other native craft, raise the annual payment for protection to 200,000 dollars (£70,000) annually. These figures are startling, but I have taken pains to ascertain their correctness. The vessels employed in this convoy service were Portuguese lorchas. These vessels were well armed and equipped. There were no mandarin junks and no Portuguese ships of war to cope with them or control them, and they became masters of this part of the coast. It is in the nature of things that these privateers should abuse their power. They are accused of the most frightful atrocities. It is alleged that they made descents upon villages, carried off the women,murdered the men, and burnt the habitations. They became infinitely greater scourges than the pirates they were paid to repel. It is alleged, also, that complaints to the Portuguese consul were vain; that Portuguese sailors taken red-handed and handed over to this consul were suffered to escape from the consular prison. Rightly or wrongly, the Chinese thought that the consul was in complicity with the ruffians who were acting both as convoy and as pirates. The convictions of the English and French residents at Ningpo ■ do not differ from those of the Chinese; and although, having no means of guarding my inquiries with the securities of a judicial investigation, 1 am unwilling to make any strong assertion, I think I fc-ay reasonably say that the honour of the Government of Portugal is so compromised that European nations, for common character's sake, should require it to institute a searching examination into the conduct of this official. The leader of the pirate fleet was—I am going back now to a time three years ago—a Cantonese named A'Pak. The authorities at Ningpo, in their weakness, determined to make terms with him, rather than submit to the tyranny of the Portuguese. A'Pak was made a mandarin of the third class; and his fleet—not altogether taken into Government pay, for that the Chinese could not afford—was nominally made over to A'Pak's brother, a gentleman with a long name, which I cannot remember. This fleet, now turned nominally honest, began to compete with the Portuguese for the convoy business, and, their business being now tolerably respectable, they were joined by several English, American, and French deserters from ships-of-war and merchant vessels. This has been the position of the two parties for the last three years. The fishermen and carrying junks, glad to be rid of the Portuguese yoke, gradually transferred their custom to the Cantonese fleet, and the Portuguese, hungry and furious, became more active in their piracies, and attacked the Cantonese ships when they could get them at an advantage, and murdered their crews with circumstances of great atrocity. The Cantonese do not look upon the Portuguese as Europeans. They have not the same fear of them. They can fight them man to man. Macao would have been taken by the Chinese long since, had they not dreaded the interference of the other Western powers. After a few of these very sanguinary provocations, A'Pak—not, it is believed, without the concurrence of the Toutai of Ningpo —determined to destroy this Portuguese convoy fleet. For this purpose A'Pak's brother collected his snake-boats and convoy junks from along the whole coast, and assembled about twenty of them, and perhaps 500 men. The Portuguese were not long hearing of these preparations, but they seem to have been struck with panic. Some of their vessels went south, some were taken at the mouth of the river. Seven lorchas took refuge up the river, opposite the Portuguese consulate. The sailors on board these lorchas landed some of their big guns, and put the consulate in a state of defence, and perhaps hoped that the neighbourhood of the European houses and the character of the consulate would prevent an attack. Not so. On the day I have above mentioned the Canton fleet came up the river. The Portuguese consul immediately fled. The lorchas fired one broadside at them as they approached, and then the crews deserted their vessels, and made for the shore. About 200 Cantonese, accompanied by a few Europeans, followed these 140 Portuguese and Manilla-men ashore. A fight took place in the streets. It was of very short duration, for the Portuguese behaved in the most dastardly manner. The Manilla-men showed some spirit, but the Portuguese could not even persuade themselves to fight for their lives behind the walls of their consulate. The fortified house was taken and sacked by these Chinamen, the Portuguese were pursued among the tombs, where they sought refuge, and forty of them were shot down, or hunted and butchered with spears. The Capricieuse, French frigate, now came up the river, fired upon the Cantonese who were sacking the consul's house, and put an end to the conflict. The French captain received on board the Portuguese consul, not, I am told, with great cordiality, and also the fugitives who had escaped the massacre. The latter he conveyed as prisoners to Macao, to be tried as pirates. Merciless as this massacre was, and little as is the choice between the two sets of combatants, it must be owned that the Cantonese acted with purpose and discipline.Three trading Portuguese lorchas which lay in the river with their flags flying were not molested; and no European, not a Portuguese, was even insulted by the infuriated butchers. The stories current of Souero and his Portuguese followers rivalled the worst of the tales of the buccaneers, and public opinion in Ningpo and the foreign settlement was strongly in favour of the Cantonese. The Chinamen lost only two Chinese. One vagabond Englishman fighting on their side was shot by a Manillaman. After the departure of the Capricieuse, the Portuguese brig of war, the Mondego, came up the river, accompanied by about twelve Portuguese lorchas, and made formal demands of the Toutai, that the captured lorchas should be restored and other restitution made. The Toutai replied that the two convoy fleets must settle their own quarrels, for he had nothing to do with them. The Portuguese and the Cantonese then made ready for a fight, and the general opinion was that the Cantonese would have again been victorious. Meanwhile, however, Commander Dew, in the Nimrod, had steamed up the river. He sent a message to the Portuguese commander to say that his instructions were to remain entirely neutral, and if the brig was about to attack, he would move his ship out of the line of fire; but that if the Nimrod or the houses of British residents on the river were struck by shot, it would be his duty to interfere. The Mondego and her consort lorchas immediately departed for Shanghai. The Canton fleet is still either engaged in convoying or at anchor in the river; and, to the great comfort of the merchants and the missionaries, so also is theNimrod. I do not for a moment seek to implicate the Portuguese nation in the crimes of the Macao ruffians, except so far that it was the duty of Portugal to prevent such deeds. But these circumstances suggest serious considerations in connection with our next treaty with China. They show how important and how difficult is the question of policing the coast and exterminating piracy; they show also how important it is that the great European powers should exercise a strong control over such lawless vagabonds as those who acted with the Cantonese; they also suggest very grave considerations as to how far it may be right to extend to small and not very conscientious Governments like that of Portugal the treaty privileges which England is about to ask, not only for herself, but for all other civilized nations. A circumstance has just occurred which still further illustrates the great impolicy of allowing European vagabonds to be uncontrolled in this country. "Squeezing" has become so intolerable in this province, that a large city not forty miles distant is in rebellion. Every power in China "squeezes." The Toutai sends forth to "squeeze," the Canton fleet sends out to "squeeze," and squeezing parties are undertaken upon private account. A few days since, an Irishman, accompanied by some Chinese, went into the interior (to one of the villages where I had passed the previous night) upon, it is alleged, a squeezing expedition. While there, he accidentally shot one of his Chinese companions. Delighted with this opportunity of "getting the law on their side," the populace rose, seized the Irishman, bound him as though he had fceen a wild beast which no thongs could make harmless, and sent him up— after severe debate among themselves whether they should not behead him on the spot—to the Toutai of Ningpo. He arrived here in a terribly macerated condition, and claimed the protection of the British consul. Doubtless it became the consul's duty to grant this protection, and the man is now in Dr. Parker's hospital. Small advantage, however, will be derived by any British merchant from any treaty which may "open up China," if China is to be opened up to European brigands. There must be some arrangement among the European powers upon this matter.^[2][3]

China: being "The Times" special correspondence from China in the years 1857-58 (1858)

There has been a massacre of Portuguese at Ningpo since my residence here. Every Portuguese swho could be found was murdered in open day. This was done by the Cantonese, in consequence of getting into a quarrel with them about convoying vessels at sea. At that time the Cantonese requested of the authorities (secretly of course) to be .allowed to massacre all foreigners, whether Portuguese, English, or Americans. And no doubt nothing but fear of English troops prevented such a permission being given. Recently at Tung-chow and Chefu, in the Shan-tung province, days have been set for putting to death all foreigners ; so that the consuls had to take the matter in hand, and request the officials to issue proclamations, and to punish those circulating such reports. In view of these facts, it is by no means improbable that China may witness massacres like those of the " Indian mutiny." I repeat, a false impression has been created in the people and government of the United States repecting the feeling of the Chinese towards foreigners, and respecting the security of foreigners in the land. " Force," which the ambassador, at the instigation of the Chinese government, deprecates, " force " is the only thing that can give us even a footing here, to say nothing of expansion, — extending our work far into the interior. No treaty can for a moment be maintained without it. . Thanks to British guns and the Providence of God for all the privileges that we peaceful Americans enjoy.^[4] (eastern china mission - Letter from Mr. Kwolton)

The Missionary magazine, Volume 49 (1869)

References

•  This article incorporates text from China: being "The Times" special correspondence from China in the years 1857-58, by George Wingrove Cooke, a publication from 1858 now in the public domain in the United States.
•  This article incorporates text from China and lower Bengal: being "The Times" correspondence from China in the years 1857-58, by George Wingrove Cooke, a publication from 1861 now in the public domain in the United States.
•  This article incorporates text from The Missionary magazine, Volume 49, by American Baptist Foreign Mission Society, a publication from 1869 now in the public domain in the United States.

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• Ningbo Massacre (1542)