Note 118 — XIV.

We give the following translation of one of these proclamations: "Listen, O listen, ye detestable barbarians! We, patriots and honourable subjects of the reigning dynasty, wish to hold up a mirror to you, that ye may see what ye are doing, and what like you are! Only in speech, and in no other respect, do ye differ from wild beasts! We have understanding, we observe laws and commandments; but you are blind and dumb, and will not receive advice. You must—there is nothing else for it—you must be cut off to the very last man!... Since you first came to the Middle Kingdom, you have done all that you can to destroy us; you have shot at us from your ships; you have poisoned us with opium, you have erected devils' houses (churches) within the walls of the city! Nay more, in order to hold your horse-races, you have profaned graves, and not suffered the dead to rest in peace! Insatiable as sharks, greedy as a set of silk-worms upon a mulberry tree, the more you get the more you want. Even our most trifling profit you have taken to yourselves. Now, however, the cup is full, Heaven in its wrath has decreed your destruction,—our people shall cut you off with divine weapons of fire. Hearken now, O people, to the four following rules for the extermination of the barbarians: All barbarians must be beheaded, that our reproach may be removed, and our Middle Kingdom be no longer insulted. So runs the order of the leader!—To none other shall any disaster happen, no one shall be molested. Whoever strikes back, shall himself be struck.... The day of vengeance shall be secretly appointed. We shall circumvent the barbarians with treachery, we shall fall on them unawares, and destroy them. Natives who are in the habit of attending their schools, or of serving them, or of trading with them, must leave them and return to their old pursuits. If they remain, then the subjects of the exceedingly beneficent dynasty as well as the barbarians, the diamonds and the hailstones, shall be destroyed together.... After the destruction of these hideous hordes, their possessions shall be distributed among those who have distinguished themselves on the day of battle. So runs the order of the leader!"