physical appearance, rather than the Chinese type. Others, again, hold that the Hak-kas emigrated some eight hundred years ago from the Ning-hwa district in the Fukien province; and a writer in the China Review" undertakes to prove from the Hak-kas family records that Ning-hwa was really their orig- inal home. Be their origin what it may, they have carved out an important place for themselves in the rich province of Kwang-tung. 1 also met them increasing, multiplying and spread- ing their industry in the island of Formosa. It was they who, having no sympathies in common with the Puntis of Canton, formed the Coolie corps to the allied troops, and won a high reputation for perseverance and bravery. They have even been known to rescue British soldiers, when wounded and drowning, amid a perfect storm of bullets. Dr. Eitel, who laboured among them for many years, and who kindly furnished me with some of his experiences, described them as the hardest workers and the most industrious men in Kwang-tung ; — and when the interests of Hak-kas and Puntis, or natives of the province, clashed, the former have always distinguished themselves by their readiness to fight. For more than two centuries a stream of Hak-ka emigration has been flowing into the Ka-ying-chow department, taking its course more especially through the mountainous and thinly populated parts. This movement is still going on.
The process, in individual cases, is more or less as follows. A couple of Hak-kas come to a Punti village, and there they hire themselves out to labour on the farm. In process of time, when they have laid up a little money, they rent a few acres of mountain land, or unredeemed bog. The insecurity caused by robbers and banditti makes it difficult in sparsely populated districts to cultivate land far from a village. The Hak-kas, therefore, easily find landowners willing to rent their outlying
