acres at a merely nominal rate. All further difficulties are gradually overcome, and at last the persevering Hak-kas send for their families and friends, and settle down in mud huts, which they build like forts, surrounding them with ditches, with thorny thickets and impenetrable bamboo. Success in most cases follows, the hamlet grows rapidly, and a flock of immi- grants from their native province crowd in to plant a settlement in the neighbourhood. Those scattered settlements form a confederation among themselves, and forthwith demand a reduc- tion of the ground-rent. If this be not acceded to, things will progress pleasantly for a short time longer, until the confed- eration feels itself strong enough to wage war with the original owners and refuse to pay any rent. But, lest the Government should interfere, they are careful to inform the mandarins before- hand that they will pay lawful ground-rent to them. Besides, in many public offices in the Kwang-tung province, the subor- dinate employes are Hak-kas. This always enables them to judge of their own strength, to meet intrigue with intrigue, and to keep their quarrels outside the limits of Government intervention. As this class of village wars is looked upon as harmless by the authorities, they only interfere to squeeze both parties. The Punti employ bravos to fight for them, while the Hak-kas fight their battles for themselves, and that is why the latter always win.
I will now glance at a quarter of the town which has under- gone improvements. Not far from the old factory site, and close to the river, there stands a row of well-built brick houses. In 1869 these houses had not been built, and the ground was occupied by a strange mixed population of the poorest classes. Too poor to live in boats, or in the houses of the city, they squatted on this waste land between the river and the wall,
