ourage sustained him still; he was not
ready to acknowledge final defeat, and he sailed southward in the double
hope of escaping Mongol pursuit and of obtaining means for the renewal
of the struggle. The states of Indo-China were then tributary to the
empire, and his small fleet put in to a port of Tonquin, whose ruler not
only welcomed him, but aided him to refit his fleet, collect stores, and
enlist fresh troops.

Thus strengthened, the intrepid admiral resolved to renew the war
without delay, his project being to assault Canton, which he hoped to
take by a sudden attack. This enterprise seemed desperate to his
followers, who sought to dissuade him from what might prove a fatal
course; but, spurred on by his own courage and a hope of retrieving the
cause of the Sungs, he persisted in his purpose, and the fleet once more
returned to the seas.

It was now 1279, a year after Tiping's death. The Mongols lay in fancied
security, not dreaming that there was in all China the resolution to
strike another blow, and probably unsuspicious that a fleet was bearing
down upon one of their captured ports. What would have been the result
had Chang Chikie been able to deliver his attack it is impossible to
say. He might have taken Canton by surprise and captured it from the
enemy, but in any event he could not have gained more than a temporary
success.

As it was, he gained none. Fate had destined the fall of China, and the
elements came to the assistance of its foes. A sudden and violent
tempest fell upon the fleet while near the southern headland of the
Kwantung coast, hurling nearly or quite all the vessels on the shore or
sinking them beneath the waves. The bold leader had been counselled to
seek shelter from the storm under the lee of the shore, but he refused,
and kept on despite the storm, daring death in his singleness of
purpose.

"I have done everything I could," he said, "to sustain the Sung dynasty
on the throne. When one prince died I had another proclaimed. He also
has perished, and I still live. Should I be acting against thy decrees,
O Heaven, if I sought to place a new prince on the throne?"

It appeared so, for the winds and the waves gave answer, and the last
defender of China sank to death beneath the sea. The conquest of China
was thus at length completed after seventy years of resistance against
the most valorous soldiers of the world, led by such generals as
Genghis, Kublai, and other warlike Mongol prince