of 1850 witnessed a great accession of energy on the part
of the rebels in Kwangsi, which may perhaps have been due to the death
of the Emperor Taoukwang. The important town of Wuchow on the Sikiang,
close to the western border of Kwantung, was besieged by a force
reported to number 50,000 men. The governor was afraid to report the
occurrence, knowing that it would carry his own condemnation and
probable disgrace; and it was left for a minor official to reveal the
extent to which the insurgents had carried their depredations. Two
leaders named Chang assumed the style of royalty; other bands appeared
in the province of Hoonan as well as in the southern parts of
Kwantung, but they all collected by degrees on the Sikiang, where they
placed an embargo on merchandise, and gradually crushed out such trade
as there had been by that river. Their proceedings were not restricted
to the fair operations of war. They plundered and massacred wherever
they went. They claimed to act in the name of the Chinese people; yet
they slew all they could lay hands upon, without discrimination of age
or sex.

The confidence of the insurgents was raised by frequent success, and
by the manifest inability of the Canton Viceroy to take any effectual
military measures against them. Two hundred imperial troops were
decoyed into a defile, and slaughtered by an overwhelming force in
ambush. This reverse naturally caused considerable alarm in Canton
itself, and defensive measures were taken. Governor Yeh was sent
against them with 2000 men, and he succeeded in compelling, or as some
say in inducing, them to retreat. Any satisfaction this success may
have occasioned was soon dispelled, for at Lienchow, near the small
port of Pakhoi, the rebels not merely gained a victory, but were
joined by the troops sent to attack them. But these successes at
several different points were of far less significance than the
nomination of a single chief with the royal title of Tien Wang, or the
Heavenly King.

The man on whom their choice fell was named Hung-tsiuen. He was the
son of a small farmer, who lived in a village near the North River,
about thirty miles from Canton. If he was not a Hakka himself, he
lived in a district which was considered to belong exclusively to that
strange race, which closely resembles our gipsies. He belonged to a
degraded race, therefore, and it was held that he was not entitled to
that free entry into the body of the civil service, which