A postscript memorial by Ch'en Pao-chen, Governor of Hunan, states that owing tothe annual meagre "harvests in the territory adjoining the Reserration of the Minotze aborigines of Hunan occupied by Chinese military colonists, the custom has been te allow Tls. 1,000 per anuran from the Provincial Treasury as a grant-in-aid of the said colonists. Any other deficit required fur the proper administration of the said territory, for arming rilling the said military colonists, etc., is sanctioned by edict to be defrayed from the surplus deposits in the treasury of the Grain Intendant of Hunan. With'reference to this last, therefore, memorialist has to "report that "he has received the petition of Liu Chen-hsiang, Acting Gram Taotai of 'Hunan, reporting that fur the year now losing' he has disbursed so far the sum of Tls. 6,894.40 to the administration officers in charge of the military colonists above named. Owing, however, to the present famine caused by failure of the crops in Hunan, the said Intendant declares that there has been no surplus deposit in his treasury and he therefore was compelled to draw the above sum, from time to time as required, fromlastyear's unexpended money placed aside for transport and carriage of the provincial tribute rice to Peking. In addition to the above, also, the regulation grant-in-aid of Tls. 1,000 has already been drawn from the Provincial Exchequer. The "attention of the Board of Revenue is requested to the above items of disbursements.—Rescript: Let the said Board take note.
Note—There are supposed to be (on paper) about 10,000 military colonists in the region adjoining the Reservation of the Miaotze aborigines of Hunan. The oldest colonist families date from the reign of Chien Lung, 18th century, when the aborigines were forced to succumb bef-re the victorious forces of that great and energetic Emperor. These aborigines, who hitherto" had defied the armies of the Mings in the retirement of their hill fastnesses, were driven from height to height by the Manchus flushed with victories over the partisans of the Mings at lest, their final hill fortress being danger of destruction and themselves in need of food, the brave mountaineers w-re compelled to submit to their conquerors and allow military colonists to be planted their must. "These colonists are bound virtue of their land tenures one and all, to take uparms to fight any raiding band of Miaotze and until the reign of Tao Kuang, in the yoginning of the present century, the former were maintained in a proper state of efficiency, insomuch that previous to Tao Kuang they were often called to verve in consid-table bodies at a long distance from their homes Their ranks wore frequently reinforced by squat ters from the adjoining provinces who since the gradual effacement of military ardour amongst the descendants of the original colonists, are consid-red a much braver and more u-etui race than the latter. The "arms" of the colonists are, at this date, mere curiosities of ancient weapons, hence the annual item of disbursement "for pr: arms and ammunition for the colonists" must be a myth and must have gone on from to year to enrich the heredit"ry chiefs (id-sit) ut the colonists in question lusterd of being applied to their use.—Zranslator.
19th September.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.