The Khojas Were
Defeated In A Battle At Kok Robat, Near Yarkand, And Driven Out Of The
Country.
The affair of the seven Khojas, which at one time threatened the
Chinese with the gravest danger, thus ended in a collapse, and it is
remarkable as being the only invasion in which the Mohammedan subjects of
China did not fraternize with her enemies.
Notwithstanding the magnitude
of his services as an administrator, Zuhuruddin was disgraced and
dismissed from his post for what seemed his culpable apathy at the
beginning of the campaign.
Another indication of the weakness of the Chinese executive was furnished
in the piratic confederacy which established itself at the entrance of the
Canton River, and defied all the efforts of the mandarins until they
enlisted in their behalf the powerful co-operation of the English navy.
The Bogue had never been completely free from those lawless persons who
are willing to commit any outrage if it holds out a certain prospect of
gain with a minimum amount of danger, and the peace had thrown many
desperate men out of employment who thought they could find in piracy a
mode of showing their patriotism as well as of profiting themselves. These
turbulent and dangerous individuals gathered round a leader named
Shapuntsai, and in the year of which we are speaking, 1849, they
controlled a large fleet and a well-equipped force, which levied blackmail
from Fochow to the Gulf of Tonquin, and attacked every trading ship,
European or Chinese, which did not appear capable of defending itself.
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