Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume II.djvu/194

 180 CnRISTIANITY IN CHINA, KIT. This book, widely circulated and greedily devoured by the multitude, excited a panic terror among the po- pulation of Macao. Every Chinese packed up his goods as quickly as possible, and whole families, men, women, and children, fled and took refuge at Canton. The sea was covered with junks carrying away Chinese property, in the shore heaped with goods and furniture; it might have been thought that the redoubtable fleet was actually in sight, and that the pe[)lc had barely time to escape. In a few days the Portuguese and their negro slaves were the sole iidiabitants ot" Macao. A'hen the binuls of fugitives reached Canton, they communicated to the whole town the terror by which they were inspired; magistrates, mandarins, and |>eople, all the inhabitants of the city, from the viceroy to the porters, were convinced they were about to become the prey of the Western devils. The militia was called out, the war junks armed, the guard strengthened, and a watch kept night and day from the ramparts; and in order the better to prepare for the defence of the city, it was ordered that all houses built outside the walls, between them and the river, should be demolished. More than a thousand houses, it is said, were destroyed in this way, and by way of additional security, the gates on that side of the town were walled up with blocks of granite and mortar, and an edict published in which it was expressly forbidden for a citizen to receive into his house any inhabitant of Macao, since " one of them," it was added, named Ko-tinion (Cataneo), was planning to seize upon the empire. The viceroy, not content with these energetic precautions, sent off a courier to Pekin, to warn the emperor of the danger that threatened him.