The insurgents fled away to sea, and many succeeded in escaping to the Straits and P'ormosa. In the North Sea, Billiards Business Failure a Norwegian consortium (NorSok) established that a recent major offshore producing project involved the participation of 350 different organizations and over 10,000 people. The end of the fifties was marked by the Taeping rebellion raging in Mid-China and the second Anglo-Chinese War carrying on its eventful course in the north. The early days of the Treaty port seem to have gone on qnietly enough till the time of the general upheaval in China caused by the Taeping rebellion. Under the treaty signed at Nanking on August 29, 1842, Amoy became one of the five new Treaty ports, and it was stipulated that the island of Kulangsu (as well as Chusan) should continue to be held by Her Majesty's forces until the money payments and the arrangements for opening the ports to British merchants were completed.

The question as to which ports should be opened under the Treaty had given occasion for anxious con- sideration to the British Plenipotentiary ; for, outside of Canton, the knowledge of the Chinese coast and the potentialities of the trade-marts was most important. A. and J. Stronach, who had previously worked among the Chinese in Penang and Singapore, and were thus conversant with the Amoy language. The first negotia- tions for a British concession on Amoy took place in 1844, when a site on the sea-shore at E-mng-kang, near what is now the Customs stables, was agreed upon. The site of the English factory is not known, not even to tradition. An agreement was drawn up for the establishment of a factory, by which the English obtained fairly favourable terms. The trade in Formosa did not flourish, but in the factory at Amoy, which appears to have been established about the same time, better results were obtained. 11. p. 41. towards Japan, where permission to trade was obtained in 1611, and no further serious attempt was made on China until 1622. In that year a squadron of fourteen ships arrived from Batavia, and took possession of the Pescadores, whence expeditions were sent over to Amoy to try to compel the Chinese to trade.

In 1844 arrived the Revs. A Spanish Catholic mission f had been estiiblished in Amoy from the early days of the Spanish trade, but the first Protestant missionaries arrived soon after the British taking of the port and installed themselves on Kulangsu. Kulangsu was evacuated by the British garrison in March, 1845, after the payment t The first Catholic missionaries came in 1589 from Manila, but they were not permitted to remain. The British Consul appears to have lived at first on Kulangsu with the garrison and afterwards in what is now the Taoutai's yamen on Amoy ; but, as Michie's " Englishman in China " gives a picture of the first British Consulate on Kulangsu, built by Mr. Alcock in 1844, we may presume that the Consul from that time on lived more or less continuously on Kulangsu, and that such premises as were occupied on Amoy were used for office purposes. During the afternoon the wind increased considerably from the south-eastward; at dark, with a strong breeze, the ships ran into Amoy. 24th. - At noon, a little to the westward of Breaker Point, the ships making good progress.

Another difficulty at the start was the opium ships stationed at Chinchew and Chimmo which acted as competitors with the newly opened port, but these were withdrawn later on and the opium hulks were moored off Amoy Island itself. Mr. Alcock was only officiating for a few months for Captain Henry Gribble, who held the substantive post and was the first British Consul in Amoy ; Mr. George G. Sullivan was his Vice-Consul, Lieu- tenant Wade, 98th Regiment (afterwards Sir Thomas Wade, Britisli Minister at Pelting) his Interpreter, and Mr. Charles Alexander Winchester his Consular Surgeon. He was handed over to the Chinese general, Kuo Sung-ling, and was subsequently sent down to the Taoutai at Amoy. The first signs of unrest on the coast were exhibited at Amoy, where on May 18, 1853, a body of insurgents under the auspices of the Dagger - a branch of the Triad Society, and led by Huang Wei, Huang Teu-mei, and one Magay (so foreigners called him, his Chinese name seems to have been Ma-kin) seized the town, the official resistance being of the weakest description. On one occasion, upon his return to his native soil, he gave many evidences of his kindness and delicacy; having purchased his father's printing shop, he allowed himself to be deliberately cheated and duped by him; employed as proof-reader Lucien de Rubempre, whose sister, Eve Chardon, he adored with a passion that was fully reciprocated; he married her in spite of the poverty of both parties, for his business was on the decline.