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It became thenceforth an eyesore and a nuisance to the local trade; the head quarters of the East Coast pirates; a place of custody and torture for prisoners kidnapped by Mah-Chow Wong from Hong Kong; and the chief depôt of all colonial plunder.
Until the publication, however, of these petitions, it was not generally known in the Colony how these men had obtained possession, and by what influences they had maintained it.
It should not be forgotten, that it was not until long after the conviction and sentence of Mah-Chow Wong, in the Hong Kong Supreme Court, for piracy, that these poor men gathered courage to petition Dr. Bridges' Government at all.
It may also be, that they were partially emboldened so to do by the notoriety of the then pending enquiry into Mr. Caldwell's (Sam Kwei's) proceedings, which I shall hereafter notice, and of which it was was then impossible to foresee the strange and startling conclusion that soon followed.
Be that as it may, the petitioners represent, that by "violence" and "usurpation," Mah-Chow Wong, and his banditti from Hong Kong, had first succeeded in dispossessing them of their estate, and planting it with an armed garrison; that the Court of the Sun-On Mandarin, within whose jurisdiction the property was situate, having been applied to by the petitioners, had heard the cause and adjudged restitution in their favour; that, in the interim, Mah-Chow Wong had himself been tried at Hong Kong for piracy, convicted and sentenced to fourteen years' transportation; that, from his gaol, he had nevertheless, given orders to his "companion," a person named 'Ng Ting Shing, "to keep the land on the opposite shore, by force;"
