57
And it was with this man that, according to Mr. Caldwell himself,[1]—who reluctantly admits the fact after it had been proved by many witnesses, a partnership, in at least eight Chinese lorchas, subsisted,—from the beginning of 1855, if not earlier, down to the end of 1856, if not later;-for the Colonial Register of the "Kee-loong-poo-on" lorcha was not cancelled in the Colonial Secretariat before April, 1857;—at all events, during a period, ominously contemporaneous with the period of the well-known story of the piratical lorcha "Arrow!"
All of these lorchas, as I gather from the same tardy confession, "carried the 'Eaglet's' flag;"— the armed steamer, already mentioned;—which was also part owned by Mah-Chow Wong, commanded by Mr. Caldwell in person, and "principally engaged," confesses her engineer, "in conveying Chinese merchant junks up and down the coast," or, as he elsewhere more emphatically calls it, "the convoy business."[2]
In such a connection, it is easy to conceive that it became a very profitable business. Mr. Caldwell himself incidentally speaks of as many as ninety-two Chinese junks, being under his convoy at one time. To Mr. May, on another occasion, his words were; "Such is the fame and terror caused by the 'Eaglet,' that many vessels have applied to us; and we are thinking of granting the 'Eaglet's' flag as a pass of protection."[3] That flag would have been a more effectual "protection" against the trembling Chinese—whatever the character of the vessel bearing it—than Mr. Caldwell's illegal certificate, under his office seal, at a subsequent period, was able to afford to
