consular duties, while Major-General Jervois administered the government of the Colony as Lieutenant-Governor.
Throughout the six years of his tenure of office, Sir G. Bonham maintained friendly relations with the successive Governors of Macao, J. M. F. d'Amiral (until August 22, 1849), P. A. da Cunha (since May 27, 1850), S. Cardazo (since January 21, 1851), and T. F. Guimaraes (since November 18, 1851). Nor were these amicable relations interrupted even by that plucky but hasty action of the Senior British Naval Officer, Captain H. Keppel, who (June 7, 1849) landed at Macao, with Captain Troubridge and 115 men of H.M.S. Maeander, and rescued from the Portuguese gaol-guard a British prisoner by an act of force which unfortunately involved the death of one Portuguese soldier find the wounding of two others. The prisoner was Mr. J. Summers, preceptor of St. Paul's College, who had been lodged, with unreasonable harshness, in the common jail at Macao for not taking off his hat at the passing of the Corpus Christi procession. When Captain Keppel applied for the prisoner's immediate rendition, Governor Amiral curtly refused it because the gallant Captain declined to ask for it as a personal favour. Captain Keppel fancied that his forcible interference would be held justifiable on the ground of the above-mentioned Hongkong Ordinance, which included Macao in the dominions of the Emperor of China. As Governor Bonham, however, took a different view of the case, and induced the British Admiralty to grant substantial compensation for the injuries inflicted, the relations between the Governors of the two Colonies continued unimpaired. Great troubles came over that unfortunate settlement at Macao in connection with the anti-Chinese policy and consequent murder of Governor Amiral (August 22, 1849) by hired Chinese assassins, and by the equally sudden death through cholera (not poison) of his successor, Commodore da Cunha (July 6, 1850). The latter had just arrived from Europe with two frigates, demanding of the Chinese Government, as compensation for the assassination of Governor Amiral, a recognition of the perfect independence of Macao. As the
