dent of the cohengists, the society of traders, to communicate its contents to Mr. Hall, chief of the English Factory, and demand from him that the guilty should be given up to justice.
“Just at this time, the Madras arrived from Macoa; and the matter being represented to Captain Dilkes, he prevailed on the traders of the factory to carry a letter to the Viceroy. This step, unexampled at Canton, was contrary to all ordinary customs. The letter was however favourably received.
“Captain Dilkes complained of the robbery which had been committed, demanded an impartial examination, and prayed his Excellency to consider the affair as a national business, and having no connection whatever with the East India company. The Viceroy did hot consent to this last demand; but he sent a confidential mandarin to confer with Captain Dilkes and Mr. Hall. The parties concerned on both sides were present at the interview. The Viceroy at last decided, in conformity with the Chinese custom, that the affair should be carried before an inferior tribunal, in order to be finally brought before a superior court.
“Captain Dilkes, with the guilty person, a witness, and Mr. Staunton, in quality of interpreter, went into the town where the people treated them with much indignity. After having waited for several hours for the criminal judge of the province, they were brought into Court. Captain Dilkes insisted on the Mate (who was the one accused) being examined. The judge refused, saying that English sailors could not be believed; he added, that if the wounded person survived forty days, the laws of China only ordered banishment and that the magistrates would pass over this sentence in consideration that the guilty person was a foreigner.
“Captain Dilkes persisting in demanding the examination of the sailors, and having unfortunately raised his voice higher than what is permitted by the regulations of the courts in China; immediately the judge made a signal to his officers, who seized Captain Dilkes by the shoulders and pushed him violently out of the court; as was also Mr. Staunton.
“Some days after, as the young man was likely to recover from his wound, the Viceroy sent word to Captain Dilkes, that in consideration of the friendship subsisting between the
