101

Board

of

Trade

E.1

at that line.

I have also explained this in a recent case of alleged infraction of the Customs Laws where the discredit thereof was attempted to be foisted upon an English vessel by the Master of a Portuguese Lombard. The proof against him was a Note addressed to the Customs Officer at

Mengen in Portuguese, which would not certainly be used by the master of an English vessel or any other people.

On the reverse side of that note was what was intended for a translation of it into Chinese, in which the writer impudently assumes for his craft the character of a vessel of the great English Nation, & insultingly demands from

the officer to whom it is addressed the liberation of somebody or thing, of whose detention the said officer declared he knew nothing. The note in question was forwarded for my perusal and returned by

me to the Hackwan.

In adverting to this case in

my

reply to Lord, I thought it proper to add

a

request that he would take occasion

to make known to the people on the coast whom he represents as entertaining a violent feeling of exasperation against the English in consequence of the alleged acts of aggression, the facts above stated, and that most of the vessels engaged in giving convoy to native Junks are not British vessels.

It would appear extraordinary

that

...

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