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Commander Sookyen, having been directed to proceed, cruised to "Hainan island, as merchant vessel search said to be in the hands of pirates, left this harbour upon the 5th instant, and arrived at Tienpak on the morning of the 8th. There he found a large fleet of vessels which he had strong reason to believe were pirates with their prizes, but in absence of proof, he refrained, in accordance with the instructions issued by the Admiralty, from attacking these, until he had taken on board a Chinese belonging to one of the Junks detained by the Pirates at the above port. Under the guidance of this individual, his boats boarded and destroyed 5 large pirate Junks, with the loss of one man killed and ten wounded.
The state of the "Medea's" machinery obliging him to return to Hongkong, he arrived in this harbour on the 10th instant, and upon his report, Captain Troubridge has now written to requesting to be informed if the services of the E. I. C. Steamer Phlegethion, present anchored off the Factories at Canton, could be spared for a week or ten days, with a view to the complete extermination of the Pirate fleet.
There have been rumours for some months, of overtures being made by the Chinese Government to Chang-shih-won, called in the local patois Shapring-tsai, the leading Pirate of these seas; and the latest intelligence, (which, however, it is of course difficult to authenticate), was to the effect that he had made his terms with the Governor General. Seu, who was to give him both money and honors; in return for which he would undertake to disband his fleet, as soon as the booty on board his Junks was disposed of, and