Consulate for his offence. This demand the Officer promptly declined to comply with.
Owing to his return to the Colony the same afternoon, the Harbor Master's communication was handed to me, and after conferring with the Commander of the "Elbe", who had likewise since returned from Bautow, I, on Saturday sent in my reply, which was the precursor of a further correspondence of a semi-official character between Mr. May and myself, copies of which are in your possession, and therefore require no further allusion. The result of this correspondence, as you are aware, was the refusal on the part of the Commander of the "Elbe" to give up his prisoner on any pretence whatsoever until the pleasure of the Commodore commanding His Prussian Majesty's ships in these seas, shortly expected and now stated to be at Hong Kong, should be known.