317
12
And it is to this liberty of his, of going in and out of these hongs, that yout ascribe his knowledge of three of the Emilie Pireire's Coolees having escaped from the Sun-fook-tie Hong in December. Fernandes unfortunate- ly is goue to Hankow, but the evidence of Cheang Achan on the head is strong. A copy of this evidence, to which you append your official seal, you give to me, and it runs to the following effect.
4
Cheang Achan declares (before the Procurador this 19th February, 1862) that in the first mouth of the year before last, having business at "this office, he was present when a Chinese of the name of Asoong, whom "he had previously known as a Hak-tow, or Coolee broker, having first "said that he was one of some Coolers that had been kidnapped, and that he had escaped from a hong, altered his statement and admitted "to Mr. Caldwell that he was a broker and not a Coolee that had scaped. And the declarant says that Asoong was the man who brought "Coolees from Hongkong and gave them over to Sam-quai of the Sun- Jook-tie hong; he knows this because four of the Coolers who had signed contracts and had passed into the Wo-shang hong were given back to Mr. Caldwell and went to Hongkong."
"
36
The evidence of Delfino Xavier is most extraordinary.-It runs— "On the 18th day of February, 1862, at Macao in the Procurador's office, the Linguist Delfino Xavier declares on oath that he was In- terpreter on the interrogation of the Chinese Asoong who came from Hongkong to Macan with Mr Caldwell in 1860. The said Chinese on being interrogated before the Procurador of the city declared, in the beginning of his evidence that he arrived at Macao as a Coolec, and af- terwards declared he was a broker, and this being heard by the deponent he immediately notified the sume to the procurador who ordered him to "be cross-examined. And being interrogated before Mr. Caldwell, then "present, the said Chinese answered that he was a broker and not a Coo- "lee. MR. CALDWELL THEN, IN A LOW VOICE, TOLD THE SAID ASOONG "THAT HE WAS NOT TO DECLARE THAT HE WAS A BROKER; and for "the truth of this the deponent now signs this paper together with the "Procurador and the clerk who wrote it.
Signed
L. MARQUES, Procurador.
Signed, Pio Maria de Carvalho Clerk of the Procnturate Signed DELFÍNO XAVIER,
2nd Lingoa Ordinario.
This deposition, bearing your official seal, you furnish to me, with per- mission to make what use I see fit of it. And similar testimony is given by F. B. da Liz, the inte preter who deponed on oath to the correctness of your narative bound up in the volume before referred to,
First Lieutenant C, G. da Silva, also a deponent to your narrative, and -whose sworn attestation appears at pages 26-7 of the appendix mentioned, you were so good as to ask to call at your office, that I might hear for myself what he had to say regarding the character of Fernandes, &c., when he repeated what you had stated of him, and also as to the de- portment of Mr. Caldwell when Asoong admitted that he was a broker,— Mr: Caldwell shrugged his shoulders and looked like a fool frustrated.” What has been said on the preceding renders coinment on paragraphi 23 on the 36th and 37th pages superfluous; or, if you had a doubt regarding your memory of the circumstances, corroborated by so much testimony, can you see a reason for what Mr. Caldwell calls trumping "the accusation that the man Asoong was an impostor. Asoong's own testimony condemned him. First he said he was one of 33 at the Sun- fook-tie hong that had signed contracts; then, when the contracts of the escaped men were produced, and it was found that he lied, he altered his story, and said he was one of the 12 of whom only some had been left at the long, and that he had not signed a contract.
up
As to para 24 on page 37, as the book in question cannot now be found among the books left by the manager of the hong with his wife, mathing more can be said further than that you do not remember the difference in name spelling &c. being pointed out at the time.
the
With reference to para 27 at page 57 in which Mr. Caldwell says that the shop-keeper who was convicted of kidnapping neither in bis statement before the Magistrate nor on his trial at the Supreme Court even hinted that the boy (Asgong) who was the principal witness against him was a broker, you ask me if I can tell you if the 'Ng Attuck, whom the con- victe I shop-keeper calls the complainant against him, and whom he said was a broker, is identical with the Ng Asoong in question. This I cannot answer; but as no such name as 'Ng Atuck appears in the deposi- tions before the Magistrates, and Shuu Aking calls him complainant" the interence is that the names apply but to one man. If this be so, and the point will be ascertained, a inore brazen attempt at imposition can hardly be conceived. There are no means, how- ever, beyond reliance on the justice of Mr. Caldwell's actions, to certify that the inau brought to Macao by Mr. Caldwell, and the man exhibit- elto the prismer, are one and the same; and the same remark applies to the identity of the man Kwon-sun-kwau, the second witness, whoso name, as before pointed out, is certainly not one of the five for whom the government of Hongkong disbursed 1923.
Finally you tell me that you did not answer the letter to which I now draw your attention because you felt certain that Mr Caldwell knew as well as you did that the man Asoong was an impostor, and in putting him in the witness box, to convict a man of felony, and to depone