18
331
190
in tow.
Anchoring for the night at the N. entrance of the Staitan Straits, we were informed that 10 large piratical West Coast boats were supposed to be somewhere inside Meichen Sound.
The following day (18th) when standing under sail for Langit, we perceived two suspicious-looking W. C. boats apparently in pursuit of some salt junks then working through the straits; the mandarin urged me to overhaul them; but being certain that with the fresh breeze then blowing I should have some difficulty in catching them, and that if they turned out to be pirates, the news of their capture would reach the main body of the piratical squadron the same evening, I took no notice of them (hoping to find them on my way back) but proceeded quietly under sail to an anchorage off Langit. There, the villagers informed me that these two junks had left there in the morning in chase of the salt junks.
Next morning (19th) I weighed under sail, so as to arrive off Meichen Sound with the first of the flood, sending the Dragon boat to collect intelligence from Pinghai auch, passing inside Meichen Island, to join us off Roque's Point. At 10:15 a.m.