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31st October last.
33
At pages 27 and 13 of these papers will be found two letters from Lieutenant Walker Commanding Her Majesty's Gun Boat "Grasshopper," to which I beg to call your attention as bearing upon my former Despatches on this subject.
The first covers a copy of an agreement found on board some pirate junks captured by the Grasshopper on the 3rd October, which illustrates very graphically the systematic and business-like manner in which piracy is carried on in this Country as a regular profession or trade.
The Second letter reports the capture by the Grasshopper near Swatow, about 120 miles from this, of three boats taken in the act of committing piracy and murder, and shows the advantage of handing over Chinese pirates captured under certain conditions to their own Authorities, as recommended in Despatch No. 119 of 9th August last.
In this case 58 Pirates handed over by me were taken to a Chinese Mandarin of high rank at Amoy, and within a few days 30 of them were condemned and executed. The remainder, when Mr. Walter wrote, were awaiting their trial with but little chance of escaping the punishment due to their Crimes.
If these men had been brought in here for trial, as they might have been