396
E
To transfer duty-paid goods from their premises in the settlement to their premises on the river side has been accorded by the permission of the Likin Collectorate for the past June, without objection.
This is the more satisfactory because I had but a fortnight ago some reason for fearing that the men themselves or their relatives were in danger of treatment that would have demanded very serious notice. They had petitioned, though half-heartedly, that an attempt was being made at Amoy to intimidate the families to which by descent they belong, into admissions that might be used to invalidate their claim to British nationality - how, at Amoy, in January 1851, there was enacted a tragedy of which, in justification of the course I have pursued, I must recall the principal incidents. A British subject was foully murdered by the Authorities, as I believe, because he claimed to be a British subject.
The man killed was an inoffensive person of good character, well known to Mr. Boston Morrison then stationed at Amoy, and at the time referred to he was in the employ of Messrs. Jardine, Matheson & Co., probably boarding with his elder brother who was reputed, with good reason, to be a member of one of the affiliated societies of which Amoy and its vicinity are the home, and the Authorities were, I dare say, moved to action against his family, in this instance, for this reason. The younger brother was seized early in the morning at his home, and another was carried to the yamên. Our Consul, Mr. Sullivan, learning of his arrest, proceeded at once to the yamên and insisted on his production; but he gained nothing. After some hours he returned to the Consulate, and almost as he re-entered it, a chair was set down at the door containing the corpse of the man he had endeavoured to save. He had been beaten...