234
on
Departments who have reported the subject. His Excellency is doubtless aware that besides the considerable business done in these articles by the traders, wholesale smuggling is carried on by vessels, constructed and equipped expressly for running the blockade of the revenue cruisers, with salt and opium.
2.
These vessels are built for fast sailing and are invariably well armed. And when unable to escape by flight, they offer a desperate resistance to ... cruisers. Naval engagements of this description have been witnessed from the shores of this Colony; and smugglers when worsted in the encounter have been known to fly for protection to our waters.
A case of this sort occurred in November last outside the Kap-thui-Mun, in which three or four junks, after exchanging fire for some time with the steamer "Peng Chao Hai", sought refuge in this Harbour, where they lay for several days in order to recover from the damage which men and boats had sustained in the engagement. No application for the rendition of criminals of this class has ever been made, while under the protection of the British they take but little pains to disguise their real character; their boats may be readily distinguished from the ordinary trader by the physical ...
022
re-juents.
bolony and :
outr