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veral parties of soldiers stationed all through the territory which he would order to come to Kowloon. I said that those men should be ordered to retire to Sham-Chún rather than to Kowloon, to reach which place they would be obliged to march across the territory and over the hills.
19. I have stated that my proclamation was posted in different parts of the leased area on and after the 7th instant. In the absence of Mr. Stewart Lockhart who is in the new territory I cannot say what arrangement was made for posting it, but as up to the 14th we had no reason to apprehend that there was the slightest unfriendliness on the part of the people I presume that some native of the district was employed to post them in the usual manner. On the 20th instant I received a petition from a wife of a man named Cheung-Tsoi who was it appears employed to post those notices. He had posted, or distributed some, for evidence since forthcoming shows that when the leaders were declaring for resistance they said that this man must be killed if he returned to his village from Hong Kong, where he then was, with any more proclamations.
The evidence goes to show that early on the morning of the 18th, he left Hong Kong for Castle Peak Bay en route for his village of Ha-Tsün. At the time a large number of the people, who had been called to arms, were assembled at Castle Peak Bay. It is not clear if the man carried any of my proclamations with him, but he was seized at Castle Peak Bay and sent as a prisoner to his village where he was confined