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and looking very suspicious. In the meantime a man
and a woman had got ashore with another basket, which
-
I presume contained arms; however, they got away
without our catching them.
His Majesty's Ship "Robin" being in port, I at
once informed the Commander, who placed an armed guard
on board consisting of three Bluejackets and an officer in
charge, who proceeded with the ship to Hong Kong where
we arrived at 5 a.m. on the present instant.
During the
passage to Hong Kong, a Colt's automatic pistol fully
loaded was found hidden away in one of the cabins, evident-
i
ly placed there by one of the passengers, so as not to
be discovered on his person when the general search took
place. I may say that if the Custons authorities had
not made a search for contraband tea, we should have known
nothing about the matter and there is no doubt that we
should have been again attacked; it is clearly evident that
the guns were brought on board by women, as we found a
large number of fully loaded pistols concealed in the
cushioned seats of the deck chairs. We had several rich
Chinese passengers on board and a lot of valuables, I
should say about $12,000 or $13,000 worth.
the pirates' principal object.
This was
Everybody is of opinion that the ship was to be
held up in the same waters as before, on her return
voyage to Hong Kong, that is between Wangmoon Customs
station, on the entrances to the Canton Delta and West
River and Hong Kong, and I may say it is a splendid
ground for piracy, there being no gunboats of any
nationality cruising in these waters. On the passage
we saw what we thought to be a suspicious looking
craft, flashing lights as we approached, but as no
signals were returned from the "Tai On" she did not
come close to us. The Chinese Customs do not arrest
anyone for smuggling, they only confiscate the gocds.
I am enclosing an official extract from my log
book which bears out the above statement.
Yours faithfully,
(Signed)
H.W. Holmes,
Commanding Steam Ship "Tai On"
should