CO129-004 - Public Offices & Admiralty - 1843 — Page 45

to assure

Your Excellency

that in his private letters to

...

he observes that although he attacked

to the

rumours

annoyance ...

...

of contemplated treachery of the Chinese, yet. Gutzlaff, the Functionary placed

at Chusan by

...

stated that the ... ,

had positive

information that there

...

140 Armed Junks assembled at "Shippo" with doubts

whether they

were

Pirates,

Rather they were National Force, Captain Chads did not think it would be

proper to neglect his information

Permit me

to notice to

Your Excellency that a Naval Officer under such circumstances, would

not

by his instructions be justified

in omitting all proper precaution

The recent unexpected

attack

of My Hop Banditti(?) by(?) 23 armed Junks will have shown

the

Chads(?)

necessity of unceasing vigilance The only steps taken by Captain

the Commander

... were to call the attention of

the Master in command

of the

Rattlesnake, Guard Ship, to the

intelligence he had received, and moving the former to an

anchorage

within signal distance of

Sin-keamoor(?), where the Rattlesnake with a

Crew

of 44 Men, and

mounting only

six guns(?), was

stationed. and I cannot imagine

that this

would excite alarm, or

calculated to

uneasiness to

the Chinese.

I trust it will be

found

that

Captain

Chad's measures have

not had that effect; for I beg to

assure

Your Excellency that I coincide fully in the wisdom of fully abstaining from (not absolutely necessary for our ...)