CO129-122 - Sir MacDonnell - 1867 [5-6] — Page 293

very atrocious and cold blooded murder

of a

Pedlar. The evidence was so

entirely

of a circumstantial character that I should

probably have felt considerable difficulty

in

dealing

with the case had not the

prisoner subsequently confessed. Neither

myself

nor the Chief Justice

or

the

Executive Council could see any mitigating

circumstances in the case and the Criminal

was

therefore left for

Three others

time for Piracy

execution.

were executed at the same

and Murder-

viz

Lee Roon

a.

Hing, Cheong Sin Sooth, and Wong a King.

The

case

of an Arab one

is a class

still too frequent; viz of a fishing boat, which attacks are

the attack by a piratical craft

generally

conducted with a ferocious disregard of

life.

the

289

attacking party commencing by

a

discharge of musketry and flinging stink pots on board, followed by boarding where they seize the crew, clear her of everything valuable, and putting her in charge of some

of their own crew, sail her to some

haunt where they sell or

3. In this

piratical

destroy her.

In this case the captured junk

was

chased five days subsequently by Her

Britannic Majesty's Gunboat "Havoc" and retaken.

were

on

found

badly

board

wounded

Four of the Pirates and the wife of the owner by two musket balls. She subsequently died here in the Civil Hospital, and

the evidence being clear, the four pirates

were condemned to death.

4.

As however I subsequently had doubts