ST. HELENA 285 



2/th of last October, in charge of Lieut. Rainier. The prosecution 

 was conducted by Mr. Solomon, Proctor for the captor, and the de- 

 fence by Mr. Fowler, The proceedings were by plea and proof, 

 and the voluminous nature of those proceedings, consisting of libel, 

 answers, examinations of witnesses, survey translations of docu- 

 ments, etc., had necessarily protracted the case until now. 



The judge decreed the vessel to be condemned under the provisions 

 of the 8th and 9th Victoria, cap, 122. Mr. Fowler intimated 

 the probability of the decision being appealed against. 



Within the last few days we have had at anchor in these roads 

 four steamers, and a fifth which passed through the harbour. One 

 of them is H.M. steam frigate Penelope, Commodore Sir Charles 

 Hotham, who arrived on Monday afternoon, the 5th April. This 

 vessel has had the good fortune to capture three prizes since the 

 2oth ult., one of them having 320 negroes on board, another of the 

 three being captured the afternoon before his arrival here. 



In the St. Helena Gazette of 1846 I found a description 

 by Captain C. A. Kellett of a beautiful Chinese junk, the 

 Keying, which put into St. Helena. She does not appear 

 to have been in any way connected with the slave trade, 

 still I venture to think an account of her here will be inter- 

 esting, and not out of place : 



The junk Keying left China December 6th, 1846 ; arrived at St. 

 Helena i/th April, 1847 > having had very light winds nearly the 

 whole voyage, having been at anchor six weeks in the Java Sea, and 

 Sunda Straits, with light southerly and south-west winds. Off the 

 Mauritius experienced some very heavy weather on the 22nd and 

 23rd March, but found her to be a most beautiful sea boat, and easy, 

 never having shipped a drop of water since leaving China, or leaking. 

 Her masts and rudder are of immense size and weight, being made 

 of iron- wood, her rudder is hung to three large ropes, and drawn into 

 her stern by two others, going underneath her bottom and coming 

 over the bows, and when the rudder is down draws 23 feet, but when 

 hoisted only 13 feet. It sometimes takes twenty men to steer her ; 

 but in fine weather, running before the wind, she goes so steady that 

 the tiller rarely requires to be touched, and then two men can steer 

 her. She is built in compartments, having fifteen, several of which 

 are watertight ; she has a main deck, raised quarter-deck, two poops 

 and a raised forecastle, with a high verandah above that again ; 

 her main deck is arched. Her anchors are made of wood, and the 

 shanks about 30 feet long. The cables are made of bamboo, the 

 ropes made of bamboo, rattan and grass ; she has three water tanks 

 built on her decks ; her sails reef themselves by lowering the hal- 

 yards, so that one man to each mast, at the halyards, can either 

 reef the sail or take it in in a minute ; her stern and bows are open, 

 but she is so very buoyant that she never takes in any water at 

 either end. Her main cabin'or saloon is 30 feet long, 25 feet wide, 

 and 12 feet high, painted with various birds, beasts, etc. She has 



