18 ACTS OF PIRACY. [1843. 



sale of human beings, female children captured on the 

 coast and sold as slaves to the Chinese at Singapore, who 

 brought them up for their future wives. The laws of 

 China strictly prohibit the emigration of females ; and so 

 strictly has this edict been enforced, I do not believe a 

 case can be adduced of its infringement by any of the 

 respectable classes ; I learned, moreover, from one of the 

 first Chinese merchants, that if the evasion of it did not 

 entail death to the kindred left behind by the lady 

 eloping, the expenses in the shape of hush-money would 

 be too ruinous to allow of the risk. These piratical 

 vessels do not belong, in many instances, to the neigh- 

 bourhood of Singapore, and are nominally the friends and 

 allies of the Dutch. It was by the prahus of the Sultan 

 of Rhio that the boats of the ' Dido' were attacked, under 

 an impression that they were the weaker party, and there 

 is little doubt that had they been captured and the 

 ' Dido ' not at hand to resent it, all would have been 

 murdered to prevent discovery. The pirates of these 

 seas are of the same description, and we have only to 

 refer to the exploits of the boats of H.M.S. 'Andromache* 

 Capt. H. D. Chads, C.B., to prove their original haunts. 

 It is much to be regretted that the case of the attack on 

 the boats of H.M.S. ' Dido ' was not referred to a com- 

 petent Court of Admiralty, where the question of what 

 constitutes an act of piracy might be defined. I am not 

 prepared to admit that their act was not piratical, 

 " because they were the forces of the Sultan of Rhio, not 

 at war with us, and the friend and ally of the Dutch," 

 or that because they failed in murdering the Dido's 

 boat's crew, they had not committed piracy ; indeed the 



