322 MORE CRUISING AFTER PIRATES. 



occurred, information being brought that a large fishing- 

 junk belonging to Hong-Kong, with the owner and his 

 family on board, had been boarded by pirates when 

 fishing just outside the island, and his three daughters 

 carried off for ransom. The owner himself had been 

 launched adrift in a sanpan, and directed by his con- 

 siderate countrymen to collect 500 dollars as the price 

 of his daughters' release; if not paid in a short time, 

 the girls would be, never more, of any trouble to 

 him or any one else. The senior officer had arrived 

 while I was still in port, and being entirely ignorant 

 of all matters connected with piracy, he very much 

 doubted my being able to do any good in searching 

 for the culprits in either of the two cases, and espe- 

 cially in the release of the damsels. In answer to his 

 doubts, I said, in the latter case I should probably 

 succeed, but not in the first, the time elapsed being too 

 long. Towards dusk I left, so as to reach a cluster of 

 islands called Tooni-ang, thirty miles east of Hong- 

 Kong, and a very favourite rendezvous for pirates, 

 towards daylight. In the channel between the islands 

 were coves and nooks where junks could stow away 

 very snugly, and the approach being open at either 

 end, they could easily slip away on danger appearing 

 from any direction. I reached the spot before the srrn 

 had thought of throwing light over the high peak of the 



