which the sailor was beaten with a club. Lieutenant Glasson told the
mayor that the butcher, instead of resorting to force, should have reported
the sailor; and that he (the mayor) well knew the Commodore, on such a
state of things, would have caused the man to he punished, and would have
amply reimbursed the butcher for his loss; but that the latter should not
have violated the law of Lew Chew and resorted to such desperate remedies.
To this the mayor readily assented. These, however, were minor matters,
and the probability is that the general feeling on board the ships was that
the sailor got no more than his deserts, as the matter seems to have gone
no further.
But there was a far more serious incident to be reported by Lieutenant
Glasson ; this was no less than the supposed murder of one of his crew by
the Lew Chewans. I t seems, that on the 12th of June, a man named Board
was found dead in Napha, under circumstances which justified a strong
suspicion that he came to his end by violence. The Commodore had not
yet reached the island, and Lieutenant Glasson appointed five officers of the
ship to investigate the circumstances and report thereon to him. These
gentlemen, after making a post-mortem examination and hearing witnesses,
reported as their opinion that the man came to his death from blows inflioted
on his head by some person or persons unknown to them, and by subsequent
immersion in the water for a considerable time while insensible from the
blows he had received. They further added, that the testimony of the Lew
Chew witnesses was very equivocal and unsatisfactory. Soon after this the
Commodore arrived, when Lieutenant Glasson immediately reported to him
all the facts and documents in his possession connected with the case ; and,
among the rest, that he had demanded a full and fair investigation by
the local authorities of Lew Chew, to which demand he had received no
satisfactory answer.
The Commodore, upon inquiry, soon became convinced that the man’s
death, though unlawfully produced, was probably the result of his own most
gross outrage on a female, and, in such case, not undeserved; still he felt
that, for the security of others, both Europeans and Americans, who might
subsequently visit the island, it was important to impress upon the authorities
the necessity for the full investigation and proper punishment by the
local authorities, of acts of violence committed upon strangers who might
visit them. He therefore made a peremptory demand upon the regent or
superintendent of affairs to cause a judicial trial to be instituted, conformably
to the laws of Lew Chew.
This demand was at once complied with, the court consisting of six
superior judges, and the regent and first treasurer giving their constant personal
attendance during the entire proceedings.
The facts, as well as they could be ascertained, appeared to be these.
On the 12th of June three American sailors, one of whom was named
Board, passing through the streets of Napha, forcibly entered the house of
one of the inhabitants, and taking therefrom some saki soon became intoxicated.
Two of them found a sleeping place in the gutter, but Board, clambering
over a wall, entered a private house, where he found a woman, named
Mitu, and her niece, a young girl. He brandished his knife, threatened the
woman, and attempted the foulest outrage; she cried out until she fainted
and became insensible. Her cries brought some Lew Chew men to the spot,
and the circumstances clearly showed the purpose of Board. Some of the
Lew Chewans seised him and threw him to the ground. More than half
drunk, he rose and fled towards the shore, seeking to escape. Many persons
had by th is' time assembled, and pursued Board, throwing stones at him,
some of which struck him, and, according to the statements of the native witnesses,
in his drunkenness h & fe ll into the water and was drowned. Whether
this latter particular was precisely in accordance with the fact was somewhat
doubtful.
At any rate, the Lew Chew authorities, declaring that it was “ altogether
illegal to throw stones and wound persons, causing them thereby to fall into
the water and be drowned,” convicted six persons, one as principal and the
others as accessories. After the conviction the regent and first treasurer
appeared on board the Mississippi with the ringleader bound, and desired to
deliver him to the Commodore to be dealt with according to the laws of the
United States. The Commodore, of course, declined to receive him, and
explained to the Lew Chewans that it was not his wish or purpose to interfere
in any mode with the administration or execution of the Lew Chew laws:
that he only wished them to enforce them on proper occasions, when wrong
or injury was done to any foreigners who might chance to visit the island.
He accordingly remanded the prisoner to the regent, who expressed many
thanks to the Commodore for the act. The end of the matter was, that the
accessories were banished to a neighboring island for a time, and the principal
was banished for life. It seems doubtful, however, whether these sentences
were rigorously executed, although the authorities solemnly promised
the Commodore that they should be.
The Commodore, however, ordered the trial by a court martial of the
two surviving Americans who commenced the disturbance, and they were
dealt with according to their deserts. The whole affair was a subject of
deep regret to the Commodore, and was the only instance of any seriously
unpleasant occurrence during the whole intercourse of the Americans with
the Lew Chewans, in their five visits to the island.
I t may not be uninteresting to lay before the reader the forms of a Lew
Chew judicial proceeding, as the customs of a country, in so grave a matter,
are necessarily illustrative of the national character. The flag-lieutenant
Mr. Bent, and Mr. Williams, the interpreter, had been selected by the Commodore
to attend the trial, in accordance with the request of the Lew Chew