e entertained himself for some time with their
perplexity, rejecting their money with scorn, appearing inexorable to
their prayers, and giving out that the thief should certainly be shot;
but as he then foresaw that he should be forced to take shelter in
their ports a second time, when the influence he might hereby acquire
over the magistrates would be of great service to him, he at length
permitted himself to be persuaded, and, as a favour, released his
prisoner, but not till the mandarine had collected and returned all
that had been stolen from the officer, even to the minutest trifle.

But, notwithstanding this instance of the good intelligence between
the magistrates and criminals, the strong inclination of the Chinese
to lucre often prompts them to break through this awful confederacy,
and puts them on defrauding the authority that protects them, of its
proper quota of the pillage. For not long after the above-mentioned
transaction, (the former mandarine attendant on the ship, being, in
the mean time, relieved by another,) the commodore lost a top-mast
from his stern, which, after the most diligent enquiry, could not be
traced: As it was not his own, but had been borrowed at Macao to heave
down by, and was not to be replaced in that part of the world, he was
extremely desirous to recover it, and published a considerable reward
to any who would bring it him again. There were suspicions from the
first of its being stolen, which made him conclude a reward was the
likeliest method of getting it back: Accordingly, soon after, the
mandarine told him that some of his, the mandarine's people, had found
the top-mast, desiring the commodore to send his boats to fetch it,
which being done, the mandarine's people received the promised reward;
but the commodore told the mandarine that he would make him a present
besides for the care he had taken in directing it to be searched for,
and, accordingly, Mr Anson gave a sum of money to his linguist, to be
delivered to the mandarine; but the linguist knowing that the people
had been paid, and ignorant that a further present had been promised,
kept the money himself: However, the mandarine fully confiding in Mr
Anson's word, and suspecting the linguist, took occasion one morning
to admire the size of the Centurion's masts, and thence, on a
pretended sudden recollection, he made a digression to the top-mast
which had been lost, and asked Mr Anson if he had not got it again. Mr
Anson pre