to a
"flower-boat," and the next day by steamer to Hong Kong, and she
was taken to the house of A-Neung. Her mistress stayed in the
house three days, and sold her to the first and second defendants
(mother and daughter) for $120. She added: "This was in the tenth
month last year.... I was never allowed to go out. I have never
been out of the house since I came to Hong Kong [nearly six
months]. First, second and third defendants never went out of the
house together [some one always being on guard]. Last year Tai-Ku
and A-Neung told me that I should have to go to San Francisco.
This year I was again told that I was going to San Francisco. I
said I did not want to go. Tai-Ku then beat me." Another girl
only 19 years old, married about four years, declared that in
consequence of a quarrel between herself and another wife of her
husband, he sold her to Sz-Shan, fifth defendant, for $81, who
brought her from Tamshui by steamer to Hong Kong, and took her to
A-Neung's house, where she was being held for sale. She finished
her testimony thus: "Several men have been up to the house to see
me. They were going to buy me if they liked me." A letter was
produced by the Inspector, which he found in A-Neung's house, from
Canton to the writer's sister-in-law in Hong Kong, urging that as
the owner had lost money on the "present cargoes," a higher price
must be set on them and the sale hastened, as soon as the letter
should arrive, and word returned that they had been disposed of;
also directing that "after the transaction, one cue-tassel and one
shirting trouser" were to be taken back and sent to Canton by the
hand of a friend at first opportunity. (This as a pledge of good
faith.)

A-Neung, first defendant, declared that she was "a widow,
supported by her son-in-law now in California. Mine is a family
house. The girls are visitors at my house." The second defendant,
Tai-Ku, daughter of the preceding, declared herself to be a
married woman, and that her husband was in California, on a
steamer; that the girls were not hers, and that she was "not in
the habit of sending girls to California." The third defendant
deposed that she came from Canton to ask A-Neung for some money,
and added: "I never buy and sell girls." Fourth defendant claimed
to be utterly ignorant of the girls being sent to Cal