Don Joao received us most cordially, and in the course of conversation said he had broken through a rule, by accepting an invitation to dine with Mr. Forbes (an American gentleman to whom we were likewise engaged), as he would not forego the pleasure of meeting his brother officers. Taking our leave, we proceeded to the room in which we were to arrange the starting of the vessels for the cup. At the door I was met by Captain Staveley, Military Secretary to his father, General Staveley, C.B., commanding at Hong Kong, who requested my assistance in getting a gentleman released, who had been imprisoned the previous evening, he believed, for not saluting the “Host,” during a procession on the Feast of Corpus Christi. I immediately expressed my willingness to apply to the Governor, remarking that he was a very good fellow, and I was sure would not hesitate to comply with my request. Accordingly, Troubridge and myself, accompanied by Captain Staveley, returned to the Government House. Without waiting to be announced, we proceeded at once to the apartment in which we had just before left Señor Amaral, and we found him seated with the French Chargé d’Affaires, M. le Baron de Forth Rouen. I apologised for the intrusion; His Excellency, rising, accompanied me to one of the windows. I then stated that I was come to ask a favour--that he would be so kind as to give an order for the release of a Mr. Summers, who, it appeared, had been confined in the common prison all night for not saluting the “Host.” I concluded by remarking that, in all probability, His Excellency had heard nothing of the business. To this he sharply replied, that not only did he know all about it, but that the person in question had been confined by his order. I then remarked to His Excellency that the punishment (Mr. Summers had been confined in the common jail, without food, since five o’clock the previous afternoon) had surely been equal to the offence; and I again expressed a hope that the Governor would order his release. On this he stated that Mr. Summers was sent to prison, not for any disrespect to the “Host,” “for which he (the Governor) cared, perhaps, as little as I did,” but for disobeying his order. I inquired, “What order?” He replied, “The order I gave him to take his hat off.” I then said, “Do I understand your Excellency rightly, that you could order any person you chose to take off his hat in the open streets?” To this he replied, “Exactly so.” I then said that this altered the case, and that I must now request the immediate liberation of Mr. Summers, as I could not consider that the alleged offence for which he was imprisoned was any crime at all. I further added that I could hardly believe that I had heard now, in the nineteenth century, the Governor of a Portuguese settlement assert that he had imprisoned a British subject for refusing to take his hat off in the open streets, when ordered by him, through a soldier, to do so.