One day, when speaking of our losses and remarking on the pillaging, Captain Maffit, after saying that he could not control his officers nor prevent it, related how, at the time, one officer came to him, after a package of Oriental articles had been broken open, and told him that “now was the time for him to get a beautiful present for his daughter”; and how he replied to him,--“When I want to make my daughter a present I’ll pay for it.” To appreciate these incidents one should have seen the fine acting, and the very proper emotion to suit the sentiment, expressed in the captain’s face. A few days after our arrival in New York, an old Southern friend--a native of Charleston, and a branch of a family in high position in that city--informed us that Captain Maffit married a widow, Mrs. Reed, of Charleston, who was a Laurens, and of one of the most opulent families of that city. Lieutenant Reed is her son, and therefore Captain Maffit’s step-son.[47] This young Lieutenant Reed superintended the officers who broke open and plundered our property. After seeing a part of our silver carried into the ward-room, and mentioning the fact to Captain Maffit’s steward that some of the spoons were very valuable to me from family associations, and that I should like to get them, he told some one of the officers our wishes, but quickly returned, merely remarking, that Lieutenant Reed had ordered our silver taken into the ward-room, and from his manner we readily understood that it was useless to beg further for anything. Captain Maffit was undoubtedly in collusion with Lieutenant Reed, and not only ordered him how to proceed in the plundering, but directed that all the valuables should be taken into the ward-room, where they remained until we left the steamer. There is no question in my mind that the box, containing the valuable article from Peking,--which Captain Maffit coolly told me could not be found,--was at that time in Lieutenant Reed’s possession, and being safely kept for the captain, who was thus enabled to present his daughter not only with a beautiful, but a magnificent gift. The fact, also, that my small hand-trunk was well secured with two locks, and that I was careful to take it with me into the boat which conveyed us from the _Jacob Bell_ to the pirate, probably inclined Captain Maffit and his officers to fancy that it might contain costly articles of jewelry; and the former, led by his cupidity, ordered it not to be delivered on board the Danish bark. Had Captain Maffit, instead of masking his designs under this cowardly hypocrisy, at once told us that all the property on board the _Jacob Bell_ was his prize, and that the most desirable and valuable things we had he and his officers wanted and _would_ have, he would have commanded our respect as a straightforward, out-spoken, fearless enemy,--a sort of honorable freebooter,--who, although a traitor to the best of Governments, had not yet fallen so low as to be beneath either pity or contempt.