The Caldera was a Chilian bark. On the 5th October, 1854, she sailed from Hong-Kong for San Francisco. During the ensuing night she encountered a storm, by which she was so injured as to be obliged to seek an anchorage. This she found, on the 7th October, between islands lying off the Chinese coast. Here she was attacked and plundered by successive piratical bands. The captain escaped and made his way to Hong-Kong, when, upon his information, steps were taken to recover the property and punish the pirates. A small portion of the cargo was found, and summary justice was inflicted upon such of the pirates as were captured. The master of the Caldera was an American. An American firm were shippers by her, and various American insurance offices had taken risks upon the hull of the vessel and the larger portion of her cargo. These all appealed to Mr. McLane, then the chief diplomatic officer of the United States in China, with a view to secure indemnity. Mr. McLane declined to take action, declaring that our treaty offered “no basis whatever on which to make a claim against the Chinese Government,”[141] and referred the subject to Mr. Marcy, then Secretary of State. The latter responded, under date of October 5, 1855, “that the parties injured were entitled to indemnification from the Government of China, if not specially by treaty, at least by general principles of international right and obligation.”[142] The same matter forms the subject of a dispatch from Mr. Cass, Secretary of State, to Mr. Ward, dated May 5, 1859, in which, after declaring that “the decision of the case will rest with the Commissioners and yourself,” and detailing certain allegations made to him by the claimants, who appear to have been very active, he says: “If facts of such a nature be proved, the responsibility of the Chinese Government and its duty to make indemnity would seem to be fixed, according to the treaty, as well as according to the Law of Nations.”[143] The matter was brought before the Commissioners in 1859, and a patient hearing seems to have been given by them, the result of which was a disagreement between them. Both rendered elaborate opinions: one adjudging that no portion of the claims should be allowed; the other, an opposite view, and he proceeded to assess the damages sustained by the claimants. These he estimated at forty per cent. of their claim, holding that the vessel and her cargo had been injured by the storm to the extent of sixty per cent. of their value. The case then went before Mr. Ward, whose conclusion was expressed in the following words:-- “Under the instructions of Mr. Marcy, thus reaffirmed by Mr. Cass, my duty may be discharged by ascertaining, as far as possible, what have been ‘the actual losses of our citizens.’ Satisfied with the award of Mr. Roberts on this point, I have approved the same, and ordered the amounts awarded by him to be paid to the respective claimants.”[144]