_She-fo-pao_, being repeatedly examined by the magistrate, acknowledged the fact without reserve, and, upon the strictest investigation and enquiry being entered upon, deposed, That it was really during the obscurity of the night that he had ascended the hill, in order to watch the corn, and on hearing a noise proceed from a quarter of the field that was extremely dark, and in which the shadow of some person was discernable, he had called out, but received no answer:--That the suspicion then arose in his mind, that they were either thieves or wild beasts, and alarmed him for the security of his person, being then entirely alone, he therefore fired the gun to repel the danger, and wounded _Vang-yung-man_ by mischance, so that he afterwards died. That he, the deponent, was not actuated by any other motive or intention on this occasion, nor desirous of causing the death of an individual. The relations of the deceased being then examined, give a corresponding evidence, and raised no doubts in other respects to the truth of the above deposition. In consideration, therefore, hereof it appears that, although _She-fo-pao_ is guilty of homicide by gun-firing, yet, since he was upon the watch over the fields, in the darkness of the night, and perceived the shadow of a man, whom he hailed, and from whom he received no answer, and had in consequence apprehended the approach of thieves or wild beasts, to prevent which, he fired the gun that occasioned the wounds whereof the man is now dead--It follows, that there did not exist any premeditated intention of murder.--The act of which _She-fo-pao_ stands convicted may be, therefore, ranked under the article of homicide committed in an affray, and the sentence accordingly is, to be strangled upon the next ensuing general execution or gaol delivery. The above report being transmitted to the supreme criminal tribunal at Pekin,--They rejoin, That, on investigation of the laws we find it ordained, that homicide by gun-firing shall receive a sentence conformable to the law against intentional murder; and that the law against intentional murder gives a sentence of decapitation on the next ensuing public execution, or gaol delivery. It is likewise found to be ordained by law, that whoever shall unwarily draw a bow, and shoot an arrow towards fields or tenements, so that any person unperceived therein shall be wounded, and die therefrom, the offender shall receive a hundred blows with the bamboo, and be banished to the distance of three thousands lys (near a thousand miles).