A journal of a voyage to China in the PEGASUS commanded by Captain Joseph D. Penrice in 1862, and written up by John Hudson shortly after the event. The journal includes a detailed description of the practice of slave ships sending a decoy ship ahead to divert the attention of naval patrols. Hudson was a young Cheshire businessman sent to further his business education in China. On the way, he writes, their vessel observed ‘a small schooner of very questionable appearance’ leading another larger vessel some 15 miles astern. Hudson records how his captain predicted this was a ruse designed to fool naval patrols into detaining the smaller vessel, allowing the real slaver to escape. The journal goes on to record the appearance of a naval ship, and a faltering exchange of signals.