Ng Akew (; died 1880), was a Chinese

opium Opium (or poppy tears, scientific name: ''Lachryma papaveris'') is dried latex obtained from the seed capsules of the opium poppy ''Papaver somniferum''. Approximately 12 percent of opium is made up of the analgesic alkaloid morphine, which i ...

smuggler and house owner in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

. She was the central figure in a pirate scandal in 1849, which attracted great attention as a

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. Ng Akew was a

Tanka is a genre of classical Japanese poetry and one of the major genres of Japanese literature. Etymology Originally, in the time of the ''Man'yōshū'' (latter half of the eighth century AD), the term ''tanka'' was used to distinguish "short poem ...

slave of the American opium smuggler

James Bridges Endicott James is a common English language surname and given name: *James (name), the typically masculine first name James * James (surname), various people with the last name James James or James City may also refer to: People * King James (disambiguat ...

(1814–1870) in Hong Kong, and seem to have been involved in his business. In 1849, he gave her a share of his cargo, which she sold along the coast from her own boats. When her boat and cargo was stolen by pirates, she traveled herself to the pirate base and negotiated compensation. Shortly after, an American ship was attacked and its cargo stolen by a pirate ship with Ng Akew present. The stolen cargo was later discovered in her own ship. It was assumed that she had negotiated with the pirates that the cargo from their next pirate attack would go to her as compensation for the cargo they stole from her. Her guilt could not be proven in court and she was therefore freed, but the case became famous in her time. When Bridges Endicott retired to Macao he provided her with land in Hong Kong, and she became a wealthy house owner.

References

* Lily Xiao Hong Lee, Clara Lau, A.D. Stefanowska:
Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Women: v. 1: The Qing Period, 1644-1911
' {{Authority control 19th-century births 1880 deaths 19th-century pirates British Hong Kong Chinese slaves Hong Kong women Chinese pirates Chinese female pirates Tanka people 19th-century Chinese businesswomen 19th-century Chinese businesspeople 19th-century Hong Kong people 19th-century slaves