Trade and Travel in the Far East Part 8

3. Another _lorcha_, bound from Macao to Hong Kong, with a general cargo and two pa.s.sengers, was carried off in the same way, plundered, and then burned: the unfortunate pa.s.sengers (two respectable young men; one an Irishman, named Clark, the other from Shetland, a Mr. Clunis) were in like manner murdered.

4. A boat was sent off from Macao with a box of treasure containing some 12,000 dollars, under the charge of a Pa.r.s.ee clerk of the firm to whom the money belonged. They left the sh.o.r.e at two P. M., and the ship they were bound to was at anchor only five miles off. The non-appearance of the treasure which was expected on board, caused the captain to go on sh.o.r.e to make inquiries about five in the afternoon: his questions alarmed the Pa.r.s.ee merchant, who had sent off the money and his clerk at two. Strict inquiry was inst.i.tuted, and the result was, the certainty that the poor man had been murdered and thrown overboard by the boat's crew, who made off with the money.

5. A boat was sent from a ship in the harbour called the _Typa_, to one in the outer roads, to transship fourteen chests of opium: the crew consisted of four Chinese and one Lascar, with the second mate in charge. The opium was taken in, and the boat started on her return to the _Typa_ about two P. M.

When about half way between the two harbours, the four Chinese suddenly dropped their oars, seized the mate and Lascar, stunned them with the boat's tiller, and threw them overboard: their bodies were picked up next day, and gave the first intimation of their fate. Two of the pirates were subsequently caught and executed; but the property, worth 10,000 dollars, was irretrievably lost.

6. A British merchant in Macao sent an order off to his ship in the _Typa_, to bring on sh.o.r.e, in the course of the day, a box containing 6000 dollars: the money was put into a boat belonging to the vessel at ten in the forenoon, and started for the inner harbour, about an hour's pull. She was attacked by a fast-pulling Chinese boat, when about half way between the ship and the sh.o.r.e, and robbed of the dollars; but no violence was offered to the crew, who were China-men. When this money was being packed and put into the boat, some Chinese sailors on board the ship were observed making signs as if to some one at a distance: no notice was taken of this circ.u.mstance at the time, though it was remarked upon when too late.

I could enumerate other cases of a similar nature; but these six are sufficient for my present purpose.

The Chinese servants in the employ of Europeans at Macao, Canton, and Hong Kong, are, without exception, the most consummate set of scamps it has ever been my fortune to encounter. Their whole study from morning to night and from night to morning, is, how to cheat their masters. There is not an article put upon the table, that is not charged at four times its value. If you keep a cow, or even a dozen cows, not one drop of milk can you obtain, more than barely enough for daily use; and should any attempts be made to punish either the cowkeeper or the head servant for their villany, ten to one that your cows are poisoned before another week pa.s.ses over your head. This state of things might be, in a great measure, put a stop to, were masters to pay more attention to their domestic affairs; but most of the European merchants of China, being men of wealth, and engaged in mercantile transactions of great importance, deem such matters beneath their notice; and thus, the system goes on to the serious loss and inconvenience of less wealthy men. I knew one instance in which a housekeeper by perseverance reduced his market-bill from 150 dollars per month to 45 dollars; but the consequence was, that his servants to a man left him: he could obtain no good ones in their place, and was ultimately obliged to give in. As a set-off against this crying evil, I may mention the practice which prevails, of the _compradore_ (or head servant) becoming security for those under him, and finding security on his own part to a certain amount, varying according to circ.u.mstances; so that, if any of the under-servants steal the plate or any other property of their master's, the _compradore_, as a matter of course, makes good its value. The Negroes here, as in most other parts of the world where they are met with, are slaves, poorly fed, hard worked, and occasionally very severely flogged. Every house in Macao occupied by a man of any substance, has its slaves; and the Government is a large slave-holder. All the porters at the Custom-house and other public offices are slaves. These unfortunate creatures are brought from Papua by Portuguese vessels, which pay an annual visit to the settlements of their countrymen on the Island of Timor. How they are obtained from Papua, I am not aware; but that some hundreds of them are carried to Macao every season, and sold there, is a fact beyond contradiction. This abominable traffic received a check last season (1843) from the Java Government. It appears that a Portuguese barque called the _Margaretta_, the owner of which was a wealthy inhabitant of Macao, sailed from Timor for Macao in the month of September, with some fifty slaves on board, _all children under ten years of age_. Some accident compelled her to call at Batavia for repairs, where her master reported the children as having been sent by the authorities at Timor to Macao, to be brought up in the Roman-Catholic faith. The suspicions of the Dutch Authorities were, however, awakened, and the proceedings of the Portuguese ship-master were narrowly watched. A few days only had elapsed, when he was detected in endeavouring to sell two of the unfortunate infants to a Chinese for 500 guilders (42l.) each. This led to the examination of his bills of lading and other papers, when it was found, that the children had been regularly shipped and _manifested_ as slaves. The result was, the confiscation of ship and cargo, and the liberation of the young captives, who, I presume, (though I am not sure on the point,) were, as usual, apprenticed out as domestic servants to families in want of them. I gave the admiral on the China station full particulars of this event; and hope that he will cause a sharp look-out to be kept on the Portuguese vessels returning from Timor next autumn.

The market of Macao is well supplied with game, butchers' meat, pork, poultry, fruit, and vegetables: all these might be had on very reasonable terms, if the Chinese seller were allowed his own way; but, before he reaches the market from his home, he is taxed and re-taxed by every petty rogue of a Mandarin whose station he may happen to pa.s.s on his way. On reaching the market, he is taxed again, and is compelled to sell to the general dealer, who squeezes him to the last _cash_, and re-sells at an exorbitant profit to the Englishman's _compradore_, who charges his master, on a moderate calculation, four times what he gave; so that, by the time the Englishman's dinner is on his table, it costs him no trifle. Game is plentiful only in winter, which sets in in November. Wild ducks, teal, pheasants, partridges, snipe, with an occasional deer, are to be had, all fat and in prime order, at this season. The Chinese bullock is a compact little animal, and, when fattened, yields remarkably good beef.

Macao, like all Portuguese towns, is well stocked with priests; and were we to judge from the number of them who are seen parading the streets, as, also, from that of women constantly bending their steps church-ward, the inhabitants must be a very devout race. From seven in the morning till dusk, the streets are rarely free from church-going ladies; many of them followed by Negro slaves carrying their kneeling-rugs and prayer-books. One of the greatest nuisances in Macao is the perpetual ringing or tolling of church-bells, day and night: as soon as one stops, another begins; and the sleep-killing ding-dong is kept up at a rate that, in the warm nights of summer, is enough to drive a stranger frantic.

Every house has a watchman, who goes his rounds from eight in the evening till daylight next morning, and, every half hour, beats a hollow bamboo with a heavy stick, making noise enough to disturb the soundest sleeper. This keeping a watchman is neither more nor less than paying black-mail. Any housekeeper who should seek to evade the imposition by doing without a guardian of the night, would infallibly be plundered in a week or two, the thieves being, most probably, conducted to his premises by some neighbour's watchman.

The streets of Macao being narrow, rough, crooked, and, in general, very steep, wheel-carriages of any description are entirely unknown. Their place is supplied by sedan-chairs of Chinese make, carried by Chinese porters: these may be hired for a dollar per day, and are very convenient, either in wet or in extremely hot weather. The bearers, like those of their profession in England, are apt to impose upon strangers, who must be on their guard till they become acquainted with the ways of the place.

Macao is infested with loathsome beggars, who scruple not to expose their ulcerated legs, arms, &c. for the purpose of exciting the charitable feelings of the pa.s.ser-by. They make a point of stopping at the door of any shop in which they see a European, whose ears they immediately a.s.sail with the most discordant noise, by beating a hollow bamboo with a stick; a mode of annoyance which the law of China allows, and which is carried on in Macao; but, in the neighbouring British settlement, an entire stop has been put to it. This, they well know, will soon cause the shopkeeper to give them a _cash_[21] or two, or his customer to leave the premises. In China, no native can turn a beggar from his door, till he has given him something in the shape of charity: the merest trifle, however, is sufficient to authorize the forcible expulsion of the applicant. I have seen as little as a tea-spoonful of rice given on such occasions, when the sulky and grumbling mendicant took his reluctant departure towards the next door, where he would, perhaps, meet similar treatment with a repet.i.tion of "curses not loud, but deep."

[Footnote 21: One thousand of these make a dollar, so that the value of one is less than a quarter of a farthing.]

The Portuguese of Macao made a great ado on Sir Henry Pottinger's declaring their settlement, in as far as British subjects were concerned, part of the dominions of the Emperor of China: this, at first sight, appeared strange to many people besides the Macao citizens, but, when the subject received due consideration, Sir Henry was found to be quite correct in the view he had taken of it. Macao is _not_ a Portuguese settlement, in the proper sense of that word, but only a territory leased to that Power on certain terms, for which an annual tribute or rent is paid to this day. The Chinese laws are in force here; their Mandarins levy duties, and tax every article sold in its markets; its porters, boatmen, _compradores_, &c. require Chinese licenses, but not Portuguese: in short, the Chinese are lords of the manor, and the Portuguese are mere tenants, with leave to build forts, and to levy certain duties on the commerce of the place. Looking at the matter in this light, every unprejudiced person must admit, that Sir Henry Pottinger, in exercising the power vested in him by Her Majesty's Government, and in framing regulations for the wholesome restraint of Her Majesty's subjects visiting China, (some of whom, it may be remarked, are troublesome and very unruly characters,) was perfectly right in including the peninsula of Macao in the dominions of His Celestial Majesty. The Portuguese were very indignant; at least, they pretended to be so; but it never would have done, to allow British subjects, fleeing from their creditors or from justice, to have an asylum where they could safely evade the laws of their own country, at a foreign station scarcely forty miles from the new British settlement of Hong Kong.[22]

[Footnote 22: The present Governor of Hong Kong, Sir John Davis, has gone even further than Sir Henry Pottinger, and has given notice to the Authorities at Macao, that British subjects are no longer amenable to their laws. This is as it should be, and as it ought to have been a hundred years ago.]

The trade of Macao was of very little importance, and its revenues never paid its expenses, till the late Chinese war broke out. Circ.u.mstances then drove the British merchants from Canton, and nearly the whole of them took up their abode in Macao, where they continued till the Portuguese Government was called upon by the Chinese to refuse them further protection. They were then compelled to seek shelter on board the shipping of their country, where many of them remained for nearly twelvemonths, till the course of events allowed of their returning to Macao. Their presence soon attracted hundreds of wealthy and respectable Chinese dealers, and quadrupled the trade of the place, as well as its revenue; which enabled the Portuguese Governor to make a handsome remittance to Lisbon, in place of drawing upon that city for some 40,000 dollars annually, as he had hitherto been in the constant practice of doing, to rebuild many of the public edifices, and to improve the town generally, while it added much to the wealth and comfort of almost every woman and child in the place. This was a piece of good fortune the Portuguese of Macao most certainly did not deserve, their system, as regards foreign commerce, being as illiberal as can well be imagined.

During the time they were reaping this rich harvest from British trade, British subjects were not permitted to land or ship a single package of goods nor to have their names entered in the Custom-house books. On the arrival of a ship with goods suited to the Macao market, the English consignee was obliged to employ a Portuguese citizen to enter and pa.s.s them through the Custom-house, before a package could be landed. The duties, also, were exorbitant; and, strange as it may appear, they even taxed money, which could not be imported without paying one per cent.

duty. I have elsewhere seen an _export_ duty put on treasure; but the Macao Government is the only one I ever knew to impose any restrictions on the importation of a commodity which most Governments, as well as individuals, are generally anxious to receive, in unlimited quant.i.ty, without taxing those who bring it to them. No English vessel was allowed to enter their inner harbour: this privilege was reserved for Spaniards and Portuguese. On one occasion, a small British schooner of war was proceeding into this haven, her commander never imagining that the restriction put on the merchant vessels of his country could possibly extend to Her Britannic Majesty's pennant: he was mistaken, however, and the first battery he came near, threatened to fire into him. The threat was of course disregarded, and the little schooner, in defiance of Portuguese batteries, quietly pursued her way.

How this state of things could be so long put up with by the British Government, it is hard to understand. When one considers that Portugal owes its very existence as a nation to England; that Macao, on more than one occasion, was saved from the fury of a Chinese army and rabble, during the late war, by British ships and men; that nine-tenths of the money that pa.s.ses through its coffers, is English money; that Portuguese citizens visiting the different ports of British India, are free to come and go, land and ship their goods in their own names, hold houses and other fixed property, and act in all respects as British subjects, and as seemeth most for their own interest; when, I say, these facts are considered, one is utterly at a loss to conceive why Great Britain should suffer her subjects to be cramped in their mercantile pursuits by so very insignificant a power as Portugal. Now that it is too late, the Authorities of Macao have discovered their error, and mended their manners, by opening the inner harbour to British shipping, by allowing British merchants to land and ship goods in their own names, and by lowering the duties on several articles of British manufacture. These changes, which would have been accepted as boons two years before, were adopted only when the Portuguese found nearly every British merchant building warehouses and private dwellings in Hong Kong. Had they been made prior to the commencement of those buildings, I have good reasons for supposing, that many of them never would have been begun, their proprietors having a great dislike to the new British settlement on account of its reputed unhealthiness,--a reputation, I am sorry to say, it has too well sustained. Dozens of houses in Macao are already vacant; dozens more will be so before another six months shall elapse; hundreds of families who have depended on their house-rent and on money earned in other ways from British subjects for their daily bread, will be reduced to want; many of them will and must emigrate to Hong Kong; and Macao, with its streets of new houses, built in antic.i.p.ation of the continued residence of foreign merchants, will sink into utter insignificance, and become as a place that has been, but is no more. Its Governor will again have to draw, for the means of paying the expenses of the place, on his Royal Mistress at Lisbon, who will then reap the well-merited reward of an illiberal and short-sighted policy.

If a pa.s.senger, on his arrival at Macao, lands in the inner harbour, he has to pa.s.s his baggage through the Portuguese Custom-house, where it will be not only thoroughly examined, but also, very probably, plundered. A trunk of my own, which _I saw_ carried into this building along with several others, never came out again: its contents were valuable, and were much missed by my family. What became of them, I know not; but certain I am, that the Custom-house authorities of Macao made away with them. If the pa.s.senger chooses to land at the outer harbour, he encounters the _Chinese_ Custom-house, where he is charged so much for each package, in the shape of duty, and is allowed to pa.s.s on without bare-faced robbery. Some sixteen years ago, this Chinese Custom-house was in the practice of levying a dollar per package on a pa.s.senger's luggage, a similar sum on his wife, and on every female child, while the boys pa.s.sed free. This does not tell to the credit of Chinese gallantry. Things are altered now, however; and ladies with their daughters are permitted to land without let or hinderance.

When a foreign vessel anchors in Macao Roads, (a very exposed anchorage by the way,) she is speedily visited by three or four _compradores'_ boats, which come out in search of employment, and with offers to supply the ship with fresh provisions, &c., during her stay. The _compradore_ is a very useful fellow, but, in nine cases out of ten, a great rogue, who scruples not to swell out his bill against the ship by various means the reverse of fair. They all speak broken English. In moderate weather, they go twenty or thirty miles out to sea in quest of inward-bound vessels. The first time I went to China, we were boarded by a _compradore's_ boat previously to making the land. A fresh breeze was blowing at the time, before which the ship was going eight knots an hour: this, however, did not prevent the Chinese boatmen from dashing alongside in very smart style, hooking on by the fore-chains with their own rope, and disdaining the aid of a line thrown from the vessel to hang on by. Mr. _Compradore_ appeared on the p.o.o.p, "_chin-chinning_,"

while we strangers were looking with admiration at the activity of his men in the boat. The captain engaged him to attend the ship, on which he immediately started for Macao, and was alongside again by daylight next morning, with a most welcome supply of fresh beef, vegetables, &c. In the _compradore's_ boat, pa.s.sengers can generally get a pa.s.sage on sh.o.r.e, or, rather, to within a few hundred yards of the beach. The boatmen are afraid to approach nearer, on account of the Mandarins, who are apt to _squeeze_ them, if they are seen landing foreigners. The remaining distance is usually got over in small _tancea_, or ferry-boats, numbers of which ply about Macao in all directions, invariably guided by women, called, from their mode of life, "_Tancea-girls_." Poor things! They work hard for their daily bread, being constantly exposed to the sun in summer, and to cold in winter.

They live in their boats, which, at night, are snugly covered up with a roof made of a bamboo frame, the interstices filled up with thick matting, and, in the whole course of their lives, never pa.s.s a night on sh.o.r.e. They are said to be of a peculiar race, and never intermarry with the real Chinese, who look down upon them with contempt.

The scenery round Macao is striking, and some of the views are particularly so: that from the hill immediately behind the town, is perhaps the best. From this spot you have a bird's-eye view of the whole town, the beach, with its hundreds of large and small Chinese boats, on your left; further on, in the same direction, Macao Roads with the foreign shipping; while, beyond these, the islands of Lingting, Lantow, and numerous others of smaller size, are seen in the distance: to the right, you catch an occasional glimpse of the numerous rivers and arms of the sea, with numbers of picturesque Chinese boats gliding about, literally among the hills and dales; and, here and there, a Chinese village is seen, with its little patch of cultivation, its herds of buffaloes and pigs, and countless groupes of little Celestials. Casting your eye along this view from north to south, you come to the harbour called "_Typa_" in which there are generally some thirty or forty vessels at anchor, and which, though an arm of the sea, looks here like an inland lake. This view, on a clear day, would delight the painter, though it has one great deficiency, namely, the entire absence of trees.

The hills in the neighbourhood, far and near, are completely bare. Such is Macao, a miserable, dirty, crowded town, rendered important for a while by its locality, but now fast sinking back into its native insignificance, owing to the gross stupidity of the Portuguese Authorities, more than to any other cause. Proceed we now to the new British settlement of Hong Kong.

CHAPTER XVI.

CHINA.

ADVANTAGEOUS POSITION OF HONG KONG--THE OPIUM TRADE--IMPORTANCE OF THE STATION IN THE EVENT OF A FRESH WAR--CHUSAN--HOW TO RAISE A REVENUE-- CAUSES OF ALLEGED INSALUBRITY--RAPID PROGRESS OF THE SETTLEMENT--PORTUGUESE PENURY-- MARKETS--SANATORY HINTS.

Having spent twelve months in Hong Kong, I will now endeavour to give an impartial sketch of its situation as to trade, its importance in the event of another Chinese war, and of its climate, general appearance, and commercial progress.

Situated as this island is at the mouth of the Canton river, and in the immediate neighbourhood of an immense trade, one can hardly question the prudence of the choice that fixed upon it for a British settlement. It has not yet (July 1844) been two years in our possession; and already its magnificent harbour is crowded with the ships of England, America, and other nations, while its warehouses on sh.o.r.e are filled with the manufactures of those countries, brought here direct from the places where they are produced, to be distributed to the different Chinese ports recently opened to the commerce of the world by the arms of Great Britain. Hundreds, nay, thousands of Chinese boatmen, fishermen, porters, bricklayers, carpenters, blacksmiths, shoemakers, tailors, bakers, shopkeepers, &c., are already earning their bread here. Since the ratification of Sir Henry Pottinger's Treaty, and the confirmation of the cession of the Island as part and parcel of the dominions of Queen Victoria, many wealthy Chinese merchants have been making arrangements for the establishment of branch-houses here; and more than one of them had, previously to my departure last March, chartered British ships, and despatched them to the northern ports, loaded with British goods. As a _depot_ for goods intended for the Chinese market, I conceive the situation of Hong Kong to be unrivalled, and, in this single point of view, of great importance. On the arrival of a ship from London, Liverpool, or Glasgow, with a general cargo of British goods, the consignees unload them, and send the ship home again with tea or such other produce as they may have ready for her, storing and holding the goods in readiness for any opening that may present itself: such portion of them as may be suited for markets in the immediate vicinity, are either sold on the spot, or sent to Canton, while the rest is shipped off in fast-sailing vessels, kept for the purpose of making sure of their voyage against the monsoon, to Amoy, Chusan, and other ports to the northward.

Great complaints used to be made at Canton and Macao, because goods could not be landed, unless they were sold, or the consignees chose to advance the duty, and let the articles lie till an opportunity of disposing of them occurred: in other words, the want of a bonding system was universally felt and complained of. The establishment of Hong Kong completely obviates this inconvenience, and enables the ship from Great Britain or elsewhere to dispose of her cargo in a few days after her arrival, and proceed home again, thus saving time, expense, and trouble to an incalculable extent.

A decisive proof of the eligibility of Hong Kong as a place of trade, and of its importance in the eyes of the Chinese themselves, is afforded by the immense sums paid by some of them for ground on which to build _Hongs_, where they can deposit their goods with safety, beyond the reach of their grasping Mandarins. This advantage to a China-man is something so new, and so far beyond any thing he ever dreamed of enjoying, that I conceive the benefits likely to accrue from it to Hong Kong to be incalculable.

Goods stored in Canton or Macao, the property of a China-man, were never safe in the event of their owner getting into trouble with the Chinese Authorities; and, if the property of foreigners, they could not be insured against fire, the risk arising from the universal carelessness of the Chinese, and the consequent very frequent occurrence of extensive conflagrations, being considered too great by the under-writers. Both these difficulties are completely obviated in Hong Kong; and every substantially built house and warehouse, together with the property in them, were insured against fire, previously to my quitting the Island. One China-man had, in March last, completed buildings for the storage of property collected from the different ports on the coast, on which upwards of 40,000 dollars had been laid out; and what is more, they were already well filled.

As a convenient and safe _depot_ for opium, (a trade, in my opinion, quite as legitimate and honourable as that in brandy, gin, and other spirits,) Hong Kong is admirably situated: the purchaser from the western ports, as well as from the northeastern, finds the distance he has to travel moderate, and, on his arrival, has no one to dread, no Mandarin daring to shew his face on sh.o.r.e. The ships that bring the drug from India, here find a safe and commodious harbour, where they can unload their cargoes in open day, without hinderance or molestation, and where they are not driven to the necessity of carrying on their operations in the dark. Were the opium-trade actually one of mere smuggling, I would be as ready as any one to condemn it, and to raise my voice against those concerned in it; but when one considers that not a hundredth part of the quant.i.ty sold annually is really smuggled,--that ninety-nine chests out of every hundred pay a heavy duty, (mis-called a bribe,)--that the Chinese Government derives from it indirectly, but not the less certainly, a very considerable revenue,--and finally, that large quant.i.ties of it are known to be consumed within the walls of the imperial palace at Pekin,--I confess I see no reason for the clamorous indignation with which this traffic has of late been a.s.sailed by European moralists. I have said, that the Chinese Government derives a considerable revenue from the opium trade; and I will prove it. A Mandarin who pays for his situation, and is left to make the most of it by squeezing the inhabitants of his district, will give a great deal more for an appointment where an extensive opium-trade is carried on, than he would for any other. Knowing the handsome sums paid by the dealers in the drug, to "make Mandarin shut eye," he hesitates not for a moment about paying his Imperial Master in proportion for the situation which puts him in the way of reaping so rich a harvest. What is more; his said Imperial Master knows perfectly well what makes the situations in certain districts so much coveted, and enables the parties to pay so high for them. Away, then, with all the mawkish cant about corrupting the morals and ruining the health of the Chinese by selling them poison!

The Chinese are just as capable of taking care of themselves as their would-be guardians are; and as for their morals, many of them lead lives that might be copied with advantage to themselves and families, by thousands of gin-drinking Englishmen. China is decidedly an over-populated country. Opium-smoking checks the increase, and thereby does good; a view of the question not altogether unworthy of attention.

Checking the increase of population in this way is, at all events, better than adopting the plan of drowning female infants; not an uncommon one in China.

The importance of Hong Kong in the event of another Chinese war, (an event, in the opinion of many, not very improbable,) cannot, I conceive, for a moment be doubted. Should our merchants again be expelled from the ports of China, they will here find a safe asylum for their persons and property, while their ships may ride in the harbour under the protection of two or three of Her Majesty's ships in perfect security, in defiance of all the marine of China. Here also Her Majesty's Government may have _depots_ of military stores, provisions, coals, &c., all stored in perfect safety, in place of being kept, as they were during the late war, in transports hired at an enormous expense for the purpose. Now that pa.s.sages along the coast of China are made, even by sailing vessels, at all seasons of the year, in defiance of monsoons, a steamer sent from the seat of war (wherever it might be) to Hong Kong, would be sufficient, at any time, to procure ample supplies of money, ammunition, and other stores for the army, from India, if need be, in a few weeks.

Every one at all acquainted with the inconvenience and expense suffered by the late Expedition for want of proper and regular supplies, will appreciate the value of the Island in this point of view. What was it that carried off so many of the Cameronians and Royal Irish stationed in Chusan during the first expedition to the North? Not the climate of that beautiful island, certainly; for the troops that have since occupied it, have been remarkably healthy; and I saw four hundred of them land at Hong Kong, _en route_ to England, much against their will, looking as rosy and stout as if they had just come from home! What occasioned the mortality among the troops, was, the want of a _depot_ from which they could obtain supplies to replace the putrid, ill-cured Calcutta beef and other unwholesome stores that were served out to convalescents, who died by hundreds for want of nourishing food to restore their exhausted frames.

The diseases from which those unfortunate soldiers suffered, were originally contracted from improper food and bad accommodation; and all this took place on a Chinese island overrun with cattle, pigs, and poultry, and with the town of Ting Hae, deserted by nine-tenths of its inhabitants, under their feet. The Commander-in-Chief's over-scrupulous conscience would neither allow the cattle to be purchased, nor the empty houses in the town to be occupied by the sick and dying. No better stores were to be had nearer than Calcutta,--a six months' trip to and fro! So bad were the beef and pork, that I afterwards saw hundreds of casks of both sold by public auction at Singapore, for three quarters of a dollar (3s. 4-1/2d.) per cask. The meat was used for manure, and the barrels were used for firewood. The possession of Hong Kong will prevent the possible recurrence of any thing of this kind.

I am not prepared to say that Chusan would not have been a better situation for a military _depot_ than Hong Kong. Her Majesty's Government, however, thought proper to prohibit the permanent occupation of the former, while that of the latter was sanctioned, so that we have now no choice. For mercantile purposes, the absolute and permanent possession of both these islands would have been highly advantageous.

Chusan, I have never had the good fortune to visit, but have invariably heard it spoken of as a delightful place, in a high state of cultivation, possessing an extensive commerce, with fine harbours, and, lastly, with a numerous population already made acquainted with the difference between living under a free and enlightened Government and under that of a despot. These people (if one can credit even half of what one hears from them) are, one and all, anxious that Great Britain should retain their island, and seem to dread the day, now fast approaching, when, according to the Treaty, it must be evacuated by the British, consigning them again to the tender mercies of the Celestial Mandarins. Several English merchants have erected warehouses on Chusan, in the hope that it will ultimately be retained by Great Britain, or that the Chinese Authorities will not object to their remaining on the Island subsequently to its restoration to their Imperial Master. I hope that their expectations may not prove fallacious.

Hong Kong is a free port, and, in my opinion, ought never to be otherwise than free. Let its harbour be a refuge for the shipping of all nations, and its stores will then be filled with their goods. I would not enc.u.mber the commerce of this Island with one single dollar of charges: no port-charges ought for a moment to be thought of; and, as for import and export duties, the most moderate charges of this kind would ruin the place. What brought Singapore forward so rapidly, was, the entire freedom of its trade. If Hong Kong is but treated in the same way, its progress will be, if possible, still more rapid than that of its sister settlement.

A revenue more than sufficient to remunerate Government for the annual expenses of Hong Kong, may be raised on the spot, without hampering its commerce, by taxing the retail opium-trade, the retail spirit-trade, carriages and horses, licensed gambling-houses, rents from public markets, ground-rent on building and other lots, and an a.s.sessment on rents, say of five per cent. The revenue derived from such sources in Singapore, is cheerfully paid, and it more than pays the expenses of the place. That all the houses in which opium is smoked, spirits are drunk, and gambling is carried on, should be under a strict surveillance, is absolutely necessary. To check either the one or the other, is impossible; and, as they are legitimate objects for taxation, I see no reason why Government should not derive benefit from them. The opium-smoker and the rum-drinker pay as much for the indulgence of their appet.i.tes, under existing circ.u.mstances, as they would do, were the privilege of supplying them farmed out to individuals, who would be responsible to the Authorities for the good conduct of their establishments.

I should advocate the suppression of gambling-houses _in toto_, did I not know the utter impossibility of effecting this among either a Chinese or a Malay population. As their existence, then, must be tolerated, and as they are, to my certain knowledge, the scene of robbery and murder, much more frequently than persons unacquainted with the criminal calendars in our Asiatic courts of justice suppose, I say, let them be registered, taxed, and made subject to the visits of the police at any hour of the night or day. By the means I have pointed out, a revenue amply sufficient for the purposes of the Hong Kong Government might be raised; and I should have no hesitation in undertaking to defray every fraction of its expenditure, had I the privilege of farming the opium-tax and the spirit-tax.

Of the climate of Hong Kong, I have little that is favourable to report.

Hitherto, it has been decidedly inimical to the European const.i.tution; and hundreds of our countrymen are already buried there. Last summer (1843), from the first of August till the end of October, a very malignant fever raged among all ranks, and carried off soldiers, sailors, Government servants, mercantile men, and tradesmen. There were some peculiarities attendant upon this fever, however, which I shall mention, in the hope that my observations may lead future residents to be a little more careful of their health, than most of the present inhabitants have shewn themselves to be. In the first place, then, the fever, with few exceptions, was limited to particular localities.

Secondly, not one European female died of it, and only two suffered from it severely. Thirdly, those who occupied s.p.a.cious _upper-roomed_, well-aired houses, almost to a man escaped. Fourthly, those who exposed themselves to the sun, suffered most. And, lastly, the new comer from Europe was more subject to take this terrible fever, which the medical men characterize as a mixture of the yellow fever of the West and the bilious fever of the East Indies.

A stranger landing in Hong Kong, particularly if coming from many parts of India, and acquainted generally with tropical countries and climates, would naturally, on hearing of its insalubrious climate, express surprise, since he could see no exciting cause. I have stated, that the fever attached itself to particular localities. These were, the eastern and western extremes of the town of Victoria. At the eastern end, to the eye the most delightful spot in or near the town, there are several patches of paddy-fields, situated in deep valleys between the hills, of limited extent, but which, under this climate, seem to generate malaria in quant.i.ties quite disproportionate to their size. In the morning, these valleys may be seen, from the middle of the town, completely filled with a dense fog, which rolls down from the neighbouring heights immediately after sun-set, settles upon them all night, and does not clear off till nine or ten o'clock in the morning. I know of no other reason why this neighbourhood should be unhealthy: that it proved so last summer, the number of its victims sufficiently testify. Of six gentlemen who took up their quarters here, five died; and the other had a very severe attack of fever, from which he ultimately recovered.[23]

[Footnote 23: Since these remarks were penned, another summer has pa.s.sed over Hong Kong. Sickness and death have again prevailed there to an unusual extent, and the neighbourhood just mentioned had its victims; amongst others, two English ladies whose husbands I had cautioned, in March 1844, respecting the spot they were taking their families to reside upon. The last mail from the East continues the outcry against the climate.]

The land at the western extremity of the town is swampy, the gra.s.s, even on the declivities, being of a rank, spongy nature, and quite unfit for any thing. Here the Government built barracks, in which a detachment of Her Majesty's 55th regiment was for some time quartered: its ranks were decimated by fever, which latterly became so virulent, that the Authorities chartered shipping in the harbour, to receive the men still alive. Unfortunately, the poor fellows, being weakened from the effects of the summer, and having in all probability the seeds of disease in them before they embarked, died afloat in great numbers. It has been thought, that many lives might have been saved at West Point Barracks, had that building been raised off the ground so as to admit a free circulation of air _under_ the rooms. This, however, is but problematical, as the deaths at the other end of the town took place in two-storied houses.

From what I observed at West Point, there appears to be a constant drain of water down the hills, about six inches under the surface of the soil.

This water settles under improperly ventilated houses, rots the beams, and _throws up a crop of mildew in every room_, as I can testify from actual observation.

That no European female has fallen a victim to this fever, is certainly a remarkable feature in its history; but it must be borne in mind, that there were no ladies residing in the immediate neighbourhood of the two localities just mentioned. Perhaps, the Morrison Education Hill may be an exception, where two families pa.s.sed last summer. None of the females suffered a day's illness, though a young man living in the house, who was occasionally exposed to the sun, caught the fever and died.

I have no doubt, (and I have heard others express a similar opinion,) that regular habits and non-exposure to the sun, are the princ.i.p.al causes to which those Europeans who have escaped illness when their friends and neighbours have sickened round them, owe their preservation.

The occupants of s.p.a.cious, two-storied, well-aired houses escaped, with only a single exception, in the case of a young man who probably brought on his illness by imprudent exposure to the sun for hours together, although he was repeatedly warned of the consequences. I know several instances of families pa.s.sing last summer in houses of this description without any interruption of health. My own household was composed of two ladies, three children, myself, and a European female attendant: not one of us had an hour's illness during all the hot weather; yet we took no further care of ourselves than is customary with people who have resided for several years within the tropics.