Hongkong
Government
GAZETTE.
NEW SERIES.
VICTORIA, SATURDAY, 25TH APRIL, 1857.
GOVERNMENT NOTIFICATION.
VOL. II No. 95.
The Contract for publishing this Gazette, entered into on the 24th September, 1853, was terminated on the 30th ultimo; and notice is hereby given, that a NEW SERIES of this Gazette will be published hereafter, to commence from the 7th instant, under a New Contract, and that
"THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE”
will, as before, be the only Official Organ for Proclamations, NotIFICATIONS, and PUBLIC PAPERS, of this Government.
By Order,
Colonial Secretary's Office, Victoria, Hongkong, 2d July, 1855.
W. T. MERCER, Colonial Secretary.
No. 62.
GOVERNMENT NOTIFICATION.
His Excellency The Governor and Commander-in-Chief has directed the publication, for general information, of the following Memorandum.
By Order,
Colonial Secretary's Office, Victoria, Hongkong, 24th April, 1857.
Memorandum of the information contained in certain papers wized by a party of seamen and marines enged under Command of Commodore the Hon'ble C. J. G. B. ELLIOTT, in the capture of some junks on the 4th April, 1857. Amongst much that was of no importance, there was taken a tolerably complete file of the corres- pendence, some in original and some in copy, of one the principal leaders of anti-barbarian agitation in Sanon, the district opposite Hongkong.
The letters speak, in terms more or less explicit, of the contemplated destruction of Victoria, the seizure of steamers, and the capture and decapitation of En- glishmen. A large number are devoted to the steps tken, or to be taken, for the stoppage of supplies; amessure which, in two cases, has recoiled, as will be seen, somewhat seriously, on those employed to carry The great Poisoning Case is twice alluded to, et not in a manner calculated to implicate A-lăm, Es in tentioned, but as "the Heung-shan man." 14 as has been generally supposed, he were a principal in that case, he would almost certainly have received Lis instructions from the committee of his own District and not from San-on. At any rate there are no words is the papers now under review which can be con- trued as at all laying the onus of the offence upon
hin
They contain on the whole a singular mixture of truth and exaggeration, but are even more remark- ake for the misapprehension both of our means and wives, the standing and opportunities of some of tar writers considered.
Chan Kwei-tsik, the agitator-in-chief of the District San-on, is a man of distinguished literary eminence. graduated as a doctor (tsin-sz',) in 1841, and ***Appointed a subordinate of the sixth grade in Ce Board of Revenue at Peking. His age must be between forty and fifty. He resides ordinarily at F-wing, about two miles from the District city of Sateer, but appears to be found, at present, mostly at htter place, where he is president of the central wtric-committee of hostilities.
an Ter-tin, his third brother, may be termed thief of the executive. It was his portfolio that was taken, and his letters and papers introduce ns to
naises of more or less respectability.
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ence.
stated in one letter to havegiven notice to Ch'an Taz'- tin, two days before it occurred. A very active gen- tleman named Yü Ki-nin, and Wong Sui-shăng, chief agent of an attempt (it is supposed) upon the mer- chant steamer Unicorn, also figure in the correspond-
The capture of the Queen and the demand of the Portuguese government for her, are likewise mentioned; but the fact of gravest interest, to us, is the announcement that heads, stated to be heads of Englishmen, had been, on more than one occasion, forwarded to Canton, and that a reward, in amount so much below the captors' expectation as to cause serious discontent, was paid for them.
There is, on the whole, indisputable evidence that none of the recent rumours of impending danger, gene- ral or particular, were without foundation; that we been taken, and that peril is only to be apprehended have been fully justified in every precaution that has in the event of a relaxation of our vigilance.
The earliest paper of importance is dated the 4th❘ December last. The Canton Committee direct two gentlemen, not of this District, to repair to Kau- lung (Cowloon,) and take measures for its defence.
On the 21st January, Chan Tez'-tin informs his brother that his braves are so planted at Shu-tin and Tai-wej, in near of Cowloon, as to command all the approaches to the latter place, which is separated from the others by the steep range of hills facing Hongkong. Victoria, he hears, is in great perplexity. "A proclamation is issued once a day, and three sets of regulations, every two days. People abroad at night are taken up in haste, and discharged with equal precipitation." No one is allowed out after 8 o'clock; the shops are forced to take out tickets (passes ?) and to pay 16 Dollars a ticket, and these have to be changed every few days. Boats passing to and fro between Cowloon and Victoria are not searched, but a bakery (it is not here stated whose) had been closed, and some forty people imprisoned for poisoning a number of English devils.
We are styled in all the papers, barbarians, devils, barbarian devils, or rebellious barbarians.
The people of the San-on, Heung-shan, and Tung- kun Districts, the writer goes on to say, are all alarmed, and meditate a return home; but those of Nam-hoi and Pun-yü, on the confines of which Can- Sa Ting-kwei, who corresponds with both brothers ton is situated, and of Shun-tăk, deride the submis free Canton, is a subordinate Censor, now in mournsion of the others to the authority of the officials and fug for a parent, and consequently living in retire- gentry. He closes with a complaint that Hongkong in Kwang Tung, his native province. He ap- is drawing supplies from Canton, Kong-mun, and Par to be Yeh's channel of communication with Macao. De San-on gentry.
There are, beside the above, letters from the hew of the brother Chan; from Man-hing, the orphew of Man Tsap-shin, a gentleman the author fan unsuccessful project to burn or blow up the of Victoria, and the probable agent in the de- Priction of Duddell's store, of which his nephew is
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On the 24th January, he reports an improvement in the working of the interdict to the eastward; in the region overlooked by his pickets. Two of his braves have visited Victoria, and counted one hundred and ten foreign vessels in harbour, but declare that there is not one-tenth of the usual quota of native craft belonging to the province. There are some from
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W. T. BRIDGES, Acting Colonial Secretary.
other provinces, (viz., north and cast coasters.) The west end of the city is quite deserted, and the English, by the unanimous declaration of the Chi- nese, thoroughly dispirited. All mat and wanden buildings had been demolished towards East Point. He also reports a great burglary in the centre of Victoria; the burglars had escaped with several thousand dollars over the bills.
The people of Kwei-shin, the district east of San- At on, continue perversely to supply Hongkong. the latter place, the English protect the harbour by cruising night and day, north and south of the island, but do not venture to land on the opposite side.
The braves that accompany the writer, Ch'an Tsz-tin, are only one kundred and forty; but with the local trainbands, it presently appears, a body, real or Cowloon hills. nominal, of one thousand, is assembled in rear of the
On the 2d of February, a man calling himself Wong A-muk dressed in devil" clothes and boots armed with a devil fowling-piece, and speaking devil language fluently, came over the hills by Ch'an Tez- tin's position, shooting, and was made prisoner. He declared that he had been in business at Hongkong, had kept the Tak Lung pork butchery, and the Hing Lung fish-shop. There is some reason to sup- pose that this man was a Macaist. Strange to say, he was bailed out by the gentry of Sai-kung, a place which our data lead us to mark in the neighbourhood of Hebe Haven, and released with a slight punish- ment*.
On the 5th February, Ch'an Tsz-tin writes to his elder brother Ch'an Kwei-tsih, that an intended ex- pedition of the braves across the water (to Hong- kong) had failed. The English were too well on their guard. Cannon are fired by night at intervals, to keep their spirits up. Cruisers constantly sweep the harbour. The black troops who have come on, drill incessantly. "Such being the doubt and alarm of the English rebels, we must wait until they tire a little; a blow will then be sure."
He had intercepted a large quantity of supplies en route to Hongkong, and had seized an English row-boat with two Chinese of the five in her. She was left in charge of the head-borough of Cowloon.. A few days later he expresses his apprehensions that the English will come to Cowloon to look for the boat, and had directed his own braves not to go into Cowloon, for the time being.
At this time, 7th February, both Ch'an Kwei-tsik and the District Magistrate issue orders to the braves to abstain from molesting the people. They are to be forward in action; to report all seizures to their officers; not to cut down trees near the villages; to
* There is also a Sai-kung, called by the Nam-t'au tra ders Sai lu, the western road, or lay: but this is a spot near "Sau-on..