EARLY CHART OF CHINA COAST (contd.)
25.590
During the voyage of the "Lord Amherst", whilst Lindsay and Gutzlaff were ashore, Captain Rees, and his officers, notably J. Jauncey, were busy surveying and charting the coast.
This habit of surveying wherever they went, was the cause of some official hostility; this was explained by one of the mandarins, as follows:
"We are afraid of you; you are too clever for us. For instance, no sooner does a ship of yours arrive then out go your boats in all directions, you sound, you make charts, and in a week know the whole place as well as we do.
"Now some Koreans were wrecked in the neighbourhood last year: they were placed under no restraint, but were allowed to go everywhere, and were finally sent home through the provinces. We do not fear them; they are stupid, they look at all things, but observe nothing".
According to the records of Messrs. Jardine, Matheson and Co. the first vessel to sail into the port of London with a tea cargo under the free trade banner was the "Falcon". The date is uncertain, but it was almost certainly in 1838 or 1839, for 1840 found her back in the China Seas.
The "Falcon" was far from being a typical coaster. She was reserved entirely for the most dangerous and difficult duties. Her officers were picked men, picked not only for their courage and seamanship, but for their skill in surveying and hydrography.
Captain Jauncey, when he commanded her, published several charts of the coast, including one of the Cap-sing-moon Anchorage, in which he was helped by Captain Rees, his old commander in the "Lord Amherst".
To Captain Rees, it will be seen, must go the credit for the earliest systematic charting of the China Coast.
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JEWS
The reference to Jewish firms coming increasingly into Hongkong's early trade recalls one of the names famous among British Jews, that of Sassoon. The name is associated with two local firms to-day whose history goes back many years, and one of these, Messrs. David Sassoon and Co., Ltd., dates back to the actual beginning of the Colony. It is hoped in due course to deal more fully with the history of this old firm.
The connexion of the Jews with Hongkong is another honourable and distinguished one, and much of it is bound up with the record of the Synagogue, and the founders of that institution in Hongkong. The "Ohel Leah" Synagogue in Hongkong passed through a period of vicissitudes until 1901 when it obtained a permanent home in Robinson Road. Between the years 1860 and 1864, the community being a small one, Mr. Arthur David Sassoon was kind enough to lend one of his houses in Seymour Terrace for the purpose of religious services. Later his brother, Mr. Solomon David Sassoon, presented to the community a house in Shelley Street which was converted and used as a Synagogue until the locality became too congested, when the members decided on a site for a new building. In 1882, Sir Jacob E. Sassoon, Bart., offered to purchase the premises of the defunct Cosmopolitan Club with adjoining property in Staunton Street. The community gratefully accepted this offer and these premises were soon transformed into a Synagogue which Sir Jacob dedicated to the memory of his mother.
About the year 1883 the Union Church, which then occupied a site opposite to the Synagogue, found it necessary to shift its quarters to Kennedy Road, and for similar reasons the Jewish community was also compelled to find another more suitable place. Mr. D. H. Silas with the assistance of others, worked strenuously for this end, and finally the present site was obtained. In the meantime services were conducted at one of the houses in Ripon Terrace rented temporarily, but this house also proved unsuitable and a matshed structure was put up on a portion of the newly acquired site on Robinson Road, which served the purpose of the Synagogue until the building was completed.
The cost of the new building was borne by the late Sir Jacob E. Sassoon, Bart., and the ground was donated by the same gentleman, with his brothers. The Synagogue is dedicated to the memory of their mother, the late Mrs. Leah Elias Sassoon, and is maintained by subscriptions and donations.