40.
On comparing some of the pictures in the Chater collection, however, we find that Allom definitely elaborated drawings made by others, and the engravings were apparently not from any original sketches by himself.
I reproduce to-day another of the pictures of Hong Kong taken from the old work in question. It is of a fort which existed at Kowloon in 1841, and is merely described in the book as "Fort Victoria, Kowloon."
2
Several of the pictures in Allom and Wright's work are included in the Chater collection, and this one of Fort Victoria forms No.12 of the Chater series, where it is attributed to "T. Allom - Lt. White".
*
No. 10 of the Chater collection is another engraving from this book, entitled "Hongkong from Kowloon" (completely inaccurate as regards topography), which is attributed to "T. Allom Capt. Stoddard, R.N."
So here we have definite evidence that Allom had re-drawn the sketches of others; in the cases I have quoted, they were made originally by a military and a naval officer. Thus the absence of Allom's (or the Rev. Mr. Wright's) name from old Hongkong records is probably explained by the fact that they merely elaborated the original work of others.
The picture given here of a fort at Kowloon in the earliest days of the Colony might seem strange to us, having regard to the fact that the mainland was under Chinese jurisdiction for a considerable time after the founding of Hongkong. However, it is shown in the old records that batteries were mounted at Kowloon peninsula to protect the harbour, and this one, called after Queen Victoria, appears to have taken the place of an old Chinese battery either on the same spot or in the immediate vicinity. An examination of the old maps of the time places this fort on a site approximately where the Kowloon godowns are now situated.
Furthermore, there is an explanation of how the British came to occupy a part of the Kowloon peninsula, in an old record by Comdr. J.E. Bingham, R.N., who avers that the Treaty of Chuenpi, by which Hongkong was ceded (January 20, 1841), had also stipulated that a portion of the Kowloon peninsula (presumably the point opposite Hongkong, which we know as Tsimshatsui) be surrendered as neutral ground, and that when the treaty was subsequently disavowed by the Imperial Chinese Government, this area at Kowloon was seized by the British forces, and a garrison was kept in Fort Victoria, where military stores were also concentrated.
This statement, made by a man on the spot (Bingham at the time was a First Lieutenant on H.M.S. Modeste) was probably based on fairly reliable knowledge of events, and it is interesting to find Wright also referring to the establishment of this fort, which he states was to replace a somewhat obsolete Chinese battery that seemingly had been seized.
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