57.
On May 21, 1857, there arrived in Hongkong, one George Wingrove Cooke, special correspondent of The Times, London. For nearly twelve months, George Wingrove Cooke travelled through China with detachments of His Majesty's forces. He saw the Battle of Fatshan, watched innumerable Imperial Junks being hunted down, investigated political conditions and participated in the bombardment of Canton. All that George Wingrove Cooke saw and heard, he sent to his paper and his writings were afterwards collected and published in book form.
Most important, from my point of view, is the fact that the special correspondent of The Times spent some time in Hongkong and wrote a series of articles on the island. These came into my possession the other day and I now propose to reprint a few extracts.
"My first impression of Hongkong" wrote Mr. Cooke,
"undoubtedly is that our facetious European friends who advise us to go to Hongkong' have not an accurate knowledge of the spot. A gentleman who should go to Hongkong' in the present state of affairs, although he may have his pocket full of dollars, is not unlikely to be obliged to sleep upon the pavement of Queen Street, and will be indebted to the protection of the Malay guard if his throat be not cut before the morning. It is a town of capital houses, but its powers of accommodation are not capable of indefinite expansion. The flight from Canton and other causes have filled it. General Garrett and his staff, who might reasonably have anticipated some preparations for their reception, found it convenient to sleep on board the steamer, and were glad to shelter themselves where they might. The General, on the day of his arrival, with great difficulty, got a room at an inn, and his suite were happy to avail themselves of the hospitality of the Hongkong Club - an establishment to which we cannot be too grateful: and if there is any gratitude in Pall Mall, the military clubs should be open to every member when he visits London, in requital of good offices rendered in utmost need.
"Victoria, the capital city, which we now inhabit, is Built at the base of a sugar-loaf mountain, and extends, perhaps, about two miles from end to end. The bungalows generally consist of three rooms about forty feet long and fifteen high, all opening upon a verandah, some bed rooms, and a set of detached offices for the Chinese. The most pleasant of these bungalows are those which are situated the highest up the hill, and which overlook the harbour and the country beyond.
"I passed this morning on the verandah of a friend's house, and we agreed, that, to suggest to the European mind an idea of Victoria and its scenery, we must imagine ourselves to be looking down upon a Scottish loch - Loch Lomond or Loch Long will do. We must create, by imagination, a handsome city of light, airy houses upon the margin of the waters, and climbing up the hills. We must fill the lake with shipping of every nation, and we must pour over all the hills the glare of the Eastern sun. An English tourist in Scotland, who has imagination enough to make these corrections in his reminiscences of the North, may fancy he has seen what I see from my friend's bungalow. Let us look a little closer, and with the aid of a good glass.
In the harbour, besides the Chinese boats so comfortably fitted with their neat bamboo work, besides, also, several large junks, with their great sightless eyes painted in the bows, their lofty sterns, and their mat sails, there is a fleet of sixty-four European merchant vessels, whereof ten are steamers. The Yankee and the Dutch flags flaunt about with the Union Jack, for it is Sunday; and every floating thing, from the Yankee Challenge (2,030 tons) to the little British Squirrel, a steamer of 50 tons, rejoices in its display of nationality.