Continuation.
BUILDINGS (6)
EARLY HONGKONG BUILDINGS
2.
toiled at despatches far into the night, and his young assistant copied, worked at Chinese, and made himself generally useful. They usually dined with the military magistrate, Major Caine, who took a great fancy to Harry, and the boy found himself quite at home in the friendly circle of officers and civilians whom the war had brought to Hongkong.
"He used to watch the Major sitting in his court sentencing pirates to one hundred lashes and eighteen months' hard labour, and he could see the rascals afterwards mending the road in chains. He saw much of Sir Henry Pottinger, for the attack on Chapu by the British, and Sir Henry immediately asked him to dinner.
The boy very soon became a prime favourite with the diplomatist and was told to come to his table "just whenever he pleased."
In return, Harry entertained the warmest admiration for his chief;— "I like Sir Henry very much," he wrote,
"he always talks and is kind to me,
and none of Pottinger's successors ever made so strong an impression on the lad, who had very early begun to take stock of the capacity of his leaders.
"The round of work in the house was often enlivened by a ride on Morrison's pony, on whose back Parkes learnt the delight in horse exercise which he retained to his last days. If he never became an accomplished horseman, few men in an official career have spent more hours on horseback and enjoyed them more thoroughly. On other days, he sailed in the harbour or climbed Mount Victoria, where people now live in charming bungalows during the hot season, but where in 1842 there was nothing but bushes and grass, up which Harry crawled on all fours, to be rewarded with a gorgeous view of the whole island and the encircling sea, and then tumbled down again as best he could, arriving at the bottom in a woefully torn and bruised condition."
In September 1843, young Parkes returned to Hongkong from Chusan and writes that he found the harbour full of shipping. "From what I could see from the deck, the town had increased nearly double the size it was when I saw it last year.
Most of the houses are very large and constructed very well, affording a fine sight to persons just entering the harbour. The Roman Catholic chapel in Wellington Street, newly erected that year, is by far the most conspicuous and is a great ornament to the place, though it is my opinion that it reflects great disgrace upon us, the more so as no Protestant church has yet been erected.
"I recognised many dwellings in which some very kind friends of mine lived, and I longed to step on shore to surprise them by an unexpected visit."