BUILDINGS (6) Continuation.
By that time Jardine's house at East Point had been erected, and the Medical Mission Hospital where the Naval Hospital is to-day) had just been opened. The General's House (now Headquarters House) and Murray Barracks had been commenced. Dent's and Lindsay's and other substantial office property, newly-constructed, graced the water-front along Queen's Road, in an area extending from Ice House Street (where the Bank of Canton stands to-day) to Pedder's Wharf now marked by the Pedder Street-Des Voeux Road junction). The original Hongkong Post Office, a long, low building, judging by old sketches, had been erected on a site approximately covered by the present Volunteer Headquarters. To the west of Wyndham Street, on the rising ground, was the first Harbour Master's House, and Major Caine's quarters were situated just by the present Victoria Gaol site.
On the waterfront, where Wellington Barracks are to-day, the first military hospital (known as the D'Aguilar Hospital) had been erected, close by being one of the earliest batteries named Wellington Battery in honour of the Iron Duke.
BUILDINGS (7)
EARLY HONGKONG BUILDINGS
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A final summary of the comments made by visitors to Hongkong, in its first few years through which we learn a great deal about the rapid erection of substantial buildings, is given to-day.
We might consider the views of Captain Arthur Cunynghame, A.D.C. to Lord Altoun, in "An Aide-de-Camp's Recollections" published in 1844. He arrived in the Colony on June 1, 1842, and writes:- "Hongkong and its adjacent islands reminded me forcibly of the Grecian Archipelago, possessing the same rocky appearance, and springing out of the water in the same fantastic shapes.
On our near approach to the roadstead, we perceived it to be crowded with shipping - the Blenheim, a magnificent seventy-four being the most conspicuous object...
We then visited different portions of the town, barracks, markets, etc. Perhaps no place in the history of ages can boast of such a rapid rise as the town of Hongkong. In August 1841, not one single house was yet built, not a portion of the brush-wood had been cleared away from this desolate spot. By June 1842, the town was considerably more than two miles long, containing store-houses and shops, here called "godowns" in which almost every article either Eastern or European could be procured and most of them at not very unreasonable prices.