CHURCHES
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either temporary residents in the Colony, by way of testing its eligibility, or visiting the place on their route to some other Missionary Station on the coast. From some of these, who had been for several years in the Missionary field I received valuable counsel and information, which compensated in a great degree, for the length of time during which I was, by various circumstances, detained at Hongkong.
"One of the most remarkable men in China is already well known to the religious part of the community at home, by the published accounts of his Missionary voyages along the coast in former times - the Rev. C. Gutzlaff. Though he doubtless saw many things through the medium of the sanguine mind, and his opinions are consequently received with caution by the Missionaries, yet his past Missionary labours for the benefit of the Chinese were conducted in a spirit of boldness and courage worthy the apostolic age. His knowledge of various Chinese dialects, and his extraordinary mental and physical activity, qualify him for an abundant measure of usefulness such as few men can attain. It is therefore a subject to be regretted, that, by the Chinese Secretary and Interpreter to the Government, he is to a great extent separated from Missionary work. He still however makes Missionary excursions in the evenings and on the Sabbath day, among the Chinese villages, in company with some native preachers, in whom he has confidence, and with all his secular engagements, is able to do almost as much in active exertion as ordinary Missionaries are able to effect without such secular employment. A brief account of an excursion, in which he kindly invited me to accompany him, will give some idea of the class of Chinese on the island, and the degree of intercourse which can be held with them for Missionary purposes.
We have seen in yesterday's article how the Rev. George Smith who was later to become the first Bishop of Hongkong, came out to China in 1844, to survey the missionary field. An extract was given of a report he published on an evangelising expedition carried out among the Colony's native population, which he made in company of the Rev. C. Gutzlaff. The actual expedition is thus described by Mr. Smith.
"On December 22 (1844) about nine o'clock a.m. we embarked in a Chinese boat, accompanied by two native preachers named A-Seaou and A-tal in an easterly direction. The morning was bright and beautiful, though the cold air made an upper coat indispensable to our full comfort. The towering hills of Hongkong on our right, and the bold outline of the opposite coast with native huts and villages on the mainland, and a number of Chinese junks and war-vessels sailing about in the opposite bay of Cow-loon, gave a pleasing and romantic effect to the scene. We doubled the small headland, which forms the eastern boundary of the harbour, and soon lost sight of the town of Victoria. Our plan was to have passed through the Limun (Lyemoon) Channel, and steering northward, to have reached a populous village on the mainland, about twenty miles distant. As the tides had now turned against us, and the wind was also unfavourable, there remained no probability
of our reaching the village till late in the afternoon. We accordingly changed our course, and determined on making the bay, which extends about two miles along the shore of Hongkong to the point forming the Limun passage, the scene of our day's operations. We therefore disembarked and directed the Chinese in the boat to watch our movements, and to follow us at a little distance from the beach. We first landed at a stone quarry (at Quarry Bay) where the Chinese workmen were induced to leave