THE CHINA MAIL, WEDNESDAY;: FEBRUARY 25, 1989.
City of the
EVEN: when I first arrived in the Colony, it was quite easy With the to pay a visit to Canton-City of the Rams. passing of years, the old romantic interest of the City declined. As Hongkong became more firmly established and affluent, so the merchant adventurers transforred their interests here.
The multitude of history books will provide the story of the rise of European trade in the Far East and its establishment in the uneasy com- pounds of Canton.
One hundred and ninety years ago, a young man called William Hickey arrived at Whampoa, having taken only thirty-three days to sail from Madras, the fastest voyage ever made up to that time by an Enst India man.
Says Hicker: "Whampoa is Pently situated, having two istanis elere to the ship, une called Dean. upott which ship: epert who they called a "Bank- atly cun- -thall." being
structed wooden bulding fram
rine hundred feet tr length. Into which the meste. yards, spars, salt, it Fin and stores are deposited, 0138 previous to being emarks re all repaired and pu in order.
In
er
20-
9
the
"The other is called French Merry and Ishond, where the
thema- sikir, walk
or amus
fur different game Peives al
Uro exercise and pistlar French Island, all the Europeans who died are buried."
The next morning William
captain an Hickey, the
set off to cover ofleern eighteen miles to Canton where Iekry wat to spend the next Here is bis vivid fair mani". first impressions of that City, nearly two hundred years ago. "The view of Canion as you approach it is strikingly grand and at the ame
factory occupied by the Ger- mans.
The Americans (whom the Chinese distinguish by the expressive title of second chop Englishmen') have also á flug
"The number of Supereat goes employed by the English East India Company in the year 1709 was Twelve...
If you look at a map, you will see that Hongkong w scarerip u call on the way Jor East Trutia slipa,
Rams
by
JOHN LUFF
curtain, no altar, and no frankincense?
very
"Our Des pilot, having taken the dip into Macao roads, we
there anchored
to wait for a river pilot....
"I therefore, after dinner, went on ashore to this miser- able place, where there is a
Il-constructed fort
Eitel recorda li as an incident concerning the then reigning King of England. This Is In- currect as George IV had led the year previous to the in- ¿ident,
The princely merchants at wretched Canton did themselves
belonging to the Portuguese in well. Hunter, in his book, which I saw a few sallow-faced, the half naked and apparently half- "Fan
describes Kwac" It began with
starved creatures in old tattered the Select East India British factory:- Committee of the
ot conts, that had once been blue, TO RES Their dinfo1
upen their opening upon carrying muskels Company enlarging the garden
by vast dimensions, factory
thoulders, which like the other terrace overlooking
ccoutrem.cn s were of a piece narrow Bir of the in front of their
with their dress, foreshore. reclaiming a
Rave
considerable This
Governor of Canton whose permission was cffence to the
He found his own with This of dealing
txhaviour, piece of
not sought. method
FORant
for when he called
been to
river,
the
was library; "On the left amply stocked, the Hbrarian of which was Dr Pierson.
On the right, a billiard room. "Al one extremity of the din- at the
room was a Hfe-size If you have a map with you, British factory to enquire why puftrait of George IV in royal
reclamation hud 113)
robes with crown and sceptre. reference without
the same that had been taken one of those printed locally and
shown into the esting a BK51, you might find y
Committee's Seket Wanistan toad (uumarked.) it him, he was
that stretch of water opposite
10011. e ing sandy beach wed of Castle Pealt and Pillar Point early marked on all maps.
*
Camion traders Here. the ith moored their ships, and in Forbes Captain il particular, ichardson. whin
commanded
e "Lintin," the prize packet of the Canton trade. Ume
The
by the Embassy of Lord dining Amherst to Peking, offered to and refused by the Emperor Keen-Lung, and brought Canton overland. Opposite to it hung a smaller pörtrali of Lord Aulierst."
wretches with the
Nathan Road in the late nineties with the cool and shady banyan avenue. Their business was started by in 1942 officially, but a Parlias two Principals, T. A. Gibb, and enquiry conducted W. P. Livingstone" were in 1849, Mr J. H. Cox, but a change mentary
feat were shown in 1787 when the arm about 1847, gives Mr Matheson among the new Colony's
becomes Cox and Beale; then ne mying he had already com- Justices of the Perce. title of
East aslic t 10 Beale, Reid and Company, in menced
Arm of Gliman just
were Point, anticipating the British makes it. They
in 1703.
Canton in 1841 just before 1817 sees the firm as Magnine takeover. and Company.
"These honoured
soldlers"....
what I had "Satisfied with seen, and nothing tempted by 2 printed board ridicating the; house upon which It was axed in be,,the British Hotel, where was to be found elegant enter Lainment and comfortable lodg g, I did not even take a look within."
In 1832, Dr William Jardine End Mr James Matheson took control of the business to give the names as we know them to day.
отд
The
Shewan, Tomes & Company Hongkong was established as a is onother old Canton concern, tw trading centre. Almost This firm began as an Ameri- Immediately they branched out can business known as Samuel here. Russell and Company, which commenced operations in 1818.
Moving to Hongkong In the
was joined by fites. It Robert Gordon Shewan in 1881 who took it over in 1891.
Richard James Gilman was n The earlier China trade was
tea taster for Dent and Com pany, but set up with a Mr Abram Bowmmon as operated from headquarters in
a trading Macao, where Mr Hollingworth
concern in Canton. Mugnine been in charge.
The Union Insurance Society Dr Jardine, who had been a
ig Canton Mr of
another old but. In this This rather unflattering ple- surgeon of the Honourable East,
brief romes wil India Company, joined with Mr
concern,
still encounter with two lure of Macao, together Hunter is wrong in parilculars. As the portrait the glimpse of the affluent East Matheson (afterwards Sir James
existing in the Colony, it is the India Company's faeterics at Matheson Bart) to take over the
Gibb, Livingstone and Com- only necessary to mention that TFA3 never offered
Union in Canton, could hardly Canton, can be linked together business and extend its influence Ire Emperor.
The link pany also figures among the old In 1955
formed from some of the Orms have refused it. The Emperor with names which represent the ever the Far East.
to under- as already mentioned, They
established In quentiori was Chla Ching romantle side of British trade with Canton roes us for back Canton Arms. were As 1804; one of the firm's sub-
in 1830 by certain write the increasing cargoes, 1796-1821. not Keen Lung, in the Far East.
Jardine, Matheson & Company series was an Insurance offfee Canton
alecul of the East India when the former monopoly of 1736-1795.
have the eldest history of any operating in that City. Cantem Returning
Jardine and Matheson trans- Company, leter extending their the Etst India Company was existing arm in Hongkong, their
ferred to Hongkong from Macko operations to Macao. The firm's ended. origin dating from 1782.
No doubt, brought up with a portrait of King start at the
IV painted George
while whom it Regent, he enquireg It presented.
On bring. Informed, he took his back to the The Selce Committee, picture.
seat with while admiring arrogance Were quick themselves, rosent what they termind ins in others.
Governor The
k
in
10
מן
in
Mr young far-off days, In flause
to The magnitude ships for Canton entered direct- tumed their protest against Hickey, and his Journey picturesque.
protests o3 the Canton, It is interesting to read estry from the himself into antal by to the architecture of the
6. ipnoring Hongkong, which, British behalf. If they thought of his impressions of Macso,
two hundred always surprise strangers,
i! it offered safe
ro highly of the portrait of the almost aven elange. was out
"About half-a-mil above the city suburbs, in gelast from Whampoa, Is a wharf or em Intrust, regularly built trick and morta, extending Half-a-mile
in length, una which whart stams the different facturies or residences of
each factory sup reargoes, Eaving the Rag of its nation on a lofty ensign staff before it.
*
the
of the way had an evil reputation for plate activities.
A sign of the strained and of early last treubled times
ntury is told. It surrounds Lortrait of the Prince Regent, Chinn by the first brought to Anthers Mlston In 1010. The pleure later found its way into the Selert Committee's dining room at Canton, and from there 10 Government House, Hong- kang
"FiFa the Dutch, then the
Never did a portrait give so- French, the English, the Swedes much trouble. The picture of and last the Daner. Each the Regent was entrusted to these factories, besides admitrable banquetting or public robins for the Amherst Mission, who were eating vit. have alined to them sets of chambers varying in Sizu according estidollshment.
to
Instructed
to hand it to the
arc of China as a gift Some historians say that the That is Fanerer refused it, hardly correct. The trouble was that when the Amherst Mission August Peking on arrived t
"The English, being tar more numerous than any otter nattes trading with China, their range 23. 1816. our Ambassador was much more told to present himself to the Chia Ching, right
of buildings
extensive.
Emperor,
"Each Supescarga has tour way. hand-oint Doms, the
public
spartments are by front looki
to the river, the others
inland to the deph of two of
three hundred feet in
★ ★
However, Amtheral wanted n
and
he
broad wash
brush-up before
couts, having a set of roots meeting the Emperor, also
on each side, every set having 'wanted his baggage and pre-
"Besides the factories which belong to the East India Cinc-
n. distinct and separate entrusLe t's which were to arrive the with a small garden, and every next day, so one way and an- never reached the cher, Be Cort of unvenience.
point of meeting the Emperor.
So Amherst, still with the pany, there are aba nthers, the picture on his hands, returned roperty of the Chinese who from Peking, and was placed room of the let them to. European and in the dining Country
of ships, Enet India Campany at Canton. Fifteen years Inter, in-.1831, merchants and strangers, whom Business Crip to Canton. For 11-emused an incident related in his History of several years, there has been un by Ete!
a.Hongkong. Imperial da Aying before
Captains
MARTELL
Very Fine Bognac
MARTELL
CORD ON
BLEU
also THREE STAR VEOP and EXTRA
'Obtainable Everywhere
Sola Agents:-DODWELL & CO., LTD.
te
King, why no haperial us:-
years
The toy soldiers almost got
"TAN
a
View down Pedder Street extension just after completion of "the Central Praya reclamation. Blake Pier had not yet been built.
new recruit
IF you really want to astonish a foreigner
or Epsom Downs.
י
- take him to the Round Pond
I see for myself... by ANNE SHARPLEY
There he will see grown men of the Island Breed wrestling with model boats and airplanes as though the future depended on them.
in hot shining now lead. effect of every into the desert get the full
has (Napoleon. who sold in I had thought that (throwing has sent men
detail. They take a week to
thousands, Was three years to die.
miniatures ahead of a conqueror.) Ordinary In model trains for good men- sure) was as far as it went, Where they talk of pellsses paint.
Littered all over his work- Now I have had unwillingly to end czapkas and aiguillettes as appraisable by perfect eyesight
Dick cost £2 10. were Tom, though they
almost na recognise the existence of an-
bend were
many and Harry. And tears rura other mania even stranger
When I called on him in his figurines of the Arab Legion us manly eyes at the alid more far-reaching than into their these which after all can be to tight of some extent excused as a pas- with
a two-inch figuring Liny offes in Bond Street, 150 there actually are in the Arab Indian Cavalry figures had Legion Itsoll (King Hussein han every painted bution In
just got in ahead of me. They a full seij.
sion for mechanics in minia- exact position. ture. It is toy soldiers.
Dut you mustn't call them
toy soldiers any more. That 19 one of those solecisms like call- ing a ship a boat.
They are military miniatures.
Scorn
Detail
were for French millionaire
Andro Matot.
"He had his own horse-mould Commander-in-Chief of the made which he leads to toe. He
Muskets
Al his elbow was d pile of
most rarifed aspect of all of has an idea that they should what looked like hairpins, but this
turns look to French Cavalry horses, proved to be a stack of muskels flourishing manio crit to be a cheerful, calm, I cry that's nonsense, the Indian of every known denomination. candid young Glaswegian call- Cavalry horse was much more
You don't just do a job 18ko cd Roy Maitland, who keeps like a polo pany."
this, I learned: You've got to be Come with me into brittle, canny eye un the frenzy his, cxbeling world where to con- miniatures incite in others. fuse a cultussier with a dragoons best figures sell at £25 ia to earn a chilling scorn thai but you need a miscroscope to
THE OTHER SIDE
Mum.
By Giles
NOTICE TO MUMS STAYING. WITH THEIR E
CHILDREN IN THIS
HOSPITAL,
迎面
"Your Alfie's measles are certainly very much better since you came in to stay with him, Mrs.
I knew I had stepped into one obsessed by it, of those deep issues that keep "Any Allled hand-painter. the Post however good, won't do. They'vỪ blood pressure and Omee going.
got to really care about mill- learnt that not only do old tary history. Even so, It takes them in months before they soldiers never die-but old
can pass the Mandards get by "bütles do not "elitur. ****
Mr Charles Stadten, our other genius, and Johnny," said Mr
"I got Jettors all the time from Amerle: ns who any that the Maitland, uncompromisingly. Confederates should have won "ru nover marry." Bald the Civil War and explaining Johnny unregretfully. "No why"
A secret
ume," He used to be a civil servant until what used to be a thobby got the bettar of him.
Real vo generals, Eko Gene- When Mr Maitland prepared ral Templer, coliosis them in Iwo sets of Agures and took hundreds. The Duke of Glou them to Paris, one of the ra sector Peter Cushing. One well- £3,000 treat from Corunna (when the known Londoner ha British were losing) and the worth of them in glass cuses in other of The retreat from his bedroom-they were keep- Moscow (when the French were ing Gis name à scéret, loaltig), he found the French And Americanal Why they'd were only interested; fo the had a letter only this week retreat from Corunna. "Al- from an American gentral who though the other group was far was roting, and wanted to be,
mado a partner. superior."
And as high-ranking Ameri-
-To- stop Waterloo beling can spends every afternoon. he in London playing fought all over again in his tiny can spare office, Mr Maitland keeps most soldiers on the door of Mr salt- of the glass display cases land's office. tuftied to the wall. "I try to
Did women got this mania? I
show very lew Agures at a asked, nervously, time."
And the whereabouts of his
workshop, is a dark secret. He
did, however, take me there
Sneaks in!
"Vall, oniz Ainerious women
because e a woman he thought to far. Their husbands get the
I might be immune to the
manla.
bug and then they take charge One American wife has limited her husband to two miniatures Thare in the typical muddle year but the doesn't know :that he sneaks in behind her of gluepots, lea mugs and pin told and have ruore up in which the British crafts-: man seems to work mot some
I could fool my lingers stari of the most fulfilled small boys g to lich. I kopt - pleking up. miniature after-miniature with that aver caused the age of 10. reations mariosity. I found my- "We've just Gashed Welling shit, goring with fascination tem,honounced Johnny at a tiny, detactumigat: of strut. “Johnson – taking some rubber ting miniatures, And I left in a.
Jewelled cgvalda and, breaking hivy, 4 Vis ANTONIA oft Wellington atter Wellington
(London, Exprezi· Kerulos),