completed, will eventually contribute to the support of the population, and there is abundant pasture, with innumerable streams, over the whole Island.
On one point, the trade in Chinese vessels, I fear that Article XIII of the Supplementary Treaty has inflicted an injury that nothing but a fresh convention can remedy.
As long as trade is confined to five ports, it is obvious that the Chinese Merchants at those ports will not resort to Hongkong for what comes to their doors. But, if the whole Coast had been left free to the Chinese themselves, a strong inducement to trade with this Colony would have existed, and tended to counteract the restriction on Europeans.
This was foreseen and inculcated in the Instructions from the Foreign Office dated 23 February 1841, I find them in my archives. "You are authorized to propose, on condition that if there be ceded to the British Crown an Eastern island off the Coast of China