14
REPORT ON
Dr. Gutzlaff, whose prepossessions are strongly in favour of the Chinese, concludes this portion of the memorandum with which he has favoured me, as follows: "The moral standard of the people congre- gated in this place (Hong Kong) is of the lowest description."
This observation is fully borne out by the numerous murders, pira- cies, burglaries, and robberies of every description which have taken place during the last three years, and with almost perfect impunity, for the Chinese are formed into secret societies for the mutual protection of villains, and no man dare inform against another.
At this moment (July, 1844) the European inhabitants are obliged to sleep with loaded pistols under their pillows,-frequently to turn out of their beds at midnight to protect their lives and property from gangs of armed robbers, who are ready to sacrifice a few of their number if they can obtain a large plunder*.
This state of things was long ago predicted. In the "Canton Register" of 23rd February, 1841, it was stated: "Hong Kong will be the resort and rendezvous of all the Chinese smugglers. Opium smoking-shops and gambling-houses will soon spread; to those haunts will flock all the discontented and bad spirits of the empire; the island will be surrounded by shameens,' and become a Gehenna of the Waters." Three years have completely fulfilled this prediction, and neither time nor circumstances will now ever alter the character of the place. No Chinese of the humbler class will even bring their wives and children to the colony. He must be a sanguine visionary who expects that Hong Kong will ever contain a numerous and respectable Chinese population; and as regards the present inhabitants, (if a mi- gratory race, who are constantly changing, deserve that epithet,) their
I have heard that 150,000l. will not clear the annual expenses of Her Majesty's establishments in China, and, if the various public works be taken into account, there will be an out- lay far beyond what the advantages to the state by increase of trade, either present or prospective, will at all warrant."
sold does also, I doubt not, affect the commercial market.
As an illustration of these daring nightly attacks (to which incendiarism is now being added), the following excerpt from the "Hong Kong Register" of 13th May, 1845, will suffice:
Early in the morning of Wednesday a party of about twenty-five Chinese attempted to break into a house at East Point. They had mounted on the roof by ladders before being observed, and when the alarm was given, still offered a stout resistance, being well armed. Oue only was captured, but from the traces of blood that were visible to the boat in which the rest escaped, it is believed others were seriously wounded, either by shot from the watchmen, or by jumping from the roof when all could not use the ladder simultaneously. Two of the party who attacked them were wounded, we are happy to say neither dangerously. The fire-balls and torches brought by the robbers illuminated the place nearly equal to daylight; and they had strewed the street with iron crowsfeet, all showing how deliberately the attack was planned. It is supposed, however, the attack was intended for an adjoining house where a Chinaman resides who occasionally deals in opium.
"The captured robber was examined before the magistrate and committed for trial. We understand he resolutely refused to give any information regarding his companions." On one occasion the robbers attacked a guard-boat with a serjeant's party of Her Majesty's 98th Regiment, killed or drowned the guard, and carried off the money.
The overland "Friend of China" of November and December, 1845, has several narratives of daring piracy and robbery in and around Hong Kong,
+ Now five years.
HONG KONG,
15
diminution by one half would be satisfactory, for then a control by registration might be exercised, and life and property be rendered in some degree secure. The daring character of the population, and its worthlessness for civil purposes in the formation of a colony, will be seen in the following incident.
On the 27th September, 1843, the Hon. Major Caine, the chief magistrate, issued a proclamation for pulling down some mat-sheds, which harboured a gang of ruffians who were nightly engaged in plun- dering the town. In the beginning of October, 1843, the Chinese robbers posted a counter-proclamation on the gate of No. 1, Market- place, in the chief thoroughfare, declaring, "that if they left the island themselves, they would compel others to do so, taking with them their merchandize and property, and warning people to be cautious how they ventured out after dark, lest they meet with some unexpected harm."
At the same time the Government coal depôts were set on fire; the mat barracks of the 41st Regiment and the Market-place No. 1 were attempted to be burnt; and at noon, a number of Chinamen, armed with knives, entered the Market, threatened all around, wounded an Euro- pean policeman, and then walked away unmolested.
The number of prisoners in the jail of Hong Kong averaged, during 1843-44, from sixty to ninety a-month, and the crimes with which they were charged were invariably piracy, murder, burglary, robbery, &c. There has been no diminution of crime; the number of prisoners in the jail have increased; and the nightly robberies are as frequent if not more so than they were three years ago. The shopkeepers do not remain more than a few months on the island, when another set takes their place; there is, in fact, a continual shifting of a Bedouin sort of population, whose migratory, predatory, gambling, and dissolute habits utterly unfit them for continuous industry, and render them not only useless, but highly injurious, subjects, in the attempt to form a new colony.
There cannot be said to be any other coloured race in the colony; a few lascars seek employment in ships. The European inhabitants, independent of those in the employ of Government, consist of the mem- bers of about twelve mercantile houses, and their clerks, together with several European shopkeepers, A few persons have arrived here from New South Wales, to try and better their fortune, many of whom would be glad to return thither.
The principle mercantile firms are those engaged in the opium trade, who have removed hither from Macoa as a safer position for an opium depôt, and which they frankly admit is the only trade Hong Kong will ever possess.
These
The opium belonging to the two principal firms is not, however, lodged on shore; it is kept in "receiving-ships," the "Hormanjee Bom- anjee," belonging to Jardine, Matheson, and Co., and the "John Barry," belonging to Dent and Co. Even the money in use by those firms is not intrusted on shore, but is kept in the receiving-ships. firms, and the three or four others partially engaged in the opium trade, carry on this business in Hong Kong; the tea trade is carried on dis- tinctly at Canton, by members of the firms resident there. Excepting the six firms engaged in the opium trade, the other six houses are small, and are principally agents for manufacturers, &c., in Great Britain.
471
*