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disguise
are
working upon the fears
of our better disposed and respectable
Chinese, whilst the freedom of our fort has filled our Chinese "tenements" with the vilest of
Chinese of all classes, and
seeing
that all the wealth of our Canton Merchants, as well as of some American and nearly all the
Parsee merchants, is lodged at present in How Mong's house
it is not
imprising
that those who have
nothing to lose, and every thing to gain, should
seize
the present
opportunity
to cause disturbance
in the hope of plunder; and it is less probable that our better disposed
Chinese Inhabitants have combined
under coercion to shut their Shops,
for they distinctly told me
yesterday that 4 or 500 bad men not belonging to Hongkong had threatened to break open their Shops, but they were not able to point them out
possibly
these
may be members of the Triad Society. Further inquiries will enable me to form some correct judgment of the real cause which has led to this grave opposition to legitimate Authority.
I am informed that one period
supposed to
yesterday the mob was consist of from 30 to 40,000, but