notoriously unhealthy
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the
Colony's history, I was mercifully spared: when so many of my brother officers, Military and Civilians, naval and fell victims to which prevailed.
are now less So many the insidious fevers but which happily frequent. The works of drainage improvement of the land which & have been the means of carrying out, have doubtless in a great degree tended to this change - but when tropical sun and exposure are necessary to Surveying and out of door occupation, the office of Surveyor General in Hong Kong is attended with much risk.
The records of my Office tell a sad tale-
The first Surveyor General, Mr Gordon, was invalided after a few months' work, - his subordinate died from exposure, and two others died in making the first Surveys which I completed. After leave, Mr Gordon remained only two months and was then obliged, as I remember rightly, to resign the service entirely, his disease (the same one which I now suffer from) having returned with all its virulence.
Mr Pope, my first Clerk of Works, died after 3½ years' work. His successor, Mr Happer, was obliged to retire after 8 months' service, a Jew, from the effects of intermittent fever. The third Clerk of Works, Mr Hibbett, was also invalided, and Walker, who held a temporary employment in my Office, died a few weeks after he left it.
The European Overseers and Assistants, who were more necessarily exposed than myself, suffered more. Several died, and the rest have now retired, being unable to bear the exposure.
The foregoing details show in some degree the dangerous and arduous services I have executed; I feel the amount of any Pension Her Majesty may be pleased to grant is under consideration, I beg respectfully to bring to notice the liberality accorded to all Officers of the Hong Kong Government who have already received pensions, who served the same number of years as myself, none of whom had to bear such exposure, and none of whom have, I think, such claims.
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