CO129-011 - Sir John Davis - 1845 [1-4] — Page 283

though the hills

are

Major Caine, now

resident

its

higher.

the oldest

in Hongkong (from very first possession) states

it to be better than

any

part of India, and Sir Henry

Pottinger will

But as

Sir John

the same.

the more state=

i

!

hardly

1

ment of opinions is sufficient, I will endeavour

to show that the great

the

mortality among Military and (at the very first) among

Civilians, must be attributed

to circumstances and causes

sufficiently obvious to save the character of the climate.

Before the place was

definitively

278

definitively declared, only two

a

years since, to be permanent possession of the British Crown, the uncertainty

of tenure, and the

very

limited resort of tolerable workmen, led to persons of

all ranks being

housed in

dwellings progressing gradually

from

mere mat sheds to

wooden

and brick hovels

of a somewhat better description.

at first

was at

The pernicious system of ground floor apartments universal, arising partly from hurry, and partly from economy;

I

regret to

more

of

say that

there still

than I could wish.

With...