CO129-018 - Others - 1846 — Page 476

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REPORT ON

The remaining men were withdrawn, and a small detachment of Native troops sent thither, in order to ascertain whether the climate will suit them, On the 17th July, 1844, only four men out of the twenty Europeans who had been to Saiwan, were reported fit for duty..

The returns made to the Army and Navy medical boards, will fur- nish full information on the sufferings of the soldiers and sailors in Her Majesty's service in this colony.*

The Indian troops bear the insalubrity of the climate worse than the Europeans. In the cantonments at the west end of Victoria, the 39th Madras Native Infantry and 37th Madras Native Infantry lost half their men in 1842-43. In May, 1844, a wing of the 4th regiment Madras Native Infantry, landed at Hong Kong 450 men in perfect health, and 53 sick, after a long voyage.

There have been already many deaths in the cantonments at the east end of Victoria; and in June, 1844, there were 160 men sick, and the list was daily increasing. From 15th April to 2nd July, 1844, there died at Hong Kong, out of the small force here, fifty-two Europeans and forty-two Native soldiers.

General D'Aguilar says that the maintenance of an European garri- son at Hong Kong, would cost the Crown one regiment every three years. Estimating each soldier as having cost Government £100, this would be a severe pecuniary loss, and worthy the consideration of those who will not reflect on the humanity of the subject.

To keep 700 effective fire-locks in Hong Kong, it is necessary to maintain 1400 men.

Hong Kong is not less fatal to the Chinese, of whom there are, on

"" of an average, about 600 sick and dying monthly. Dr. Gutzlaff says, 100 Coolies with whom I was acquainted, there died between the 20th May and 15th June, 1844, ten men, and thirty left the place diseased." I understand that the whole of these 100 strong men from the N.E. coast, were obliged to leave the colony from sickness. There is no large town or extensive population on the mainland of China adjacent to Hong Kong, which indicates the native opinion of this part of China. Dr. Gutzlaff says, 'many Chinese have fallen victims in Hong Kong to a malignant fever, which not only deranges the whole system, but hastens the death of the patient." He adds, "there exists among the doctors not one dissentient voice about the fatal tendency of diseases contracted heret."

* During the year 1845, the 98th (Queen's) Regiment were nearly useless from mortality and sickness; they were sent to Chusan at Christmas, and the 18th Royal Irish were brought down to Hong Kong. In a letter dated 30th October, 1845, Hong Kong, it is stated on one of the highest authorities in the colony: "The summer heat is now at an end, and the loss of the garrison during its continuance (five months), has been seventy-two Europeans and thirty of the native troops; but a great number of them are still sick (a good many have since died). At Chusan they have been quite healthy, and by the last accounts had lost only three men during the summer." Many other illustrations might be given.

+ Dr. Mc Pherson, in his work, "Two Years in China," expresses the follow-

ing opinion of the value of Hong Kong:-

In other respects (that is, excepting its harbour), this new colony possesses

HONG KONG.

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Nor is it during only one period of the year that the island is 469

unhealthy in the cold season there are agues, low continued fever, diarrhoea, pulmonary complaints, dropsy, rheumatism, and various other diseases arising from general debility of the system, and from the poisoned atmosphere. On the 25th August, 1843, the Surveyor- General of the colony reported to the Government, that "the number of interments had been so great (in the European grave-yard) that the inclosure was almost full, and the hill behind so rocky, that it was impossible to dig into it; therefore, ere long, it would be necessary to provide another place." The Surveyor-General further stated that it would be a difficult thing to select another grave-yard, on account of the rocky and uneven nature of the island.

Let it not be said that the dreadful mortality and sickness of Hong Kong is the result of the newness of the colony, and that all young settlements suffer proportionably. The assertion, if made, is at variance with fact. New colonies even in the tropics have not been originally unhealthy; when the West India Islands were first colonized they were perfectly healthy, as is proved by the large European population who resorted thither and remained there many years. Calcutta and Bombay are reported to have been formerly much healthier than they are at present. The Australian colonies were perfectly healthy when founded; so also the Mauritius and St. Helena. I cannot name a single colony that was originally unhealthy, and that subsequently became salubrious. Soldiers, sailors, and civilians, Europeans and natives, women as well as men, residing in every part of Hong Kong, have fallen victims to the climate, and at all seasons of the year.

An extensive study of the subject and no inconsiderable experience in different climates, induces me to concur in the opinon of Dr. Thompson, the respected head of the medical department of Hong Kong, that the island never will be healthy. Its geological character, the immense quantity of rain, and the circumvallation of hills surrounding the town and island, render it a hot-bed of disease, which may be more mitigated one year than another, but which will ever and anon recur with varied violence. No drainage can obviate this destructive miasm; independent of new roads or buildings, the rain will every year keep the surface con- tinually saturated with moisture, and also uncover large portions of the

but few advantages. Its northern side is formed by a connected ridge of moun- tains, the highest of which is about 2000 feet above the level of the sea. Except in a few spots, these mountains are barren and uncultivated, formed by black project- ing masses of granite, the intervals giving shelter to herbage and brushwood. There are no trees of any size; and, unlike the generality of mountainous districts, it possesses but a few valleys, and these not of any extent. The mountains for the most part fall perpendicularly into the sea, thus leaving but little space for building at their base.

"The appearance of Hong Kong is anything but prepossessing, and to those who have hitherto resided upon it, the climate has proved far from salubrious. There is a good deal of rank vegetation on the face of the hill; the ground on which, after a heavy fall of rain, becomes elastic and boggy. On the Cowloon side of the bay (in the Chinese territory), the atmosphere is at all times more pure, and the changes of temperature less sudden; indeed, altogether it appears a far more likely and preferable spot to form a settlement than on the Hong Kong side."