385
4.
In the
The origin of the track is of more interest. Days before British occupation, it was used by the crews of trading junks, on occasions when both wind and tide were against them, as a towing path, and they thus pulled the junks along by means of a line attached to the peak of the foremast. Something of this arduous means of moving their craft is exhibited to-day by the Yangtsze boatmen. One can now walk along Queen's Road, and imagine the days, a hundred years agone, when perspiring, hardy, probably semi-piratical Chinese seafarers, toiled along, chanting their quaint tempo as they hauled on the tow-ropes.
There is romance even beneath the asphalt and macadam.
The early location of the military at West Point, as shown in the old map published yesterday (25-7-33) has already been referred to in previous comments; also the severe mortality from malaria (see 8-7-33 and 10-7-33). Apropos this fever, which was not then known to be due to the Anopheles mosquito, as a carrier, it is pathetic to read in the old chronicles how it was attributed to the opening up of land, building work, and so forth; to disturbance of soil, and to marshes and miasma; when these were actually the conditions that helped to breed the mosquitoes, and not the direct cause of malaria. So near to the truth, to the great medical discovery which came later, and yet so far from it!
Besides the suffering in the city area, the military camp at Stanley was decimated, due to the greater prevalence of Anopheles mosquitoes in that area (a position of affairs persisting until to-day, the Anopheles being mainly on the south side of the island).
Incidentally, the old records show that in 1843 there was a military camp at Aberdeen (as it was afterwards known), in addition to Stanley.
As late as the Fifties, little had been done to check the onset of fever among the garrison. We read that during the month of June, 1855, two men of the 55th Regiment died. In hospital there were 73 sick, viz. three of the Artillery, 5 Gun Lascars and 65 of the 59th Regiment.
Going back earlier still, an old chronicle notes that when the garrison landed here (in 1841) they suffered severely from ague and dysentery, and "the sickness spread among the men with alarming rapidity, so that, at length, out of our small force, no less than eleven hundred men were upon the sick list at Hongkong." It was claimed, however, that the seeds of illness had been sown during the campaign at Canton before they arrived on this island.
One of the victims was Sir H. Le Fleming Senhouse, the Senior Naval Officer (see 10-7-33) who died in Hongkong on June 13, 1841, but expressed a dying wish to be buried at Macao, as he probably feared a Chinese reoccupation of Hongkong at some future date. His remains were removed to the Portuguese colony on June 17 following, aboard the East India Co.'s vessel Nemesis, and were interred there, in the English cemetery with all the honours due to his rank, the funeral cortege being headed by Captain Elliott, R.N., the first Administrator of the Colony, and Sir Hugh Gough, the General in command of the British military forces. The Portuguese Governor also attended, accompanied by his staff; a Portuguese unit fired three volleys over the grave.
Page 115
Page 116
385
4.
In the
The origin of the track is of more interest. days before British occupation, it was used by the crews of trading junks, on occasions when both wind and tide were against them, as a towing path, and they thus pulled the junks along by means of a line attached to the peak of the foremast, Something of this arduous means of moving their craft is exhibited to-day by the Yangtsze boatmen. One can now walk along Queen's Road, and imagine the days, a hundred years agone, when perspiring, hardy, probably seni-piratical Chinese seafarers, toiled along, chanting their quaint tempo as they hauled on the tow-ropes.
There is romance éven beneath the asphalt and macadam.
The early location of the military at West Point, as shown in the old map published yesterday (25-7-33) has already been referred to in previous comments; also the severe mortality from malaria (see 8-7-33 and 10-7-33). Apropos this fever, which was not then known to be due to the Anopheles mosquito, as a carrier, it is pathetic to read in the old chronicles how it was attributed to the opening up of land, building work, and so forth; to disturbance of soil, and to marshes and miasına; when these were actually the conditions that helped to breed the mosquitoes, and not the direct cause of malaria. So near to the truth, to the great medical discovery which came later, and yet so far from it!
Besides the suffering in the city area,
the military
camp at Stanley was decimated, due to the greater prevalence of Anopheles mosquitoes in that area (a position of affairs persisting until to-day, the Anopheles being mainly on the south side of the island)..
Incidentally, the old records show that in 1843 there was a military camp at Aberdeen (as it was afterwards known), in addition to Stanley,
As late as the Fifties, little had been done to check the onset of fever among the garrison. We read that during the month of June, 1855, two men of the 55th Regiment died. In hospital there were 73 sick, viz. three of the Artillery, 5 Gun Lascans and 65 of the 59th Regiment.
Going back earlier still, an old chronicle notes that when the garrison landed here (in 1841) they suffered severely from ague and dysentery, and "the sickness spread among the men with alarming rapidity, so that, at length, out of our small force, no less than eleven hundred men were upon the sick list at Hongkong." It was claimed, however, that the seeds of illness had been sown during the campaign at Canton before they arrived on this island.
One of the victims was Sir H. Le Fleming Senhouse, the Senior Naval Officer (see 10-7-33) who died in Hongkong on June 13, 1841, but expressed a dying wish to be buried at Macao, as he probably feared a Chinese reoccupation of Hongkong at some future date. His remains were removed to the Portuguese colony on June 17 following, aboard the East India Co.'s vessel Nemesis, and were interred there, in the English cemetery with all the honours due to his rank, the funeral. cortege being headed by Captain Elliott, R.N., the first Administrator of the Colony, and Sir Hugh Gough, the General in command of the British military forces. The Portuguese Governor also attended, accompanied by his staffy Ada Portuguese unit fired three volleys over the grave.
Page 115Page 116
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