156
The Portuguese are in considerable numbers here, since they can generally stand the climate better than the English: Many of them have come from the neighbouring island of Macao which is Portuguese. They are a swarthy indolent looking set. They have a strong Roman Catholic College, which is not far from ours." Their undermining influence is very strong. The students, priests and friars, etc., wander about of an evening in their long black dresses. The Catholics are very active.
The Americans are mostly men of business. The Germans are mostly Lutheran missionaries, and capital fellows they are. The French and Arabs are comparatively few in number. There is an English jail, generally full of sailors: Two of the men from the "Prince Alfred" I suppose were put in there. I am going regularly to visit the prisoners, Mr Irwin having wished me to do so to assist him. Then there is the Chinese jail; a wretched place. Every hour or two as I sit here, I hear a long heavy clanking of chains as a great gang of them go past in the road, carrying heavy burdens. They make them work hard on the roads, and the continual sight of them has a salutary effect on the Chinese mind. Yet crime is very common.
14
I come in the next place to speak of the college, and of my domestic arrangements. In my former letter" I gave a brief description of it, which I will amplify a little. I have just made a miserable sketch, or rather ground plan of the college, just to show within a little the relative positions of each of the parts. I will now ask you to accompany me through the establishment. We enter the gateway, as you see in the plan, and go through the shrubbery. We notice it is thickly planted with trees, and here and there on the grass is a small bed with flowers. There are some gigantic specimens of cactus and
156
The Portuguese are in considerable numbers here, since they can generally stand the climate better than [the] English: Many of them have come from the neighbouring island of Macao which is Portuguese. They are a swarthy indolent looking set. They have a strong Roman Catholic College, which is not far from ours." Their undermining influence is very strong. The students, priests and friars, etc., wander about of an evening in their long black dresses. The Catholics are very active.
The Americans are mostly men of business. The Germans are mostly Lutheran missionaries, and capital fellows they are. The French and Arabs are comparatively few in number. There is an English jail, generally full of sailors: Two of the men from the Prince Alfred" I suppose were put in there. I am going regularly to visit the prisoners, Mr Irwin having wished me to do so to assist him. Then there is the Chinese jail; a wretched place. Every hour or two as I sit here, I hear a long heavy clanking of chains as a great gang of them go past in the road, carrying heavy burdens. They make them work hard on the roads, and the continual sight of them has a salutary effect on the Chinese mind. Yet crime is very common.
14
I come in the next place to speak of the college, and of my domestic arrangements. In my former letter" I gave a brief description of it, which I will amplify a little. I have just made a miserable sketch, or rather ground plan of the college, just to show within a little the relative positions of each of the parts. I will now ask you to accompany me through the establishment. We enter the gateway, as you see in the plan, and go through the shrubbery. We notice it is thickly planted with trees, and here and there on the grass is a small bed with flowers. There are some gigantic specimens of cactus and
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