[ { "id": 204652, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1963", "page_number": 133, "title": "RAS-1963", "content_text": "NAVIGATION ON THE YANGTSE \n\n119 \n\nThe restriction about navigation beyond Ichang was abolished after the Sino-Japanese War by the Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895, and three years later the indefatigable Little had the satisfaction of taking his Leechuan from Ichang up to Chungking, the first steamer to navigate the Upper Yangtse. The Leechuan was a twin screw, wooden, steam launch only fifty-five feet long, and too small to carry any cargo. Little acted as his own captain and chief engineer, and the Leechuan had to be pulled up the strongest of the rapids by trackers. Two years later, however, a larger paddle steamer Pioneer, built by Little and a group of associates, made the first commercial passage to Chungking. The Pioneer was built by Denny of Dumbarton, and was 180 feet long, 60 feet beam over the paddle boxes, and had a draft of 6 feet. She carried 150 tons of cargo and many deck passengers, and took seven days between Ichang and Chungking on her first trip. There is a photograph of her in Gleanings from Fifty Years in China by Archibald Little (Philadelphia, 1908), p. 141. Shortly afterwards the Pioneer was commandeered by the British government to bring British subjects down the Yangtse during the Boxer troubles, and she finished her career as H.M.S. Kinshi, the headquarters ship of the Senior British Naval Officer on the Yangtse.\n\nIn that same year of 1900 the British river gunboat Woodlark, which was 145 feet long, by 23 feet beam, but had a draft of only 3 feet, also reached Chungking, and in the following year Woodlark and her sister ship Woodcock reached Sui Fu, 100 miles beyond Chungking. It was in the December of that year that the first of many serious accidents occurred on the Upper Yangtse, when the German steamer Suichsiang went on the rocks at the Tungling Rapids, 36 miles above Ichang, and was a total loss.\n\nThe Yangtse has its source in Tibet, not far from the headwaters of the Yellow, Mekong, Salween, and Irawaddy Rivers. When this became known to Europeans it became the ambition of many travellers to go up the Yangtse as far as possible, and then to cross over the Himalayas into Burma or India. This journey had a fascination for Europeans very similar to that exercised by the Nile and Niger over their fathers and grandfathers. The naval expedition of 1861, which went up the river as far as Yochow, landed three Englishmen there who intended to follow the river to its source in Tibet, and then cross over the Himalayas into India. Captain Blakiston, Lieutenant Saral, and Doctor Barton of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204653, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1963", "page_number": 134, "title": "RAS-1963", "content_text": "120 \n\nA. D. BLUE \n\nShanghai, travelled by junk from Yochow to Pingsan on the Yunnan border, 1800 miles from the mouth of the river; but were then forced to turn back because of the unsettled state of the country.\n\nIn 1894, the Australian A. G. Morrison,15 successfully completed a somewhat similar journey. Travelling alone and by the customary methods, Morrison went up the Yangtse from Shanghai to Chungking, and then across Western China and the Shan States into Burma, a total distance of 3,000 miles. Morrison was unable to speak Chinese, but travelled in Chinese dress, and experienced nothing but kindness and hospitality all the way. He went from Shanghai to Hankow as a deck passenger on the Jardine steamer Taiwo, paying a dollar a day extra to the steward for foreign 'chow'. From Hankow to Ichang he again travelled as a deck passenger on the China Merchants steamer Kweili, then the only triple screw steamer on the river. At that time Ichang was the last open port on the river, and no foreign ships went past there. For the next stage to Chungking, therefore, Morrison hired a small sampan called a \"weipan\", with a captain and crew of four. This stage of nearly 400 miles through the Yangtse Gorges took 15 days, which was a record at the time, and cost him the equivalent of £2-16-0 in copper cash.\n\nIn his journey up the river Morrison noticed that many of the largest trading junks flew foreign flags, thus avoiding paying “likin” at the various provincial and regional boundaries. Under treaty regulations they only paid an ad valorem duty of 5% on their cargo, which was collected by the Chinese Maritime Customs at Ichang or Chungking. Morrison left the river soon after Chungking, and travelled overland for the remainder of his journey. He found food plentiful and cheap everywhere, and opium growing all along the Chinese section of his route. The total cost of his whole journey from Shanghai to Bhamo was under £20.\n\nSir Reginald Johnston, a British consular official, followed fairly closely in Morrison's footsteps in 1906. He started from Peking, going from there to Hankow by rail, and then up beyond Chungking by steamer and junk, finally going overland to Mandalay.\n\n15 Later to become famous as \"Chinese Morrison\" of the Times.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204716, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1964", "page_number": 19, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "W. C. HUNTER \n\nengaged in the lucrative trade drew out of the country large amounts of silver. Lin Tse-hsu, Governor General of Hupeh and Hunan wholeheartedly threw his support to those who memorialized the throne requesting stringent measures to prevent the use of opium within the country, and to cure addicts. Moreover, Lin took direct action and seized caches of opium, 12,000 ounces and 5,000 pipes. As a result of his success in combating opium addiction and forceful condemnation of the sale of the drug he was called to Peking by Emperor Tao-kuang and appointed Imperial Commissioner to examine the opium traffic at Canton. He arrived at the provincial capital in early March, 1839. For several years prior to 1839 nearly 30,000 chests had been imported annually there.\n\nFateful events immediately took form. Lin warned the western merchants of dire results if the iniquitous trade did not cease. His threat was followed by the demand that within three days they offer a bond that no opium would be imported. A counter proposal was made to turn over to Commissioner Lin about 1000 chests of the drug which he summarily rejected. On March 22, he demanded that Lancelot Dent, one of the principal importers be given to Chinese officials as a hostage until all opium was given up. The western merchants insisted that Dent could be surrendered only on condition that his personal safety was guaranteed. The Chinese merchants doing business with foreigners were frightened by the action of their own government. Some of them were deprived of their buttons of rank and two appeared in public with chains around their necks. Under these circumstances the Hong (the association of Chinese merchants trading with the western merchants at Canton) pressed the foreign community to comply with the ultimatum of Lin and deliver up Dent.\n\nIn the midst of this seething situation, on March 24, Captain Charles Elliot, British naval officer and Chief Superintendent and Plenipotentiary of the China Commission arrived from Macao. He entered the foreign compound with great difficulty inasmuch as the river had been blockaded and the streets leading to the foreign section had been barricaded. The predicament of approximately 300 western people seemed most serious since food and water were in short supply and a large encampment of Chinese troops was close at hand. Canton was cut off from formal communications from Macao which was nearly sixty miles distant", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204831, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1964", "page_number": 134, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "A RECONNAISSANCE OF MA WAN\n\n113\n\nCaptain Proctor in his passage from Chusan in the Endeavour in October last, came through what is called the Cowhee Passage. It was then blowing hard from the south east. The pilot carried him to the westward of Cowhee, and he anchored for the night in 8 fathoms water, soft mud, off the point L. In the morning he passed to the southward of the Bottoe Islands, having 5 and 6 fathoms over soft mud all the way in shore.\n\nOn the morning of the 17th we got under weigh and passed close to the northward of the Bottoe Islands, we then stood over to the north shore, and worked up to the northward of the islands of Lonkoo25 and Lintin. The weather was so thick that we were frequently out of sight of land. At the turn of tide we anchored near some fishing stakes in 4 fathoms water, Lintin bearing SSE distant about 15 miles. On the 18th we weighed and worked up to Anson's Bay, and on the 19th we passed the Bocca Tigris, and reached the Indiamen at the second bar. The 20th in the evening the Jackall arrived at Whampoo.\n\nSigned: HENRY WM. PARISH\n\nLieut. Royal Artillery\n\nN.B. The soil in general is free from stone, but the surface of the hill on the north west side of the island is covered with stones of a moderate size, and proper for building.\n\nGeographical Comments\n\nAny note on the value of Parish's survey of Ma Wan (Cowhee) and Lantao Island must inevitably take into account the state of nautical knowledge of Hong Kong waters at the time. This was probably sketchy; indeed, Parish himself states that he made a major revision to the outline of Lantao. His own work was very accurate, and his records of depths and currents off Lantao and around Ma Wan are confirmed exactly on modern charts26. His constant harping on the difficulties of navigation, however, cannot be ascribed entirely to the awkwardness of the local topography; bad weather (of which he had plenty), and a clumsy square-rigged ship, cannot have helped to raise his opinion of the area.\n\nThe channels around Ma Wan and North Lantao contain some of the deepest and most dangerous waters in Hong Kong. Both on rising and falling tides, there is a concentration of currents of up to seven knots along both east and west coast of Ma Wan, and these converge in the channel between Lantao Island and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204873, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1964", "page_number": 176, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES \n\n151 \n\nevacuation (1662-1669). But it is certain that Tung Chung and Sha Lo Wan had a share in the incense trade which terminated with the evacuation. Wild incense trees can still be found but the art of making incense sticks has vanished.\n\nThe ancestors of the people living in the valley may have migrated into the area from the north in 1669 but the area has been, until recently, notorious for occurrences of malaria which claimed heavy tolls. The entire population may have been completely wiped out several times, as the oldest of the families has a family history of no more than seven generations.\n\nTung Chung came into the limelight again when Cheung Pao Tsai and his pirate band who had been using the bay as one of their bases to prey upon the coastal trade of the South China Sea, successfully repelled a Ching naval contingent after a ten-day battle in the Ping Chung Bay in the twelfth year of Chia Ching's reign (1807). The trouble was finally quelled in 1809 when Cheung Pao Tsai surrendered and his pirates were disbanded.\n\n2\n\nWith the suppression of the pirates, trade flourished. The Viceroy at Canton petitioned the Ch'ing Government in 1817 saying that \"Ta Yu Shan of San On District, an isolated island, is on the (trade) route of the ships of the \"barbarians\". Tung Chung and Tai O are the only places where these \"barbarian\" ships can anchor. A fort at Chi Yi Kok2 with a Captain(?) and soldiers from the Tai Pang Camp has been maintained but there is no garrison at Tung Chung. As the two places are very far apart, eight garrison houses should be built at the mouth of the Tung Chung Rivers and two batteries (the fort), seven garrison houses and one arsenal should be constructed on the foot of Shek Shee ShanJ. \"6 The petition was accepted and the work was completed in the same year. Whether the work was carried out as requested by the Viceroy has still to be proved. However, the fort has been relatively well preserved and seven old\n\n2 Fan Lau (), 24 miles from Tai O.\n\n3 Nan Tau (南頭), Po On District, 15 miles to the north of Lantau.\n\n4 The distance is 6 miles across the main watershed and about 9 miles along the coast.\n\n5 The idea was to prevent the \"barbarians\" from drawing fresh water for their ships.\n\n6 Kwangtung Annals (廣東通志), p. 2,530.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206169, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1970", "page_number": 249, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "OBAY\n\nkingpint\n\nMIN-CAN-ÍÍIEN\n\nAVTIN\n\nLand\n\n• Gratin and I44\n\nLake Chemu je\n\nSCALE OF ORIGINAL CHART\n\n333,475\n\nJuantor Thay\n\n*** ISLAND\n\nH\n\nSun Miles\n\n^ONG KONG\n\nIsland Vighing\n\nH\n\nHook\n\nA. Prado or\n\nLA MAN\n\n+\n\nng Xuan Bur-Oinou\n\nStatute\n\nWang Launy\n\norang kep\n\n3'\n\n5\n\n♫\n\n3\n\nMet Bay\n\n14\n\n#4\n\n#\n\nPlate 15 A chart of the China Sea from the Island of Sancian to Pedra Branca with the course of the River Tigris from Canton to Macao from a Portuguese draught communicated by Captain Hayter and compared with the Chinese Chart of the Macao Pilots. 29th November, 1780.\n\n(From the Map Library of the Department of Geography and Geology, University of Hong Kong)", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206214, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1971", "page_number": 31, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "THE TAIPINGS AT NINGPO\n\n25\n\nthat they would not strike the first blow, but neither would they stand idly by. Finally, they used this occasion to affirm that under Taiping rules, all Chinese residents of the foreign settlement were still under Taiping Chinese jurisdiction. This was put very civilly, and it was emphasized that Chinese deportment toward foreigners would continue to be proper, and that trade would be allowed to continue as before.24\n\nThis letter did not satisfy Captain Dew. On May 2, he replied that since his \"moderate demands\" for the insult to the British and French flags had not been met, the generals' letter had been forwarded to the admirals. While awaiting the latters' decision, the foreign ships were moved down river two miles and all communication with the city was cut off. Dew now added a third demand: the appointment of a Taiping officer with guards to perform the duty of preventing anyone from mounting the walls opposite the ships. If the demands were not complied with, the Taiping generals were informed that the foreign naval vessels had already been given the authority to blockade Chinghae, and would prevent all foreign ships from entering the river toward Ningpo.25\n\nThe Taiping generals replied the following day, May 3, 1862. Point for point the reply seems to be reasonable enough. Regarding the first demand, it was pointed out that explanations had already been given on the accidental nature of the event. On the second demand, the Taipings again discussed their concern for the security of the city in the event of an attack. However, it was agreed that the portholes of guns bearing on the international settlement would be stopped up and all shot and powder from these positions would be removed. As to the third demand, it was emphasized that no persons were allowed on the walls in question except the men in charge of the guns. The few temporary workmen there would soon be removed. The generals concluded by reminding Captain Dew that \"the order to blockade Chinghae will do more harm to your trade than it will to us,\" and that \"we are inordinately desirous of remaining on good terms with you.\"26\n\nThe final exchange in this dialogue was an ultimatum from Captain Dew on May 8. By this time, the British had already made arrangements for an attack on Ningpo. This had come", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206539, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1972", "page_number": 87, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "SIR JAMES HALDANE STEWART LOCKHART\n\n81\n\n21 'Despatches and Other Papers Relating to the Extension of the Colony of Hong Kong', Sessional Papers, no. 32 of 1899, p. 13.\n\n22 Ibid., p. 36.\n\n23 Ibid., p. 65.\n\n24 Ibid., p. 69.\n\n25 'Report on the New Territory during the first year of British Administration', Sessional Papers, no. 15 of 1900, p. 252.\n\n26 'Report on the New Territory for the Year 1901', Sessional Papers, no. 22 of 1902, p. 4.\n\n27 Annual Report on Weihaiwei for 1921.\n\n28 Alfred Hancock and his brother Sydney were partners in the firm of A. and S. Hancock of Queen's Road, Hong Kong. In 1906 Alfred Hancock had resided for over fifty years in Amoy and Hong Kong. In the 1920s the firm had moved to Des Voeux Road and the chief partner was H. R. B. Hancock, Lockhart's brother-in-law. The firm was still active in 1940.\n\n29 The walled city of Weihaiwei, captured by the Japanese in 1894, by the terms of the 1898 Convention was not under British jurisdiction but nominally under a Chinese sub-district deputy magistrate. The British sphere of influence extended for an area of 1,500 square miles east of the Leased Territory.\n\n30 On the Chinese Regiment see: Captain A. A. S. Barnes, On Active Service with the Chinese Regiment, London, 1902; C. E. Bruce-Mitford, The Territory of Wei-Hai-Wei, Shanghai, 1902, pp. 22-24; R. F. Johnston, Lion and Dragon in Northern China, London, 1910, pp. 82-3; and Annual Report on Weihaiwei for 1906. The only servicemen left in Weihaiwei after 1906 were the small body of Royal Marines of the Island Guard,\n\n31 Johnston, op. cit., p. 82.\n\n32 L. K. Young, British Policy in China 1895-1902, London, 1970, p. 73.\n\n33 Johnston, op. cit., p. 80.\n\n34 The Weihaiwei School was opened with only four pupils in 1901 by a Mr. H. J. L. Beer. In 1903 a new school house was built near Port Edward, partly with the aid of a debenture loan subscribed by British subjects in Shanghai. The new school had dormitories for forty boys. The school, which took boys between ages of 8 to 14, was mainly for the sons of British expatriates. Pupils came from places as far apart as Mukden, Canton, Kobe, and Chungking. The school closed in 1925 when it became apparent that the rendition of Weihaiwei was close at hand. Weihaiwei's fine climate contributed to the school's success with expatriate parents.\n\n35 Johnston, op. cit., p. 96.\n\n36 Sir Reginald Fleming Johnston, K.C.M.G. (1874-1938). Johnston was educated at Edinburgh University and Oxford. He arrived in Hong Kong as an Eastern Cadet, fresh from Magdalen, on Christmas Day, 1898. In 1904, Robert Walter, Secretary to Government and Magistrate at Weihaiwei, was seconded for service as Emigration Agent at Ch'iu-wang-tao for the Transvaal Government and Johnston was appointed to take his place. In 1906 he was appointed District Officer and Magistrate and resided in the heart of the Territory. In 1919 when he took up his appointment as tutor he was Senior District Officer. In 1927 he returned to Weihaiwei as Commissioner. After the rendition of Weihaiwei in 1930 he became Professor of Chinese, University of London, and Head of the Department of Languages and Cultures of the Far East, School of Oriental Studies, 1931-37.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206982, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1974", "page_number": 53, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "ADVENTURERS IN HONG KONG\n\n47\n\nthe Chicago meat trade. Morès soon joined forces with Drumont,49 the brilliant anti-semitic editor of La Libre Parole, served as the paper's official duellist, and created a body of street fighters called 'Morès and His Friends'. These street fighters, the first 'storm-troopers', were recruited from among the butcher boys of the district of La Villette in northeastern Paris. Morès outfitted his 'friends' in cowboy hats, purple shirts and other Wild West accoutrements.\n\n51\n\nIn June 1890 Morès was sentenced to three months imprisonment50 for the publication of inflammatory writings; but this experience did not dampen his ardour as a fervent nationalist, socialist and anti-semite. He fought four duels, in one of which he killed Captain Armand Mayer, a Jewish officer in the French Army; but in 1893 his political position was compromised when Clemenceau revealed that the anti-semitic Morès had borrowed money from Cornelius Herz, a Jew associated with the notorious Panama scandal. In 1894 the impetuous Morès landed in Algeria and immediately embarked on a violent campaign to arouse the Moslems in North Africa.\n\nIn 1895, after a short visit to France, Morès returned to Algeria. His purpose was to create an alliance between Catholic France and Moslem Africa so as to block British expansion in the African continent. His scheme was visionary and it is not clear how he expected to unify Frenchmen and Arabs in a crusade against British imperialism; but we do know he planned an expedition from Tunis through Ghadames and Ghat across the Sahara Desert to Bahr el Ghazal, where the French would be in a strong position on the Upper Nile to throttle British power in Egypt and prevent complete British control of the route from Cape to Cairo.\n\nIn Tunis on 29 April 1896, Morès signed an agreement with a certain El Hadj Ali to guide a caravan from Gabes, Tunisia, to Ghat, a distance of some thousand miles. He left Gabes on the morning of 14 May with a small escort. On the journey south a party of Touaregs attached themselves to the caravan, claiming they would guide the party through the desert. In fact, they were the henchmen of the Touareg Bechaoui, who was waiting to plunder the caravan and kill Morès at a place on the Libyan frontier called Mechiguig.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207122, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1974", "page_number": 193, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES \n\n187 \n\nas the property of three Parsee merchants. Later, it appears, two of the owners sold out and she became the sole property of one Cursetzee Cawasjee. The closing entry says that the “Castle Huntly” was lost on Lincoln's Shoal some four hundred miles south of Hong Kong on 23rd October 1845, while on a voyage from China to Bombay. \n\nLloyd's List confirms that the Master of the ship at the time of her loss was a Captain McIntyre and adds that the Master, Officers, Passengers and part of the crew were saved and landed at Hong Kong. \n\nSome further details obtained from another source indicate that before 1829 the \"Castle Huntly\" sailed with the East India Company, and log books up to that time are still extant. These reveal that in 1829 the Governor of Mauritius was a passenger, and that later in the same year there was a mutiny by the crew. \n\nThe ship is mentioned in a book by Basil Lubbock entitled Opium Clippers, as having sailed regularly in this trade between Calcutta and the Canton River in 1835. It seems probable that when she met her end she was still engaged in carrying opium to China. \n\nThis is the story as well as we have been able to discover it, but it leaves some very interesting questions unanswered. The ship was lost on 23rd October, but the date of Elizabeth Ann's death is given as 21st October. Did she die in Hong Kong waters, and was her body put ashore on Shek Kwu Chau at the start of what was to prove the ship's last voyage? And why choose Shek Kwu Chau, which at that time was Chinese territory? It may have been that the master was anxious to make full use of the northeast monsoon which could well have been blowing at that time of the year. \n\nAgain, whence came the tombstone? It is of granite, but a University geologist has given his opinion that it is not of Hong Kong origin. Was it brought to the island at a later date and placed over the lonely grave? These questions may never receive an answer, but to us of a later generation the odd fact is that Elizabeth Ann's remains are to be found on an island now given over to repairing the damage caused by the trade in which her husband was engaged. \n\nJEAN MOORE", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207288, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1975", "page_number": 56, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "INCIDENT BETWEEN HONG MERCHANTS AND THE SUPERCARGOES OF THE BRITISH EAST INDIA COMPANY IN CANTON, 1811.\n\nJ. L. CRANMER-BYNG*\n\nA detailed account of this incident was recorded by the senior officer on the British side, Captain the Hon. Hugh Lindsay,† the Commodore of the East India Company's fleet at that time. It is in the form of a letter to his sister, Lady Anne Barnard, undated, and was printed in The Lives of the Lindsays by Lord Lindsay, 2 vols., London, 1849. A full copy of this letter, retaining the original punctuation, has been supplied by Mr. Tom Lindsay, a long-time member of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. It is worth printing because of the details it supplies which are missing in the brief account of the same episode in Hosea Ballou Morse, The Chronicles of the East India Company trading to China, 1635-1834, Vol. III, Oxford 1926, p. 156.\n\nHistorians of early Anglo-Chinese relations, and of the British East India Company's trade with China, have to rely to a great extent for their material on Morse's five substantial volumes. It is worth examining, at this point, how Morse wrote these volumes which are based on a massive collection of hand-written documents.\n\n* Professor Cranmer-Byng belongs to the Department of History at the University of Toronto. He was the first Hon. Editor of this Journal and has contributed to it from time to time.\n\nHon. Hugh Lindsay was a younger brother of Alexander Lindsay, 6th Earl of Balcarres and 23rd Earl of Crawford. A note at the bottom of page 400 of Vol. II of Lives of the Lindsays states:\n\nMr. Hugh Lindsay was for many years Member of Parliament for the burghs of Forfar, Perth, Dundee, Cupar and St. Andrews, and Marshal of the Admiralty.\n\nIn the text on the same page it is stated that he was also a Director and Chairman of the East India Company. He died in April 1844 in his eightieth year. The biographical note goes on:\n\nHugh Hamilton Lindsay Esq., his only son, and long a resident in China, is the author of the extremely interesting 'Voyage of the Amherst, — along two thousand miles of the coast of China,- published in 8vo. by a speculating bookseller, from his report to the East India Co., which was printed by order of Parliament.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207293, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1975", "page_number": 61, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "INCIDENT: H.K. MERCHANTS & B.E.I. CO.\n\n53\n\nIn all my intercourse with the Chinese I had observed that, however much they were inclined to oppress, a steady and temperate resistance had never failed to succeed in obtaining redress.\n\nIn Canton strangers are strictly prohibited from entering the city, being only permitted to live in the suburbs; I had, however, frequently observed in my walks, that the guards at the gates were very remiss in their duty, and that in the morning, during the time of breakfast, there was seldom more than one man there. I also knew that the streets in the city, like those in the suburbs, were so narrow that not more than three persons could walk abreast; and I had learned from the Chinese that the Viceroy's palace was about a mile from the great gate, but whether in a direct line or diverging I did not know.\n\nOn leaving Mr. Brown I sent orders to the commanders of the fleet to meet me at eight o'clock next morning, at the Company's factory, with all their officers who were in Canton; and I directed that they should be in full uniform, but without sidearms.\n\nAt the time appointed we assembled,—sixteen commanders and their officers, making in all about sixty persons. I informed them that I had received orders from the chief supercargo to proceed to the great gate of the city to present a petition for the sailing of the fleet, that Captain Craig, Mr. Perry, and myself would lead the van, and that the rest of the body should follow, in files of three abreast, keeping close order.\n\nAbout eight o'clock in the morning there are few Chinese in the streets, we therefore had no difficulty in proceeding to the great gate, and, as I expected, found the guard (one soldier excepted) in the guard house at breakfast. The soldier, on my passing, attempted to stop me, but, on my giving him a push forward, he ran on before me; our party then immediately got through the gate and beyond the guard house before the guard could get out to stop us, in consequence of the narrowness of the street, our files of three filling it completely, they could not pass us, their efforts to do so only pushing us on faster. On, therefore, we went—no one before us attempting to impede our progress.\n\nIn a short time I discovered the soldier who was at the gate, a little way in advance, watching our proceedings; it then occurred to me that, as he could not pass us to return to the guard, he would go on to the Hoppo's palace to give information there of our entry", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207792, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1976", "page_number": 180, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "LAND AND RIVER ROUTES TO WEST CHINA\n\n165\n\nboats as far as Bhamo, and then partly by land and partly by water into China. Other exports were amber, ivory, precious stones, betel nuts, and edible birds' nests; while in return Burma got raw and wrought silk, velvet, gold leaf, preserves, and chinaware. Similar reports came from other sources. By 1850, the possibility of extending trade from Yunnan into Szechwan was envisaged, and the glowing prospect of an extensive market for British goods in West China became an obsession among many British officials and merchants in Burma and India.\n\nCaptain McLeod's mission of 1836 is the first official British attempt to find an overland route to China. McLeod went from Moulmein, the port in the newly acquired province of Tenasserim, via Kungtang to Kenghang, a Shan state on the border of China. Here he failed to get permission to enter Yunnan, being told that if the British wanted to trade with China they should go to Canton, and that if he still persisted in wanting to enter Yunnan he would require official permission from Peking. McLeod had to admit defeat, and turned back.\n\nAfter this came a succession of other ventures from Assam and Burma, all—for one reason or another—failures. These culminated in the famous and ill-fated Dual Mission of 1874-75, which led to the Margary Affair.* This was a joint attempt to explore West China from the Burmese and Chinese sides. Previous to this the only important attempts to find a route between Burma and China from the eastern side had been Captain Blakiston's in 1861 and T. T. Cooper's in 1868.\n\nThe Royal Navy's expedition of 1861 which went up the Yangtze to establish the first treaty ports on the great river—Chinkiang, Kiukiang, and Hankow—continued 153 miles beyond Hankow to Yochow. Here they transferred Blakiston's party to junks in which they continued for another 1050 miles to Pingshan, nearly 1800 miles from the sea and 400 miles above Chungking. It had been intended to follow the Yangtze to its source in Tibet, and then cross the Himalayas into India. Because of unsettled political conditions at Pingshan and beyond, however, they were forced to turn back; but they had obtained valuable information about the Middle and Upper Yangtze.\n\nSee pp. 169-170 below.\n\nPage 180\n\nPage 181", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207798, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1976", "page_number": 186, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "LAND AND RIVER ROUTES TO WEST CHINA \n\n171 \n\nwhich was brought out in sections and assembled in Shanghai. The Chinese, however, refused to allow the Kuling above Ichang, and after a year of wrangling, Little sold her to the China Merchants Steam Navigation Company, reputedly at twice she had cost him, and she was put on the Hankow--Ichang service. \n\nLittle was not disheartened, however, and set himself up in business in Chungking, among other activities specialising in insuring cargoes on the Upper Yangtze. At last in 1898, three years after the Treaty of Shimonoseki, he had the satisfaction of taking his wooden twin-screw launch Leechuan through the gorges to Chungking, acting as his own captain and chief engineer. The Leechuan was too small to carry any cargo, and needed trackers to pull her up the rapids; but this success enabled Little to enlist support from friends and form the Upper Yangtze Steam Navigation Company. The new company built a much larger steamer in Britain, the Pioneer, at Dennys of Dumbarton. This was a paddle steamer 180 feet long, sixty feet across the paddle boxes, drawing six feet when carrying a full cargo of 150 tons deadweight, and several hundred deck passengers. \n\nThe Pioneer made her first voyage between Ichang and Chungking in 1900, a few months after two British river gunboats, Woodcock and Woodlark had also made the passage; but these only drew two to two and a half feet of water. These gunboats, later, sometimes went a further 130 miles above Chungking to Suifu, at the junction of the Yangtze and Min Rivers. A similar type of French river gunboat also made the passage between Ichang and Chungking in 1901, the Orly, under the pilotage of Captain Plant who had commanded the Pioneer on her successful voyage. In later years these, and similar gunboats, made regular patrols along the open stretch of the Upper Yangtze above the rapids and gorges, between Wanhsien and Suifu. \n\nIn December 1900 the first of many serious casualties occurred on the Upper Yangtze, when the German steamer Suichsiang was wrecked at the Tungling Rapid thirty-six miles above Ichang on her maiden voyage. This and the Boxer and other political troubles delayed further attempts to establish a regular steamer service on the Upper Yangtze for many years. When this eventually came about in 1908 it was through the initiative of Captain Plant of Pioneer fame. The Pioneer was requisitioned by the Royal Navy during the Boxer troubles, and used to evacuate British subjects down the Yangtze, and rechristened H.M.S. Kinsha. Afterwards", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208197, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1977", "page_number": 236, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "220\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nThe borrower then pays that amount weekly until his loan is paid off, while the other depositors reduce their weekly payments by the amount of interest. However, their share value remains.\n\nThe bidding occurs at a meeting to which all depositors are invited. If no one bids, the banker finds a single borrower from the list of depositors and the funds are thus dispersed. Borrowers must have another person vouch for their integrity and be considered solvent themselves, but no loans are secured by property or recorded in courthouse files as liens.\n\nAfter the loan is made, regular deposits resume until a new round of bidding occurs. After a period of time agreed to by the group, the \"bank\" stops making loans. After all loans are paid back, the depositors receive their money, and the bank is closed. Then a new one is formed and the process begins again.\n\nIn this system there is no policing as such. The operation is run by a \"banker\" chosen by the organizers. The banker accepts deposits, keeps the books (usually handwritten in Chinese characters), keeps the money in a safe place (invariably cash, never in a regular bank account), dispenses the loans and ultimately pays the depositors.\n\nWhen it came time to close the four banks in late 1976, the money was not there to pay the depositors. The lack of that money, according to those involved, is related to the financial difficulties of [name] one of the bankers and head of the local Chinese Free Masons.....\n\nThis interesting piece was supplied by one of our Members, Captain Charles S. Mill, United States Marine Corps. The account by Eugene Meyer, Washington Post Staff Writer, clearly relates to the traditional Chinese money loan association, not something \"created long ago in this country by enterprising Chinese immigrants\" as Mr. Meyer supposed. Accounts of it as practised in China may be found in J. Dyer Ball's Things Chinese, 4th edition, Kelly and Walsh, Hong Kong 1903: 632-645 and as Appendix E to G. N. Orme's Report on the New Territories [of Hong Kong] for the years 1899 to 1912 in Hong Kong Government's Sessional Papers, 1912.\n\nTWO LETTERS FROM WARTIME CHINA\n\nThe two letters which follow were passed to me by the late Walter Schofield (Hong Kong Civil Service 1911-1938) They are from the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211671, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1989", "page_number": 86, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "61\n\nTHE KIUKIANG INCIDENT OF 1927\n\nP. H. MUNRO-Faure\n\nThe turgid waters of the Yangtze rolled by to the sea, four hundred and eighty miles away. They swirled past the two hulks, alongside which river steamers came to discharge the cargoes of cotton material, hardware, salt, and those edible sea-products so dear to the heart of the Chinese gourmet; loading in return tea, porcelain, grass-cloth, and camphor.\n\nInshore small wavelets glistened in the wintry sun, and lapped along the edge of the dark mud, which sloped down to the water in front of\n\n* Editor's Note. Paul Hector Munro-Faure was born in 1894 of Swiss/Scottish parentage. Educated in England, he entered the Supplementary Army Reserve in 1912, and volunteered on the outbreak of War, being commissioned in the Sherwood Foresters. He was wounded on the Somme in 1916, and, on his recovery, was attached to the King's African Rifles, with whom he saw action in Tanganyika. By the end of the War he had risen to the rank of Captain. He was Mentioned in a Despatch for distinguished services in the field, and was commended in writing by the Secretary of State for War.\n\nAfter the War, he joined the Asiatic Petroleum Company, and remained in their service until the outbreak of the Second World War, as Manager of one or other of their offices in China. In 1937 he established a Chinese Refugee Safety Centre in Shanghai, and was later decorated for this by the Chinese Government with the Brilliant Star with Ribbon. In 1938 he was connected with the International Relief Committee in Nanking, by whose Chairman he was commended for his work for the displaced. He was also commended at this date by the Secretary of the Admiralty for his work in evacuating from that city civilians at risk.\n\nOn the outbreak of the Second World War he was commissioned as Major (shortly afterwards Lieutenant-Colonel) in the Special Operations Executive. He worked at first in the Bush Warfare School at Maymyo, Burma, which trained Chinese guerillas for behind-the-lines work. (For this school, see \"Prisoners of Hope\", Michael Calvert, (London, 1951), where Lt. Col. Munro-Faure is mentioned at p. 11). He then opened a similar school near the front lines in the Hangchow-Nanking area. For this he was awarded an OBE in 1943. Later still he worked between the front lines on the north-east frontier of Burma, attempting to ensure the continuing support for the British of the native princes of the region, in the face of Japanese, and particularly Chinese, attempts to replace the British as the dominant local power. He was commended for this work by his Commanding Officer. In 1944, he was recalled to England. After the War he was seconded as Oil Attache to the British Embassy in Romania. He retired in 1949, and died in 1956.\n\nLt. Col. Munro-Faure wrote a book of Memoirs in 1944-1945, in 11 chapters, covering his experiences in the Kiu Kiang Incident (1927), and between 1937 and 1944, together with an exposition of his views on the proper role of foreigners in China. The text is in the Imperial War Museum, London,\n\nBecause of the immensely valuable picture these Memoirs paint of the Kiu Kiang Incident (in which the writer was closely involved), of China during the early War years, and of the border areas of Burma during the period when the present troubles in the area were first developing, it is proposed to print them as a series in this and the next several issues of the Journal.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211873, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1989", "page_number": 288, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "263\n\nI shall not venture to say much about the cooking, etc. for I am obliged to keep my eyes shut on all occasions where I am near it, for fear I might see something not quite to my fancy in that department. I enjoy the biscuits very much, only I shall soon have to shut my eyes when eating them. Our fresh provisions are beginning to go, so we must soon fall back upon the preserved provisions. We have plenty of good milk to last the voyage, plenty of sardines, salmon, etc. and plenty of bottled fruit, so that we have a fruit pie or pudding every day. In fact we have everything that could be procured on land, and for what I can see, quite as good.\n\nThe captain and I agree very well on all points but religion. Yesterday we had a regular set-to about it, and I was obliged to talk to him rather plainly, only it will not do to say too much to such a man when he is warm. Captain Moult is about such another, or else he would not be a bad companion. He has been well educated, and has a good share of common sense. We are thrown a great deal into each other's society, and so it is to our interest to keep on pretty good terms. Since he has resided at Hong Kong for some time he knows all about the place, and I get a good deal of information out of him, on different subjects.\n\nWe have spent several hours in walking the deck together. It is the only exercise to be got on board ship. I have however invented two or three species of exercise in my cabin, which I find very beneficial. I believe I should be soon laid up if I did not take a fair amount of exercise. Often I have envied the sailors at their work, and should have liked to have a pull at the ropes with them.\n\nSaturday, April 6th\n\nToday has been a cheerful pleasant day. Soon after daylight the chief mate came down with the intelligence that land was in sight on the \"lee bow\". After so many days rambling over the water it was joyful news to me, so I got up, and had the usual wash all over, and went upon deck to take my constitutional, i.e. early walk. It was a lovely morning. The sun already \"well up\" was rather warm, and all round was lovely and delightful. Sure enough there was the land, but it was above thirty miles off, yet on account of its great elevation (in some parts 6000 ft) I judged it to be about four. The clear atmosphere quite deceived me. It proved to be Madeira, and we were on the eastern side. All day I have been on deck enjoying the beautiful soft balmy breezes, which are now quite", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211877, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1989", "page_number": 292, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "267\n\nTomorrow Captain Moate and I are thinking of commencing to exercise with a pair of 18-pound shot, which for a few days will prove warm work. On Wednesday one of the men refused to go aloft to the top mast and tar the shroud on the plea of illness. But the captain made short work of it by having a rope tied round him, and hoisting him up, where he hung till the evening about eight o'clock, when he was let down, and has since been below on the sick list. The captain declares it is all sham, but I do not think so.\n\nWednesday, April 24th\n\nLast Sunday we crossed the line early in the morning. The weather was intensely hot. During the day we spoke with an outward-bound ship, the Pathfinder of Swansea, bound for Cochin in India. She had been out 39 days, and so in proportion was no better off than we are.\n\nThe hot weather makes but little difference to me. During the day the sun shines on the top of my cabin, and then at night it is like an oven, so that it is difficult to get off to sleep. I slept for some nights with no clothes on, and even now it is a trifle cooler I can only bear one sheet and the window wide open. Yet this is not nearly so hot as Hong Kong will be when we get there.\n\nWe are now going along capitally. The ship seems almost to fly through the water. We generally make about 200 miles a day. I expect now we are about 10 degrees to the south of the line. It is now 45 days since we left London. How glad I shall be when we can add another 45 to them. It begins to get rather wearisome work since it is the same thing every day, and I like a variety.\n\nThere is only one person on board, whom I can at all associate with, and that is Capt'n Moate, and he is poor company, since his views will not accord with mine. Yet I can notice a considerable improvement in him since he came on board, and once or twice I have caught him reading his Bible. I cannot help speaking out sometimes, and Capt Harper says I can never touch lightly, but I always do it with a \"regular maul\". So it shows the cap fits him.\n\nWe had rather a rough sea lately, and on Monday it made me feel rather squeamy, but today I am all right again. We have had some fine moonlight nights lately, and I have sat on the deck for hours, thinking.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211884, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1989", "page_number": 299, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "274\n\ntime. First she reared up, and then plunged down under the water, so as to be as nearly as possible upright. Of course under such circumstances everything gave way; no fixtures hardly were left standing. I was in the saloon, or rather entering it from my cabin, and holding fast to the door post, just managed to save my bacon. The state cabin windows were dashed in and the captain's cabin flooded. The saloon was like a pond. I hurried to my cabin, and found everything shaken off the shelf, and all the contents of the shelf swimming on the deck in prime confusion. I hurriedly threw them into the sleeping berth, and let them drain there. The dressing case was dashed open, and its contents mingled with the rest. What a pickle to be in and no mistake, and expecting every moment to go under.\n\nAs the storm increased, the masts snapped off just like so many carrots, about half way down, rendering the two topmost sails on each of the three masts quite useless. The sails were nearly all made ribbons of, or were blown away entirely. The captain went about like a madman, and were it not for the first mate, who is a thorough sailor, I do not know what would have become of us. I did not feel at all alarmed at it myself, but took it all as coolly as if nothing at all were the matter. I knew that we were all in the hands of a merciful and gracious God, who could control the winds and the waves, and casting all my trust on him, I did not fear what might happen. I felt quite resigned to suffer whatever was his will concerning me. However, after some time the storm providentially abated, and gradually grew calmer, although the next morning it was quite a heavy gale still. I went on deck as well as I could among the ruins, and truly it was sad to see the devastation that was done.\n\nIt took all day Saturday and Sunday to clear away the wreck of the masts and tackle. Enough sail was left to keep the ship in motion, at a few miles an hour, and so on we went crippled, and fortunately not beyond repair.\n\nIn the morning some of the men saw a wreck at a distance. The mate did not tell me of it till noon, and the captain was not told of it till four o'clock. Upon close questioning the men who saw it, they reported it as the hull of a ship which was probably dismasted during the night and almost foundered. It was a barbarous thing not to have mentioned it, as we might easily have gone to their help, but when it was known it was too late. All who did not see it supposed it to be merely a few spars", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211886, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1989", "page_number": 301, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "276\n\nwas \"scarfed\" together and \"fished\" and \"dowled\", which operation has rendered it nearly as serviceable as a new one. We cannot use more than about a quarter of the sails yet, and it will take a long time to get the new masts up, and new sails made. Yet we are going along quite favourably considering, with a strong favourable wind.\n\nYesterday we were on the look out for St Paul's and Amsterdam, two small islands in the Southern Ocean. Through the chronometer's being out of order on account of the storm, we had made a wrong reckoning, and did not pass between the islands till after ten o'clock at night, when the captain came and told me to look out of my window and see them, as I was gone to bed. It was too dark to see more than the bare form of them. In fact Amsterdam was the only one I could see from my side of the ship. It is simply a rugged rock, about 15 miles long, and quite uninhabited except by sea-birds, of which a great number were soon flying round the ship.\n\nThis morning when I went on deck they were far out of sight. We ought to get to Java in 12 days if we were in good trim, but in our shattered condition we shall perhaps make nearly double the time. There will be a short stay also at Batavia to lay in stock of masts and spars to repair with. As yet we have been wonderfully favoured by the wind, and notwithstanding the storm and the fortnight tossing about in the Channel, we are four days ahead of the last voyage the ship made to Batavia. We shall now soon be going northward into warmer weather.\n\nThe captain was quite knocked up with the storm, and has not yet got over it. He does not take his meals with us yet, and Capt Moate and I are in no hurry for him to do so, for we get on far better by ourselves. In fact I may say we are good friends, and have been so all the voyage. We have never had a misunderstanding between us, and as long as he does not swear or talk improperly I do not much mind him as a companion, especially as he is a far better scholar than I am, and has resided at Hong Kong, so that I know by this time what I must expect when I get there. I have got him to read some good books, and now and then a little serious chat with him, which he submits to just to oblige me. I know all his personal history, and in fact could write an account of his life with tolerable accuracy. He is thoroughly disgusted with Capt Harper, who is quite an uneducated man, and thinks he is a perfect gent. For my own part, I never disliked anyone more than I do him. I can hardly be civil to him at times; for he acts in such a disgusting manner", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211890, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1989", "page_number": 305, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "280\n\nWe are now going on very slowly indeed, and unless the breeze very much strengthens it will be a while even now before we reach Batavia. The weather is much warmer today and I have spent nearly all the time on deck. No one can imagine, unless placed in my circumstances, how much I long to see land once more, and to tread on \"Terra Firma\".\n\nWednesday, July 3rd\n\nI am now writing under far different circumstances to my last. Here I am in a fine hotel in Batavia, recreating and resting till the vessel is able to proceed to her destination. How I came here I will endeavour to describe as clearly as possible, although I have had to pass through so much that I have forgotten one half of it.\n\nNow to proceed. The day after we spoke with the \"whaler\" I have just mentioned, we spoke to another which came from the same town. She had lately caught a whale, and as she sailed past I saw the greater part of the blubber upon deck, cut up in large pieces. They were boiling some at the time, and the scent was quite alarming, as it blew toward our ship. They wrote their longitude by their chronometers on a large board, and we did the same. We were 90 miles out, and this is the result of the captain's ignorance and negligence in all probability.\n\nThe next few days we had a complete calm so that we were only making a few miles a day. The ship having only half of her sails that were capable of being used, made it slow work indeed. Day after day we went on till at last one afternoon we sighted \"Java Head\". The captain's impatience at the lightness of the wind knew no bounds. He walked about and swore, and stamped, and bullied, but all to no purpose. The next day we got off Prince's Island, and just moved a few miles along the shore.\n\nPleasant indeed it was to be in sight of land once more after such a long stay on the wide ocean, with nothing to vary the tediousness and monotony. If it had been a dreary desert land it would have been a treat to look at it, but how great the pleasure to see with the glass the most fertile and luxuriant island in the world, completely embossed with trees, of the most graceful and imposing appearance. We could see the waves as they washed the shores, and hear their dashing against the sandy beach. The heat was something considerable on account of the calm. Butterflies and small insects came off to the ship from the shore, and were the first", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211892, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1989", "page_number": 307, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "282\n\nand look at them, and made remarks on their condition. No wonder they go almost naked, the heat is enough to make anybody do so. They wear sun hats exactly like a large wash pan turned bottom upwards. A boy was steering who was the most good-looking of the lot.\n\nThe captain bought a monkey, which was quite young and has since afforded us plenty of amusement; also about four crates of yams and some bottles of curry powder. I waited for the next boat and invested half a crown in seven cocoanuts, a quarter hundred oranges and an immense bunch of bananas. The banana is a fruit in shape like a cucumber, only larger when they are well cultivated, and about a hundred grow on one bunch. My bunch was quite as much as I could lift, and being quite green I hung them over the ship's stern where in a day or two they ripened and were quite yellow. Their flavour is delicious, and is something like that of a ripe pear. When fried in butter they are delightful. The captain also bought 300 oranges for the use of the cabin, but madam ate them nearly all herself in less than a week. They were wild ones I believe, but the flavour was very good. Afterwards when other boats came off, we bought plantains, eggs and no end of things.\n\nTwo ships came in behind us, to one of which we afterwards spoke; she was the Wynand from London, and came out above 20 days after us, and turned off up to China, where she will in all probability reach in 100 days, as we should have done had we had a proper sort of man to act as captain. We ought to have gone off behind him, and never to have gone to Batavia, which has hindered us at least a fortnight, if not three weeks; so say all the ship captains at Batavia. We however turned off Point Nicholas and scarcely came under Babic Island when the wind ceased, and for four days we scarcely moved as many miles.\n\nI grew quite disgusted. To amuse myself I got a hook and line and went fishing. But in throwing it out on the next day the hook caught the top of my finger and tore it clean through, taking away the whole of the upper part of the nail. I got it doctored up a bit, and what with cold water and other appliances it was nearly well in a day or two. I caught no fish, through not having any proper bait, although the fish were leaping out of the water by thousands, and the natives in their canoes were pulling them up by hundreds. We saw them also pulling in their nets, and trying by shouting to frighten the fish into their nets.\n\nA boat at last came off at night out of Bantam, to ask for a job in", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211893, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1989", "page_number": 308, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "283\n\nBatavia Roads to carry to and fro from the ship to the shore. These boats are always used by ships in Batavia and are paid four rupees or guilders a day. They are pulled by four Malays except when the wind allows sailing. The head man came on board. They had plenty of rice and fish with them which they ate with their fingers, as all Musselmen do. They are regular Mohammedans,\n\nThe one who stayed on board could speak a little English, and on the next evening I got alongside of him to try what I could make of him. I asked him a few questions but could not understand his answers, so I thought I would give up. At last he said, \"You not know her! You not sabby her? Her name Roleston. Not you sabby Roleston?\" I was very much surprised, as you may imagine, to hear him repeat that name, and how to think of it I could not imagine. What, thought I, can he know about Roleston, and whoever could he be talking about? At last I made out that there is a mercantile house in Batavia of that name, who have a ship of the same name, and this man had served the ship with his boat only a few days before, during the time she was loading. He was a fine intelligent-looking man, for a Malay.\n\nThe captain became more unbearable every day. From morning to night it was nothing but curses, grumbling, bullying, and threatening.\n\nOn Saturday night, June 30th, we stopped off Amsterdam, a small island about 12 miles from Batavia. Here I sat on deck and with the glass looked over the island, which was about a quarter mile off. It looked very pretty by moonlight. There were several native huts on the shore and in the interior, and at night each had a light burning, which looked pretty among the trees.\n\nIt is very pleasant to be sailing among these islands, all covered thick with trees wherever there is room for one to grow. It is truly sailing as the poet says:-\n\nAmid the green islands of glittering seas\n\nWhere fragrant forests perfume the breeze.'\n\nOn Sunday, July 1st, we had several boats come off to the ship from parties in Batavia who were canvassing for trade and patronage. One of them brought a Portuguese, who from being born and brought up in the tropics was as black as a negro. He delivered his card, and was", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211895, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1989", "page_number": 310, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "285\n\nJuly 17th\n\nOnce more on board ship and seated at the cabin table, I am endeavouring to recall to mind a few reminiscences of Batavia, which I trust may prove interesting to all who read them. I will begin where I left off, and tell you that the sea being rather rough, we got a good drenching before reaching the shore in the boat. I had on my light suit which I had up to that time worn but little. The sea water has done it but very little injury. In fact it was so hot that long enough before we reached the town it was dry throughout.\n\nIn we pulled, among the crowd of shipping, and at last reached the entrance of the Canash. This is a canal about two miles long, reaching from the town to the sea. It was full of small ships and boats. As we neared the lower town, the sides were covered with green trees and bushes. I really felt quite like a prisoner released after a long confinement, and it was a treat to hear the birds sing once more.\n\nWe passed the Dutch fortifications, and then stopped at the custom house, where our effects were taken note of, and we were allowed to enter the town. They are very strict as to who they let into the town, as we could easily see, for we were well overhauled.\n\nWe went a short way along the road till we came to a Dutch store, where the captain went in and we stayed a short time. We there met the captain of the ship which we passed the day after the storm. He had been in some days, and that rather vexed our captain. He was a smart little Dutchman, and quite the gentleman. I had a few minutes chat with him.\n\nThen we took a carriage and went up into the town. The carriages are like an English Chaise, and only room for two. Of course they are open, and have an open place behind so as to have a cool breeze right through. The horses are all about the size of very small donkeys, and as thin as possible. There are two to every carriage, and they can hardly move along. You cannot hire one for less than three and a half rupees, or 5/10; but you can keep it for six hours for the money. The drivers are Malays, and wear the \"basin\" kind of hat I spoke of before. They have to keep the whip constantly going.\n\nWe drove through the town which in the European parts is very neat", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211897, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1989", "page_number": 312, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "287\n\nthe garden are the houses where the servants live, the bath rooms, the stables, etc. etc. There is a pretty lawn before the house, and at each side of the gate stands a lofty tamarind tree. The house is situated on one side of a square which is nearly four miles round, and the double row of lofty tamarind trees on each side of the road round it form a very cool walk.\n\nAll round are villas, some of them of very elaborate architecture. They call Clifton a city of palaces but it sinks into insignificance compared with Batavia. On every side is displayed great magnificence, nature striving to outdo the elaborate effects of art. Almost each house has a grove of cocoanut trees, whose foliage gives a grand effect.\n\nAfter a rest of a few hours we went to dinner at half past six, which is the usual hour in Batavia. Previously we were introduced to the other occupants of the house: Mr Phillips, a surgeon and dentist, Mr Blyth, an independent gent, and Mr Elbrach, a man of considerable property who has resided 40 years in Java, during which he has never seen Europe. He is a regular tough old gent and no mistake. We had dinner in regular style, and there were no end of dishes. The curry pleased me very much.\n\nAfter dinner I took a walk with Captain Moate round the square, and afterward took a walk alone. It was a fine sight to walk past the villas, and see the verandahs all lighted up, while the ladies etc. were sitting in the cool of the evening, either reading, conversing, or singing. The music was quite a treat to me. No native is allowed to walk about after dark without a light, and also his written pass, to show who he is, and where he is going, Europeans however are allowed to go unmolested where they please. Yet a suspicious character is watched by the native police for miles, and notice is taken where he goes to. One night a fellow followed me home, although of course he did not imagine I knew he was doing so. As you pass each watch-house the guard challenges you in Malay, which I not understanding, I never used to take notice of. Every carriage has to carry lights before and behind, wherever it is going. The number of the carriages of the aristocracy that drive about is very considerable.\n\nWe saw a company of Dutch and native cavalry pass the house. The horses were so small that the men's legs almost touched the ground. We also saw the \"town militia\" exercising on the square before the house.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211898, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1989", "page_number": 313, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "288\n\nI had a good long yarn with Madame Baines on the verandah. When I told her what I was, she became very religious all at once; but I could see it was only hypocrisy, although she had an oily tongue. The Bishop of Victoria was there in 1856. The people were highly pleased with his visit, and all who I heard speak of him seemed to do so with respect. She was acquainted with a Mr King of the Scottish Free Church, who had returned from Scotland only three months ago; and promised to introduce me to him and drive me there in her carriage.\n\nAt eleven o'clock I went to bed. My room was very fine and airy. All the beds in Java have to be curtained all round to keep out the mosquitoes, which would prevent sleep, and sting finely into the bargain.\n\nThe captain and wife came from the ship to the hotel the next day. They made themselves such fools by wanting to appear grand that everybody laughed at them behind their backs. No sooner had the captain left the table, and the rest began to talk, when Mr Phillips began: “Well of all the disagreeable obstinate men I ever saw, I never saw anybody to beat him. I can see it in his looks although I have never spoken to him nor know who he is\". When I told him it was our captain he wanted to know if he had not guessed right. I told him I must be excused from answering that question. Madam was finely laughed at, and reckoned up in just the terms she deserved. Since our return to the ship these parties have been equally run down by the captain and wife,\n\nA\n\nTwo days I took a walk into the town in the middle of the day. I was afterwards told that no European would ever be able to do it, for it was enough to kill the strongest man on account of the sun's intense power. However it had not the least effect upon me. In fact I felt all the better for it.\n\nOn the first day I started to go into town but took a wrong turning, and went out through one of the Chinese quarters into the country, where I had a few miles' walk. The scenery was very fine indeed. The palm and betel nut trees, and trees of which I have no idea formed a delightful shade. Even the country is intersected by canals. But whether in town or country, you always find the shore of the canal crowded with washermen. The clothes are never washed, but merely beaten. They get a smooth stone, and after soaking the clothes in the water, they keep dashing them on the stone, swinging them for that purpose round their head.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211902, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1989", "page_number": 317, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "292\n\nhas to keep up about a dozen of these servants, for each one only does one thing.\n\nOn Thursday morning weighed anchor. There was scarcely any breeze, and it was only a short distance we made, before we stopped at night. On Friday we were off again, and got a little breeze. About midnight through sheer ignorance and carelessness the ship dashed onto the Aganeiten rocks, and there was a fine crash. The captain was quite paralysed, and did not know what to do. The ship would have doubtless broken up and never been got off; but all at once the wind changed and blew her clean away from danger. Truly a merciful Providence attends us, or we should long ago have gone to the bottom. The captain evinced his gratitude when his fright was over by cursing and swearing worse than before, and bullying the men. In fact the men are continually on the point of mutiny. All I wonder at is that they have not done so before.\n\nWe reached the strait of Banca at last, after several days without wind. As we entered we passed the mail steamer to Batavia, and a Dutch ship aground. We were three days going through, on account of the wind. At night we stopped off another Dutch ship going to Singapore and Hong Kong. In the morning she was off an hour before us. Our masts are not yet only half up, so that in a few hours she was out of sight. The captain does not intend to finish the masts till he gets to Hong Kong, although that was the excuse for going to Batavia.\n\nThe breeze grew a little fresher toward evening, and at night we were going on about five miles an hour. Early in the morning, I heard the cry \"Breakers ahead\", and in another moment came another crash or two, and the ship was dashing on a coral reef. Two large rocks wedged us in, and there we were, expecting to go to pieces since the sea and wind increased and there was no chance of getting off. We were right in the middle of the Toedjoe Islands, which are considered as very dangerous. The captain did not even try to get her off. About noon however with our usual good fortune in difficulties, the water rose about 10 feet, and by sending out an anchor in the ship's pinnace, we drew the ship gradually out of danger, and got clear again. This was celebrated as before by renewed blasphemy.\n\nJuly 25th\n\nWe have now crossed the line, and are less than a thousand miles", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211903, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1989", "page_number": 318, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "293\n\nfrom our journey's end. The wind for days has sent us along at two or three miles an hour; but we hope it is now freshening for good. We ought here to have the regular SE monsoon, but it seems we do not deserve it. The captain tries to persuade everybody that it is through someone on board; and often he makes out that no ship can sail, with a b---- of a parson on board, as he considers me. All I wonder at is that his swearing has not been more severely punished, and that worse visitations have not befallen us. It is truly wretched to live with such a man, whom you perpetually feel to be your enemy, and whom you know hates you from the very bottom of his heart. Nowhere can I get out of the way of his swearing; and his daily conversation, saying nothing of his swearing, is enough to disgust even the lowest of the low.\n\nThe night before last an amusing incident occurred, which at the time was rather alarming. Of course you know these islands are infested with Malay Pirates, who attack every ship that falls in their way, and murder the crew to get the cargo, after which they sink the ship. About four o'clock I was woke out of sleep by a shout. I heard the captain run on deck and in a tone of despair say: \"Good God, it is a pirate boat alongside; we shall all be murdered.” I instantly got up, and dressed, and after putting my watch out of sight, was ready to sell my life only after trying my best at fighting. I determined that if I was robbed, the fellows should pay dearly for what they got. No one had seen the boat come alongside. The lookout had not seen it through negligence, and the second mate on the quarter deck had not seen it, because it lay the other side of the mainsail. But nobody moved, and there the boat lay, till at last we came to look closely at it, and found that it was an old tree that had been washed away by the sea, and drifted along side of the ship. The shoals of fish following it and leaping out of the water, sounded like the oars of a boat. Poor captain's guilty conscience made him a coward. He did nothing and said nothing through fright. His heart I believe was up in his mouth, and he came down to his cabin, where I heard him vomiting at a fine rate. It just shows what he is, with all his bullying. It was, however, very gratifying to find out our mistake. Yet I cannot reflect that if it had been a true alarm, there could have been but little resistance, since the firearms are kept out of the way and out of order. We have nearly 50 muskets, but not one can be used. Our two signal guns are both dismounted, and lie down on the main deck.\n\nThe heat continues very great, but it does not effect me in the least.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211905, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1989", "page_number": 320, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "295\n\nweather, in which it is impossible to study. Today and yesterday however I have brushed it up a little.\n\nI am looking forward with the most intense anxiety to get a letter from you at Hong Kong. Till then, unless our voyage is unexpectedly prolonged I shall write no more. I think that what I have already written will occupy many an hour to read; but if it interests or amuses, I shall consider the time spent in writing not to have been thrown away.\n\nSince the voyage has been unusually protracted from Batavia to China I must just describe the last few days. We had light winds all the way up the China Sea. Day after day we lay with scarcely a movement. Everything went on worse than ever, swearing increased fearfully. So we went along till Sunday evening, when a wind gradually began to blow, and took us along at a comfortable rate.\n\nOn Monday morning we took in a pilot about 60 miles from the Ladrone Islands. He was about as smart a fellow as ever I saw, and knew his business thoroughly. I was most thankful to see him, because I could not trust the captain. I could see he neither knew where he was, or what to do; and in a few more hours we must have been among the hundreds of islands, which to one that never saw them before, could never be navigated. I look upon the unusual fact of the pilot coming so far out to sea, as an interposition of Providence on our behalf. The wind increased and we went along famously. We were to get to Hong Kong early in the morning. I sat on deck watching the ship as it threaded its way among the groups of islands and rocks. At last I went down to my cabin, but there was no sleep. My mind was all activity.\n\nAt day break I went on deck, and there I saw the sight my eyes had so long desired to see. Hong Kong lay before me, and rising up the slope of its rocky sides stood Victoria. Everything looked green and flourishing. As I glanced round the town my eye rested on the Cathedral, and then there stood the college on the hill side, almost buried by the trees round it, and as much unlike the photograph I had, as winter is unlike the summer,\n\nI packed all up, and went to breakfast, but it was not till eleven o'clock that I could get on shore, since all the boats were gone. At last I got a chance, and went on shore with a very intelligent Chinaman, who cautioned me against the thieves and pickpockets. The heat was dreadful.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212185, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1990", "page_number": 127, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "104\n\nPetroleum Co., and a timber ship of the Import and Export Lumber Co. Together with the large \"Ewo\" hulk we were all anchored a few miles above Nanking in a stretch of the river, designated as a \"Safe Harbour\" of which the Japanese authorities had been duly notified. The American gunboat \"Panay\" was anchored two miles lower down off the creek at the top end of Nanking, whence communication with the few foreigners in the city could still be maintained through a 'phone situated in a godown on the bank.\n\n\"The Flag Captain, Commanding Officer, and Ward Room officers of H.M.S. \"Scarab\" request the pleasure of the company of the British community, now afloat in the \"safe\" anchorage, on board H.M.S. \"Scarab\" at 11.30 tomorrow, Saturday, 11th December, on the occasion of the anniversary of His Majesty's accession.\"\n\nIt was a lively party. As you may imagine there was plenty to talk about, and the bountiful hospitality dispensed by the Navy - I naturally do not refer merely to its liquid aspect - set all in a pleasant frame of mind for a latish lunch when the gathering broke up and the participants returned to their respective ships. I have no doubt that the ensuing sense of somnolence was fairly general when, with a crash, a shell burst on the river bank not 100 yards from the nearest ship. The noise disturbed the lethargy of that Saturday afternoon. Ears pricked to discover whether there was more to come. The doubt whether that first shell was a stray or not was soon settled as two more straddled the nearest ship. Captains leapt to their bridges and called for steam. Clouds of smoke belched from the assembled funnels, marking well the whereabouts of the target. Shells began to fall regularly in the anchorage, but it was not more than fifteen minutes before the merchant flotilla, festooned with attendant small craft, was underway heading upriver. The two gunboats remained to stand-by the hulk, which was full of foreign and Chinese refugees and, having slipped its anchors, endeavoured to tow it in the wake of the other vessels. By good luck there were no direct hits on any of the ships, though some vessels were holed by splinters, and two unfortunate Chinese boatmen were killed and some others wounded.\n\nThe shelling resumed when the ships were under way a mile or two above the \"safe harbour\", the guns then appearing to be of heavier calibre. The shells came over in pairs and were very well", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212187, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1990", "page_number": 129, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "106\n\nburst all round us. There were three Japanese aircraft, whose pilots circled and dived repeatedly. The gunboats were caught by surprise and it was only on the third attack that they got their Lewis guns into action, thereby possibly disturbing the aim of the attacking planes, because again fortunately there were no direct hits.\n\nThe first bomb attack took place at 1.30 p.m. At about 2.30 p.m. three larger machines, in formation, approached at a height of 6000 feet. They were seen to drop a pattern of six heavy bombs, which fell near one of the Asiatic Petroleum Company's steamers, but once again did little damage, owing to what appeared to be poor lateral splintering qualities. This time the gunboats opened with both their \"pom-poms\" and their 3\" guns but without effect.\n\nThe Staff Captain together with the British Military Attaché and the British Consul, who had been in the \"Scarab\", had boarded one of the merchant ships the previous night to go 60 miles up the river to Wuhu to contact the Japanese troops, in the hope that they would be able to arrange to avoid further incidents. Following on these raids, signals were made to the Staff Captain at Wuhu enquiring whether it would not be better to move the ships. At that time we did not know that the U.S.S. \"Panay\" and the three Standard Oil ships had already been sunk, and we were still awaiting a reply from Wuhu, when a third attack was made at about 4 p.m. by three aircraft which made a succession of dives to 600 feet, but they received such a warm welcome from the gunboats that they missed their targets and soon made off.\n\nAll the British ships had Union Jacks painted across their decks: on my ship, for instance, the Jack was 25 feet wide. There could be no further illusion regarding the possibility that these attacks had been made by mistake. The continuous raiding, following on the shelling of the previous day, began to demoralize the Chinese crews, and the numerous Chinese refugees from the various British offices in Nanking, with whom the holds of the ships were packed. It became imperative to take action of some sort.\n\nThe \"Ewo\" hulk, lashed alongside the S.S. \"Whangpoo\", had had the worst of it. The pair of them offered the largest target at which it was natural for the Japanese pilots to aim. It was fortunate that the refugees had been taken out of the hulk after the first attack, because the thin plank walls of her deck house were now riddled", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212385, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1990", "page_number": 327, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "304\n\nShe first arrived in Hong Kong in May 1857 under the agency of Dent & Co, one of the major trading companies in the rapidly expanding colony. For the next three years the Norna carried general cargo along the China coast between Hong Kong and the Treaty Ports.\n\nIn 1860 Dent & Co. decided to move her to the more profitable tea trade route to Australia. The Norna, under the command of Captain Wilson, received orders to make sail for Foo Chow, load her cargo of tea and proceed to Sydney. For crew, Wilson had eight Europeans and twenty lascars. As was not uncommon at the time, he also took along his wife and young son.\n\nOn the 27th September 1860 the Norna, loaded with tea chests, made her way down the Min River and headed south for Australia where she arrived two days before Christmas. Within two weeks the Norna had completed unloading and sailed in ballast the short distance up the coast to Newcastle. Here she took on coal for delivery to Hong Kong.\n\nOn the 3rd March the Norna had taken on over 400 tons of her cargo and put to sea for the return passage to Hong Kong. Lying in her path in the Western Pacific, just north of the equator, were the Caroline Islands. This group of islands stretch for about 2,000 miles east/west between Palau and Ponape (Pohnpei) and consist of about 560 coral islands, islets and atolls, the majority uninhabited.\n\nAs the evening closed in on the 31st March 1861, the wind had increased to a strong breeze and the Norna was sailing at a steady 10 knots on a west nor'west course. Unknown to Wilson, he had his bows pointed directly at the coral-rimmed Oroluk Lagoon. Somehow his precise navigation had failed him.\n\nAt 2200 hours that night, the Norna struck hard and remained held fast in the coral, her timbers splintered and beyond repair. The following morning Wilson established that the atoll was about 15 miles in diameter with the small half-square-mile island of St Augustine 12 miles to their north-west.\n\nThe crew worked feverishly around the wreck for a week to salvage what they could, and in the three ship's boats rowed across the lagoon to the uninhabited St Augustine island. After ten days", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212386, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1990", "page_number": 328, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "305\n\nWilson decided that the only option open to them for survival lay in a group taking one of the Norna's boats and attempting to reach civilization. A rescue party could then be arranged to retrieve the others.\n\nWilson himself led the party, taking with him his family, four Europeans, and two lascars. On the 17th April they set out in one of the Norna's open boats for Guam and arrived there seven days later. A small rescue party was organised but was driven back after encountering a severe storm and running short of supplies.\n\nWilson and his party then left Guam for Manila in a Spanish Trader and from there sailed to Hong Kong. When they arrived in Hong Kong in July, Captain Wilson reported the loss of his ship to Dent & Co. who in turn relayed the situation to the naval authorities.\n\nOn the 18th August 1861, Admiral Hope despatched the auxiliary paddle steamer HMS Pioneer from the colony to bring back the remainder of the Norna's crew. The Pioneer arrived at St Augustine on the 22nd September only to find the island deserted, save for a message left behind in a glass bottle attached to a tree. Nailed to the tree above the bottle was the Norna's wooden nameboard.\n\nThe letter stated that the crew had left the island on 19th August in one of the Norna's patched-up long boats because their provisions were long exhausted, there was little water and there were now no coconuts, turtle or wild fowl left on the island. They went on to say that they intended to make for Palau in their frail craft, 1,200 miles to the west.\n\nHMS Pioneer arrived back in Hong Kong on the 19th October and reported her findings to Admiral Hope. He promptly ordered another paddle steamer, HMS Sphinx, to be prepared and sail back into the Western Pacific, with explicit instructions to make a thorough search of the Caroline Islands,\n\nHope's written orders to Sphinx's captain, Cmdr Brown, included the route he was to follow, the contacts from whom he might get assistance in the Philippines and the charts he should take with him. On the 4th December 1861, HMS Sphinx sailed through Lei Yue Mun and headed for Manila. From there the Sphinx passed through", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212812, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1992", "page_number": 121, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "Jan. 9th, 1896.\n\nMESNY'S Chinese MISCELLANY.\n\nland and sea forces, and its head-quarters are on the coast of Hai-nan Island. It furnishes a marine battalion to the sea-coast naval force. The marine battalion is called Ai Chou Hsieh Shui Shih Yu Ying, or the Right Wing Marine Battalion of the Ai Chou Brigade. It is commanded by a Shou-pei, Second-Major, who is assisted by a Shui Shih Chien-tsung, Naval Captain, two Shui Shih Pa-tsung, First and Second Naval Lieutenants, besides the usual number of non-commissioned officers and men.\n\nThe remainder of the brigade forms part of the land forces of the Hai-nan division Ch'ing Chou.\n\n1437. KUANG-TUNG SHUI SHIH KE CHUN LUN CH'UAN 廣東水師各軍輪船\n\n:-The Steam Naval Forces of Kuang-tung province, or the Canton Provincial Steam Fleet. In the year 1884 there were altogether fifty-six steam vessels of various sorts and sizes belonging to the provincial authorities of Kuang-tung.\n\nThe best of the steamers, the Fei Chao Hai, Chên-jui and An Lan, are neither new, powerful nor fast, though serviceable craft for sea-going gun-boats. Some of the others are of the alphabetical class, but they have been so badly kept that they are far from reliable as to steam power. Some of the vessels are hardly fit to go to sea; though not old in point of age they are not sound, and never were very swift or powerful, even for their class. The rest are nothing better than pleasure boats or steam launches for riverine purposes.\n\nCANTON GUN-BOAT SQUADRON,\n\n \n Name\n Flug and Rig.\n Guns.\n Tons.\n H.P.\n \n \n Chee-hing\n cruiser\n 7\n 450\n 265\n \n \n An-lan\n gun-boat\n 2\n 80\n 20\n \n \n Chên-jui\n cruiser\n -\n -\n -\n \n \n Chên-to\n gun-boat\n 7\n 450\n 265\n \n \n Chop-chung\n gun-boat\n 5\n 500\n 300\n \n \n Chop-sai\n gun-boat\n 3\n 80\n 17\n \n \n Hai-chong-ching\n gun-boat\n -\n 320\n 200\n \n \n Hai-king-ching\n gun-boat\n 4\n 320\n 200\n \n \n Hoi-tung-hung\n -\n 3\n 350\n -\n \n \n Lien-chi\n gun-boat\n 3\n 200\n -\n \n \n Peng-chao-hai\n cruiser\n 3\n 450\n 310\n \n \n Quang-on\n gun-boat\n 3\n 155\n 100\n \n \n San-hing\n gun-boat\n 3\n 150\n 100\n \n \n Tching-on\n gun-boat\n 3\n 150\n 100\n \n \n Tching-po\n gun-boat\n 3\n 150\n 100\n \n \n Tchun-tung\n gun-boat\n 3\n 170\n 100\n \n\nN.B. Some of these vessels have now been condemned.\n\nBy order of the Viceroy of the Two Kuang Provinces (Chang Chih-tung) seventeen of the most serviceable war steamers have been formed into a fleet, called Shui Shih Chin Kor Naval Corps. Each of these ships is called a Shao or company. Four ships, Shao or companies, form a Ying, battalion, or squadron, and four Ying, or squadrons form the Chun, or Corps (may be fleet.) The odd ship is the Peng Chao Hai, and serves as flag ship for the commandant of the fleet, who is styled Tung-ling, and is also commander of his own flag-ship. His titular rank is Tu-ssü, or Major (just now), was, when appointed, Shou-pei, Second Major only.\n\n1438. CHAO CH'ING SHUI SHIH YING -The Chao-ch'ing Naval or Marine Regiment.\n\nThis regiment, although forming part of the Riverine Naval Force, is actually a part of the Governor-General's Staff Corps, and is usually styled the Tu Piao Shui Shih Ying on that account.\n\nThe Governor-General of the Two Kuang Provinces was formerly stationed at Chao-ch'ing Fu, a prefectural city some hundred miles or so from Canton on the north bank of the West River, hence the reason why five of the six regiments forming his Staff Corps are stationed there to this day.\n\nThe Chao-ch'ing Naval Regiment is commanded by a Tu Chiang, Colonel, whose Adjutant is a Shou-pei, Second-Major. The regiment is divided into two Shao or companies, each of which is commanded by a Chien-tsung, Captain, assisted by two Pa-tsung, Lieutenants, and the usual complement of Wai Wei, Sub-Lieutenants and non-commissioned officers.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212918, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1992", "page_number": 227, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "212 miles of China coast to look for her. As time wore on, the distance she could travel extended until it could be anywhere from Tientsin to Hainan. The Royal Navy had an aircraft carrier in Hong Kong and this was drafted into the hunt. An aircraft from H.M.S. Hermes spotted a ship like the Tungchow anchored in Bias Bay (Days Bay) which was a well-known haunt of China coast pirates. It was indeed the Tungchow and the pirates, seeing the plane swoop over, realised that they had better decamp. Once they were away, the Captain sailed for Hong Kong where he arrived a few hours later. Although the pirates escaped, they had a frustrating piracy. They had got the wrong ship. The silver was on another ship which delivered its cargo safely. The Tungchow carried no silver but a cargo of oranges. The pirates broke open the crates in their hunt for the silver so that the ship was running with oranges which the boys gathered in quantities. The pirates did no harm to the children but at first kept them shut up in the passenger accommodation. You can imagine what tales the Shanghai party had to tell when we all got back to school.\n\nWe Leave China\n\nIn 1939 my father's tour was up and he decided, after twenty-five years, to retire from the mission field. He was in his mid-fifties and few stayed so long. Today this sounds an early retiring age, but today we have the untold advantage of constant air-conditioning to temper the severity of our summers and much greater control over diseases. The advance of the Japanese and the threatening war situation in Europe may well have influenced his decision too.\n\nIn any event, my parents and our younger sister set off from Fatshan, while my brother, other sister, and I set off from Chefoo on the last of our journeys on a B. & S. coaster for Shanghai. My parents travelled up from Hong Kong on a Canadian Pacific steamer, the Empress of Russia, which we joined in Shanghai. By this time, Shanghai had been occupied by the Japanese, though they were still at peace with Britain and America. In the occupied city, security was tight, especially round the docks, and we had to pass through several check points manned by pretty rough soldiers. Once at sea, those worries were left behind, but, as a postscript, when we sailed from Yokohama a few days later, we found ourselves in the midst of large-scale manoeuvres by the Japanese fleet and accompanying aircraft firing and bombing targets not far from us.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214047, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1997", "page_number": 115, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "82\n\ntwo long roughly-hewn granite slabs. Near villages adjacent to the sea stone jetties were built, the largest almost certainly being that at Kowloon City with its 21 spans, each with five longitudinal slabs supported on granite piers, which was completed in 1875 with a wooden extension added in 1892, and connected to the older Walled City by a wide road.\n\nReclamations were formed, for example, at Sha Tau Kok, Nam Chung and Luk Keng (near Starling Inlet), Shuen Wan and Yuen Long. These were sited on the tidal flats behind rock/mud/stick bunds located at low water level, and incorporated horizontal timber plank sluice gates. It took seven years for the salt to leach out of the sea bed with quarterly flushings before the land could be put to agricultural use.\n\nIrrigation schemes were constructed throughout the rural areas involving construction of temporary dams across streams, simple pedal-operated wooden paddle-belt machines for raising water (usually around a metre), small bunds, catchwater channels and even bamboo pipe-aqueducts to cross low-lying ground. To provide power for traditional village industries, wooden water-wheels were installed adjacent to streams.\n\nHarbour Works\n\nOn the signing of the Convention of Chuen-pi in 1841, Captain Belcher of HMS Sulphur undertook a hydrographic survey of Hong Kong Island and the surrounding waters with separate scales indicating sea miles and cables, statute miles and furlongs, and yards. The chart's emphasis was on water depths in fathoms, rocks and coastlines with the general shape of the hills and prominent landmarks shown only for navigational purposes.\n\nAs the years passed, the benefits of Hong Kong's natural deepwater harbour were exploited and, by the turn of the century, some 40% of China's foreign trade was passing through Hong Kong which had by this time become one of the world's principal ports with its fine dockyards and excellent workforce devoted to shipbuilding and repairing - indeed \"a sort of Far Eastern Marine Clapham Junction”.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214114, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1997", "page_number": 182, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "151\n\nfrom the Colonial Office, in London, for the setting up of a Botanical Garden. This garden, which still flourishes today, finally came into being in 1862.\n\nBut, skipping a hundred years to the Branch's second time around, quite a lot else has been achieved. For example, the RASHKB has built up a respectable library of books on Asia. This is on permanent loan to the Urban Council, at the City Hall, and members of the general public are welcome to refer to it. On the shelves of the RASHKB Collection one can find many old, valuable titles, such as: A Narrative of the British Embassy to China in the Years 1792, 1793 and 1794, by Aeneas Anderson (1795) (then in the service of Earl Macartney), and Narrative of a Voyage Round the World, by Captain Sir Edward Belcher RN (1843), in two volumes. Some books in the RAS Collection bear interesting chops (stamps), such as from the old Canton Reading Room and the South China Morning Post's pre-World War II Library.\n\nIn addition RASHKB Archives, including files, photographs and papers, are deposited with the Government Public Records Office (PRO). Other Branch possessions are on long-term loan to the Hong Kong University. These include the F.A. Nixon, Buddhist, Tang Dynasty Scroll and the 38 M.A. McMullen Bills of Lading, relating to shipments in China from 1825-73. Also held by the University on behalf of the RASHKB are microfilms of 1847-59 Branch procedures and the Nixon Photographs of 991 bronze Nestorian crosses.\n\nAlthough the Society is basically apolitical, and occasionally thought of as being pro-establishment, it has not been afraid to take up cudgels when it felt there was a cause. As examples a letter was sent, in May 1995, to the Hong Kong Government pressing for the retention of the spirit hall and historical and architectural artefacts when the old Nga Tsin Wai Walled Village, in East Kowloon, is demolished.\n\nAlso, because of some government intransigence at the time, a small group of RASHKB members appeared twice before a Legislative Council committee to press for a properly established Public Records Office. When a purpose-designed, reasonably accessible, PRO opened in June 1997 at Kwun Tong, many members liked to think the RAS played a part in this successful outcome.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214840, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1999", "page_number": 255, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "222 \n\nA Bold Approach to War \n\nI have referred to the indomitable spirit that animated the British troops and sailors of the War. This was something one cannot fail to notice in the various accounts of the War. As in the First Burma War, there was a boldness that must have taken the Chinese aback whenever it was demonstrated. Being practically universal, one minor example may serve to illustrate the rest. It comes from J.D. Vaughan, later a magistrate in the Straits Settlements, who had served as a midshipman on the Honourable East India Company's steam frigate Tenasserim in 1842, and is recounted here largely in his own words.46 \n\nA few days after the capture of the Yangtse city of Chin-kiang-foo, his captain took two of the ship's boats with twenty or thirty men each, with a brass three-pounder at the bow, and went to a town on a canal flowing into the great river. The writer was in one of these boats. The ship's Chinese carpenter, a Southern Chinese picked up at Singapore, could write but could not speak the Mandarin language of the area. Armed with a slate, and a truly astonishing degree of sang-froid, he made the captain's wishes to purchase provisions known to a large throng of citizens and soldiers who had assembled on the banks. Negotiating with a mandarin, they got all that they wanted, and during their brief stay were treated with the greatest civility and kindness. “A table and chairs were brought, and the elders of the city had a most interesting conversation with us through the invaluable carpenter. It was a curious sight to see the skipper sitting as cool as a cucumber smoking his cigar surrounded by our foes.\" \n\n“Few men,” Vaughan says, “would have ventured so fearlessly into the very clutches of an armed foe within a few miles of a captured city with war raging all around; and strange to say we came away un-harmed and not an angry face was to be seen amongst the crowds of men who flocked out of the gate of the town to see us.” \n\nMany other instances can be found in the books on the War, and indeed it was the norm. This verve derived from military and naval discipline and tradition, and from the leadership shown by, and expected of, British officers of the day. Only when that leadership failed, as in the contemporary disasters at Kabul in the First Afghan War, when a British army was annihilated through hesitation and mismanagement, \n\nPage 255\n\nPage 256", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215019, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2000", "page_number": 115, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "71\n\nMaj. Gray was sympathetic towards the Chinese and believed in fairness towards them. He said that they were strangers in a strange land and homesick. He suggested the Chinese carpenters build a small pagoda, about 15 feet high, near the entrance to the Hospital. They painted it in bright colours. When Gray was promoted Lieut-Col. he was inundated with presentations - the dressers [medical assistants] presented him with a scroll, the cooks, an honorific umbrella and two flags, the Sanitary Gang, scrolls, etc.\n\nStuckey's time in France ended on 16th March 1919, when he left Noyelle-sur-Mer for Liverpool to join an Australian Ambulance Transport ship, working his way as Medical Officer, arriving in Melbourne on 15 May.\n\nSir Douglas Haig awarded Stuckey a Mention-in-Despatches for his work at the Hospital and, on the recommendation of Sir William Lister, Captain Stuckey was awarded the Order of the British Empire, Military Division. He said that this decoration really also belonged to the three doctors of the Ophthalmic staff at the Hospital, namely Captain H. Tomlin, MD and Captain C. A. Hughes, MD, D Ch O. and himself.\n\nIn 1920, Stuckey and his family returned to China, with periods of leave in Australia, leaving in 1938, after 33 years in China, returning via Korea to the UK and then, in 1939, returning to Australia.\n\nNoyelles-sur-Mer\n\nThe HQ of the CLC was at Noyelles-sur-Mer. Being interested in the CLC and also curious as to whether there were any remains of the CLC camp there, my wife and I decided to visit this small village close to the River Somme and about one and a half miles inland from the sea.\n\nWe were very fortunate that, on our first day of arrival, we contacted Mr. C. Gallemant, the butcher and Mr. M. C. Landos, the baker [third generation], but we failed to locate any candlestick maker! They were very helpful, especially Mr. Landos, who, after enquiry, told us the locations of some buildings still standing used by members of the CLC. Unfortunately, there do not appear to be any remains of the CLC camp site nor their hospital, prison or detention centre and other buildings, all having reverted to farmland.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215320, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2001", "page_number": 97, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "45\n\nChina, Hainan would appear to have been neglected. Before 1949 Hainan was an area which few foreigners appear to have visited, though for much of the latter half of the 19th century and the early 20th foreign consuls, customs officers and traders endured their existence, particularly in the northern port of Haikou (Hoihow), the American Presbyterian Mission, the first body of missionaries, only began its work 'saving' Hainan in 1881. Despite the latter, there would seem to be no missionary writings describing the temples and \"idols\" as did Father Doré in Zhejiang and Jiangsu, Shryock in Anqing and others across northern and central China. The old church in Qingzhou Fu, some three miles inland and to the west of Haikou, by 1890 had been converted into a Temple of Longevity, and another church elsewhere in Hainan, had also become a Chinese temple known as the Temple of the Cross.\n\nIn 1882 Mr Jeremiasen, an independent Danish missionary, made an unmolested circuit of Hainan on foot 'proving the friendliness of the people.' He then crossed the island north to south and east to west. Westerners who travel through \"darkest\" China today and write or talk about being the first foreigners within some remote spot, forget or overlook such Christian missionaries who roamed across all areas of China more than a century and a half ago. Even today there are foreign tourists who regard themselves as among the first to set foot in the more remote areas of Hainan. However, what Jeremiasen and others have overlooked are the individual Portuguese and German missionaries whose graves, dated in the 1680s, have been identified on Hainan. Most foreign visitors today also forget or, more likely, have probably never even heard of the eminent Chinese banished to the island during the early days of the periods of forced settlement of the 13th and 14th centuries.\n\nAn aspect of journeys to Hainan a century or so ago, now also long forgotten, was the basic problem of getting ashore from the steamer from Hong Kong. This was often the worst part of the journey. The steamer from Hong Kong touched bottom some three miles or so out to sea leaving the trip ashore to the main port of Haikou by shallow draft sampan across mud flats under less than a foot of water. This required bargaining with the laoda [captain] of one of the many sampans which offered their services to tranship passengers ashore. The native boatmen in a very round-about trip through the intricate channels, sliding over", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215933, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2002", "page_number": 232, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "166\n\noff from distant airfields and alerted possible targets. Previously the British had depended on runners and letters delivered by junk: the advantages of tapping on to the Chinese system were obvious.\n\nChiang was enthusiastic, and eager to talk. British policy seemed engineered towards appeasing the Japanese. Protecting trade and British economic interests were paramount, and the fate of China and its people were seen only in the light of that primary concern. In the deafening silence of British efforts to help the Chinese, Boxer's visit, and the recent reopening of the Burma Road, must have seemed like a breakthrough in British attitudes. Boxer sensed that Chiang was 'apparently envisaging a great deal wider form of liaison than we actually had in mind.' Later, British organisations were to claim that it was Chinese hostility and the Americans who stymied their efforts in China. There is plenty to negate this assumption. Dai Li, a shrewd judge of character and not a man to suffer fools, undoubtedly had had Boxer closely observed, and would have smoothed the way for his introduction to Chiang Kai Shek. The warmth of Boxer's reception shows the Chinese were not implacably opposed to the British. Indeed, far from being anti-western per se, General Dai gave enthusiastic support later to Americans such as Captain Miles, and indeed some British SOE related agencies, who were prepared to work with the Chinese on Chinese terms.\n\nThe wireless sets were duly sent to China and installed by a Cantonese speaking SOE officer, Major Hector Chauvin, who had been attached to Boxer in December 1939 for this purpose. Chauvin travelled extensively in China setting up the stations and meeting the Chinese personnel involved. This network was a prototype. It was the first serious intelligence system in the Hong Kong region. Most importantly, the arrangement was based on trust: the Chinese had full operational control. Although the Chinese might have a different agenda to the British, it was an implicit acknowledgement that, in China, the Chinese were paramount, and that Chinese could and did run a most efficient system. The arrangement worked: The evening before the Japanese attacked Kai Tak, Phyllis Harrop, a civilian police adviser, was at a dinner party with British intelligence personnel. At 10:30 hours, they were interrupted by a sudden telephone call, advising all staff to return immediately to headquarters. Major L left immediately and Captain Bush half an hour later. Bush was an expert on extremist secret", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216023, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2002", "page_number": 322, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "256\n\nMountain, a former small island now joined to the mainland by alluvium, referred to by Victorian travellers as a 'pyramidal rock'. This used to stand out in the Yangzi a mile or so upstream from the city of Zhenjiang, hence their use of its name generically for the city. There is a further island, Jiao Shan Scorched Island, an islet some mile or so downstream from the city with its own ancient temple, Dinghui Si concealed within its tree-covered slopes. It too has its own memorials from the era of the Six Dynasties - two or three ancient cypress trees, whose storm-riven and almost barkless trunks were in the 1920s still held together by iron bands. According to Allom, Silver Island [Mountain], the name formerly given by foreigners to Jiao Shan, is to the westward of Zhenjiang, within sight of the Gold Island [Mountain] [see illustration]. Legend has it that Jin Shan, Gold Mountain takes its name from the time during the Tang dynasty when a certain Bei Totuo was digging into the hill and found a pot of gold; this has long been denied by Buddhists who believe that the name of the hill has a Buddhist symbolic meaning. Although the British Concession was originally laid out with intervening ground between it and the old walled city it did not take many years for the new native city to encroach and reach the Concession boundary. This meant that foreigners wishing to leave the Concession had to battle their way through the main street of the new native city, facing filthy and disease-ridden beggars, open drains and past open spaces which were used as public conveniences, constantly patronised by squatting men.\n\nCaptain Cunynghame, serving with the British force sailing up the Yangzi and about to mount an assault on Zhenjiang, arrived off the city on the 18th of July 1842. The force had been proceeding with great care as it was the first opportunity that western warships had had to penetrate as far inland up the Great River. He described his first sighting of Golden Island as 'the most beautiful little fairy isle imaginable, covered with temples, whose gilt-topped pagodas shone brilliantly in the evening sun'. A week or so later, once the city had been stormed and he was able to walk through it and wrote that \"the walled portion of the town was reckoned about four miles in circumference. The suburbs, extending a long distance to the west, probably occupied an equal extent of ground. The former space was chiefly occupied by streets containing shops, with an occasional blank space of wall within which were the houses of the most wealthy inhabitants. A very large portion, however, was occupied by gardens", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216052, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2002", "page_number": 351, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "285\n\nrowdies knew that no American official in all the ports of China has the means of checking outrages on the part of American citizens. Accordingly, whenever an English thug gets into a scrape he claims to be American. He then described a case in point 'the Captain of an American boat came to me bringing with him a Chinese who had been badly cut on the arm. He said that the wound had been inflicted by an Englishman, a passenger on his boat and that the Briton was a desperate character. I accordingly applied to Franklin, the Commander of the [British] gunboat lying here for assistance. He very soon had an armed boat alongside the Yankee craft and the swordsman was speedily hauled out and brought before me. I read the Chinaman's complaint to him and he in reply said he wanted to see the American Consul, I told him that as an American had handed him over to me as an Englishman I should deal with him unless he could prove his right to American protection. He defied me so I sent him a prisoner aboard the Banterer gunboat. On the day following I had no less than three witnesses that the scoundrel was an Englishman. At length when he saw his impudence would carry him no further he acknowledged himself to be a Britisher, He was tried accordingly and got six months in Hong Kong jail with hard labour, at the end of which, he is to be conveyed under arrest to England as being too dangerous a character for a quiet country like China'.\n\nIn another letter Adkins explained that 'I am making myself obnoxious and disagreeable to certain of my countrymen who think that Treaties are made that they might have the pleasure of breaking them. I have seized and confiscated three vessels for smuggling and have given a rascal three months hard labour for trading in salt. Really the Chinese have good reason for distrusting us. We sell arms to the Rebels and teach them how to build forts after making treaties of peace and friendship with the reigning power'.\n\nWhen E.H. Parker was Consul in about 1877 roads were just beginning to exist and the Municipal Council had succeeded in providing a respectable walk of three or four miles for exercise. However, a gigantic, old worm-eaten coffin had been left where it lay by the builders planted squarely in the middle of the fine new road, just where it left town. Rumour said it dated from the Mongol dynasty. No one dared touch it, and it was generally supposed that the 'owners were sitting tight and waiting for their chance. The Daotai said that", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216323, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2003", "page_number": 82, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "31\n\nright, presently near a road bridge spanning the river at this point, has the picturesque name now, as it did then, of \"Lady's Slipper,\" in Cantonese Ah Niang Hai. The merchant ships had to anchor here and report themselves to the Chinese force guarding the passage, and show their permits. This done, they were on their way upstream to the Whampoa Anchorage, twelve miles from Canton.\n\nThe Whampoa Anchorage (Plate 3) was the furthest point to which merchant ships could come. It was a trans-shipment centre, a very busy place, year in year out, for centuries. Its warehouses, docks and repair yards, its hospital, its cemetery, all point to a long existence as the place in which - more than Canton itself - the real business of the China Trade was carried on. That is, other than at Lintin (“Solitary Nail,” a reference to its single peak), an island in the outer waters of the Delta which, since the 1820s, had become an opium depot and the port for a large volume of illegal trading, the amount (astonishingly enough) tripling the authorized regular trading conducted through the Co-hong, and under the official regulations.7\n\nWhampoa was the Chinese countryside beside the river, lush and heavily populated. The Daniells, English painters who visited the Whampoa anchorage twice, in 1785 and 1793, particularly noted ‘...its sweet, romantic scenery. Nothing indeed can exceed the beauty of the country in this vicinity.’ Another visitor wrote in 1848: \"Whampoa was beautiful. The vessels were displaying their different flags; Chinese boats were crossing and re-crossing in every direction, and the setting sun was shedding its gilded light on everything around, giving to the low, flat island, covered with rich, green-like velvet, the pagodas and the foliage of the trees, a touch of enchantment'. Above Canton, it was much the same story. \"The river sides were planted with orange-trees, plantains, and lychees; while nothing but rice fields appeared inland'.10\n\nWhampoa's famous seven-storey pagoda, built in the late Ming period, features in many China Trade paintings, and in paintings on porcelains and fans. The pagoda itself attracted the more energetic visitors. A 16 year old American girl who accompanied her sea captain father on his China voyage in 1856, climbed up the pagoda and wrote in her journal, '(after you arrive at the top, I found I was repaid for my trouble. Oh! There was such a beautiful view, for miles and miles I", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216397, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2003", "page_number": 156, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "106\n\nsteaming at 21 knots towards the scene, just a few miles distant. An hour later engines were stopped and in ten minutes she came to in 23 fathoms. Fortunately the weather was good and sea calm. Already in attendance was the heavy cruiser CUMBERLAND, Captain L.F. Potter, who had lowered several of his boats to patrol for possible survivors. Two men had come to the surface prior to the arrival of HERMES. After anchoring, four boats from our ship were sent to augment the patrol over the scene of the disaster. Happily another four men came to the surface though sadly subsequently one died. The five living survivors were taken onboard HERMES to receive medical care and attention.\n\nHalf an hour later, 1530 hours by now, a diving boat was sent across from HERMES and some ten minutes later the first diver commenced his descent towards the position of POSEIDON on the sea bed. The sea temperature was 63 deg. F so bearable for those fortunate enough to be able to use the D.S.E.A. (Davis Submerged Escape Apparatus) within the stricken vessel.\n\nThat evening HERMES burned her searchlights over the position of the wreck and her motor boat commenced sweeping in order to establish the precise position of the sunken boat.\n\nLater in the evening MEDWAY (Captain H.R. Marrack, DSC), the Station submarine depot ship, arrived and anchored nearby. Also she assumed the position as guard ship. As will be imagined over the course of the next few days several more of H.M. Ships arrived and anchored in the vicinity. During the morning of the 13th these included the C. in C., Admiral Sir Howard Kelly, in SUFFOLK.\n\nMeanwhile the position of the wreck had been established exactly and diving parties were being sent down regularly, many of these parties being provided by our ship. Using a kedge anchor supplied by HERMES the tug ST. BREOCK was able to position herself directly over the wreck so assisting direct descent by these divers.\n\nIn the interim the U.S. Navy sent their specialised submarine salvage vessel to the scene, U.S.S. PIGEON ASR-6, which arrived during the late afternoon on the 11th.\n\nSadly it was established rather quickly that the extent of the damage", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216398, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2003", "page_number": 157, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "107\n\nto the submarine was so great that a major salvage operation probably would be necessary.\n\nMost unfortunately too no more survivors were to come to the surface from the sunken vessel.\n\nAt 1300 hours on the 13 our ship sent her Chaplain, The Rev. F. Freeman, MA, and Royal Marine band across to MEDWAY. An hour later HERMES weighed for Wei-Hai-Wei where she anchored in Four Funnel Bay at 1643 hours. The summer base of the Royal Navy was that close to the scene of the accident.\n\nThe entire fleet mourned the very sad loss, and amongst their fellow submariners the mood was sombre.\n\nA memorial service was held on Sunday, the 14th.\n\nOn Monday, 15th June 1931 a Court of Inquiry was opened. The President was a submariner of note, and the recently appointed Flag Captain in SUFFOLK, Geoffrey Layton.\n\nIt transpired that while steaming in a south-westerly direction, course 235 degrees, at 1212 hours on Tuesday, 9th June H.M. Submarine POSEIDON had come into collision with the Chinese cargo steamer YUTA, Captain T. Iyeishi, steaming in a north-westerly direction on course 42 degrees magnetic. In other words, the two ships had been about to cross at right angles to each other. The sea was calm and visibility about six miles, position 37.49.5N 122.16E which, as suggested above, is just to the east of the easter point of the Shantung peninsula.\n\nS.S. YUTA was on passage from Shanghai to Newchwang with a cargo of 27,000 bags of flour and carrying no passengers.\n\nAt the time of the collision, several crew members in the submarine had jumped off her into the sea. One able seaman, J.E. Halsall, seeing his opportunity actually had had the presence of mind to take hold of a loose bight of cable hanging from the bow of YUTA and had climbed onboard to safety. Of the remainder, and as related, six men had escaped from the wreck of whom one died.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216408, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2003", "page_number": 167, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "117\n\nretired as a Rear Admiral. At the outbreak of World War II he was to rejoin but sadly, as a Convoy Commodore, was to die at sea on 17th September 1940 when his ship, S.S. CITY OF BENARES steaming 470 miles to the south of Iceland on passage to Montreal, was torpedoed and sunk by 'U-48' (Heinrich Bleichrodt).\n\nCaptain Mackenzie was to have a more normal, less exciting period of command for the remainder of the commission.\n\nTrue, while at Wei-Hai-Wei during the summer of 1932 he experienced the passage of three typhoons in close succession and fairly close by. During one, on 12th June, S.S. SHENKING was driven ashore on Chimeng Island just up the coast. As Senior Naval Officer Captain Mackenzie was closely involved, not only in arranging for a guard to be maintained over the ship as protection against pirates, but also in the subsequent successful efforts to refloat her. First her passengers were rescued, fortunately without injury or loss. To facilitate her salvage next she had to be lightened. Over the next few days her cargo was discharged into lighters, also into another company ship, S.S. FENGTIEN.\n\nSubsequently Captain Mackenzie was able to report that:\n\n'No difficulty was experienced in selling her cargo of flour well in Wei-Hai-Wei.'\n\n925\n\nThe Chinese Naval Commodore on the spot greatly assisted by providing a gunboat guardship at the scene of the grounding.\n\nS.S. SHENKING was refloated on 17th June. She was brought to Wei-Hai-Wei where further temporary repairs were carried out by the use of cofferdams and the pouring of cement between various of her frames. Finally on Wednesday, 22nd June she departed under her own steam for Shanghai and full repair. Subsequently she re-entered service, in fact following World War II service with the Royal Fleet Auxiliary, was to remain with China Navigation until 1955.\n\nThe remainder of the commission was to pass without great incident.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 } ]